Episode 2 Winterwatch

we are here at Mar Lodge Estate in the stunning Scottish Highlanders

for the next three nights. We will be finding out more about our

record-breaking fox. And we will be looking at the grouse and down to

the woods to meet this wise old Wolf. And I am out in the wilds,

deep in the forest trying to find out who or what lives here. It is

Winterwatch! Hello and welcome to Winterwatch

2014, it is our second night coming from the beautiful Mar Lodge Estate

nestled in the Cairngorms National Park. It is the largest national

park and also the most extensive track of high mountain to rain we

have got in the UK. Home to a great number of exciting Spee sees and 1.4

million people come here to see them every year. Look at the landscape,

it is stunning. We are down in that flood plain. Lots of ancient

Caledonian Forest and this special habitat leads to a range of special

species, crested tips, red squirrels, we have got them here.

Buzzards soaring. Wet stags mincing through the marsh. It is a top place

to be for our Winterwatch series. It is beautiful, but look at the

weather. It is wet and cold. A weather forecast was right, and it

was spot on. But our mission is to get to know the local wildlife, and

to do that we have camera teams all over the Highlands. Yesterday we

sent one of the teams to one of the peaks. Even up here in the mild and

midwinter, there is snow. What did they spot? They spotted this

mountain hare. He is perfectly at that bid for snowy conditions. In

the summer his fur is Brown, but they Moat three times and in October

that code starts to change and by this time of year it is thick, white

and fluffy. But life is tough on the peaks. Not only is it hard for them

to find food, but enough cover. There was a little trough he had

made, and they hunker down, back to the wind and any Heather and rocks

they can find, they snuggle into keep warm. I am not sure if there is

a local name for the depressions these mountain hares make. We have

not only sent our cameramen to the peaks, we have our cameras down

here. Yesterday, just before it got dark, we saw this. A golden eagle.

One of the species we most want to see flew into roost right in front

of the camera. Typically, these words will stay put, they don't like

to move when it is dark. Spread out beneath it was this, a platter of

carrion. Not very tasty for us, but for an eagle, a welcome breakfast.

Where was the bird? It had vanished in the darkness, quite inexplicably.

How it got away with out as seeing it, I do not know. It was

disappointing. But it came back this afternoon and is in the same tree.

Surely it is hungry, it is bound to want that Rottingdean first thing in

the morning, who wouldn't? ! Hopefully we will have that golden

eagle. Fingers crossed, it will be amazing. We have not seen the golden

eagle on the carcass yet, but we have seen another fantastic bird of

prey on another carcass. It may be small but it is just as beautiful,

it is a common buzzard. It will make the most of that dead meat. You get

a lot of carrion around in the Highlands this time of year.

Exhausted here, sick and old. Once they have found something like this,

they will come back to it. That is an easy meal and could keep that

buzzard going for quite a few weeks probably. Obviously the meat is

chilled out there as well. It is not going to rot quickly and they will

keep coming back. Although there will be competition because other

things will scavenge as well, things like foxes. Martin is out in the wet

and cold in the forest, sniffing around like an English pointer.

Let's see what he might find. We are enjoying it down in the

forest tonight, particularly the car in the rain is turning to sleet, I

went. This is Scots pine forest. It is our only native pine tree. What

makes it so special? Let's revel in the glory of the Caledonian Forest.

This Caledonian Forest is a magical place. Rugged, ancient trees provide

shelter and food for all sorts of creatures.

Scots pines are perfectly adapted for standing up to the elements.

Wind passes through them so trees are less likely to be damaged in

winter storms. Their needles waxy coating prevents water loss during

conditions when water is skirt. -- scarce. These sturdy stall warts

have stood for centuries, silent sentinels in the landscape.

It is an saluki chucking it down. Last night, we tried to find out

what small mammals there are living here. We set this trap. You see that

lovely food? Let's see what happened. The idea is, they run

through this and leave their little footprints. The rain has been

hammering down onto it. They walked through and this is genuine. New

have to look out for these tiny little footprints. They've all, like

a mouse or a vole, they have for little fingers on their front foot,

five on their back. But they clubbed together in these little groups of

three. So vole or mice have been going through that. Let's look at

the other end. Gosh, it is hammering it down. Shrews have been going

through, they are much smaller. They have five toes on each foot. This is

difficult. You have to believe me, we have got shrews, voles and mice

going through. You can have a go at this at home, particularly if it at

chilly snows. Because, if you go to the website, you can download this.

This is our winter watch guide to footprints. -- Winterwatch guide. Go

outside if it snows and you will have a surprise to see what you have

got running around. Download that and have a bit of fun. OK, you may

remember the glorious, wonderful road and Tory. We have brought it

with us and we can go live to it to see what small mammals there are. Of

course, there is absolutely nothing whatsoever. But that definitely

wasn't the case last night. Have a look at this. Ben, one of the team

was watching this particular mouse. It is the same mouse that keeps

coming in again and again. I believe it is a genius, because watch what

happens. He just never stops. In and out, in and out. Then recorded this

very carefully, 66 times. 66 times! What he was doing was taking the

food we put out and he was stashing it outside, hiding it away. Then he

had the brilliant idea thinking, why am I taking this food out of this

place, it is a fabulous place. What he started to do, he started to

destroy the place because he is building himself a House. He is

thinking, why should I take this food out, let me build a home in

here. Now we have a resident mouse building a House inside. Fantastic.

We will keep our eye on that. I believe you have had experience with

mice personally? , Chris? Yes, I had a store of peanuts and I noticed the

stash was going down but I could not find them in the storeroom. I had

left a pair of Wellington 's resting in the store room. Through the

bedroom, down the stairs, and into the corner. There wasn't a single

spilt not and they were all in just one boot. I only found them when I

put it on. That mouse had moved them all that way so it alone could

access those nuts. If you were watching last night, you will know

we joined up with the University of Brighton in a study of urban foxes.

We have collared them so we can learn more about them. This is a

pair, one we think is the son and the other one, which we think is the

father. The father was top box, but we have seen this already, the

youngster is pushing him out, away from the food. He got a bit of a

cough and then skulked off into the undergrowth. But he went much

further than the undergrowth. The big question was, how far has he

gone? Since he was chucked out by his son, Doctor Dawn Scott has been

following his every move. What happened? We noticed he had cleared

completely out of Brighton and headed off into auroral countryside.

So many foxes around and territories there was no spaces. So he kept on

going. I thought we were walking to find our friend? We have a bit of a

road trip to go. Our suburban fox has headed to the top of the South

Downs. After just two days, he had travelled seven kilometres and

reached one of the highest points in south-east England. He came all the

way up here? He hung around here for a couple of days, headed up the

South Downs. He did not stay for long, he carried on heading north.

He left on the 9th of December, where was he by Christmas? About 200

kilometres away. 200! We had better drive, come on. The British record

for distance covered by a disbursing Fox had been 52 kilometres. Fleet

soon smashed that. He spent the next nine days zigzagging between the

South Downs and various towns and villages to the North. So what was

he up to? Was he looking for a territory? And was he too weak to

take on any of the resident males he met, because he was fighting long

worm? Perhaps he was on the trail of a female, but why would one vixen

travel so far herself? No, most likely he was looking for food. Used

to scavenging hand-outs, catching enough live prey in the countryside

would have been pretty tough for him. But on December the 18th, he

headed back south to the busy A27. Then, at 1130 a.m., his signal

stopped. She went out, but she failed to find

the fox, dead or alive. But then that night, Fleet's signal

was back on. Maybe he had been resting under

grouped, but now he was on the move again. -- underground.

He seems to be navigating using railway lines and roads and

following tracks. Some cases where he has come to a river and you can

see that he has gone up and down trying to find a safe place to

cross. It has been mild but very wet, so I think he has probably had

a few challenges. Unsurprisingly, Fleet did nearly all

of his travelling at night. He doesn't seem to stop, cheeps

going and going, and then about five, or six o'clock he seems to

start moving round, slowing down and trying to find somewhere to rest

during the day, most of the places he is resting are suburban gardens

where he probably feels safest. But then, on Christmas Eve, and

Christmas Day, Fleet spent a whole two days in this caravan park near

Uckfield. I would be interested if anyone was feeding him or anyone saw

him. He was here for two days. Yes. Turkey.

On Boxing Day, Fleet's record-breaking journey continued.

By early January, he had covered over 300 kilometres.

But then his signal went dead. Nothing. For four days.

So this the last place we had a location at 11.30 at night.

You can see it is a busy road. Oh dear. Don't feel good about this. I

feel I have to do the grisly duty and look. 11.30 at night on this

road, traffic at these speeds is not good. It is not. That is what I want

to check, whether he had been hit. Even with daylight fading fast, we

would smell road kill. And there is no sign of Fleet. At

night fall, we have to give up. I don't know what to say. I didn't

find anything. I am hoping that is good news. I think that is good new,

he might have lasted longer than the collar.

Think he is out there, wannering round, he will keep going, he is a

tough old dog. 315 kilometres travelled in less than a month. That

is amazing. You have yourself a record-breaking fox.

What an incredible journey. Amazing. That is astonishing. In a month.

What do you think has happened to him. What you didn't see I spent a

lot longer looking for that animal, I had the torch, in fact I met one

walker, a guy with a dog, we were both looking for the best part of an

hour, I think I would have found it. I scoured that roadside. He sniffed

round with his dog. I the we would have found it. There has been a lot

of flooding. We know Fleet had been swimming, the collar packed up one,

I think water got in. I am certain he is out there. I am not just

saying that, I am being truthful. We would have found him. Fleet could

still be alive. We are not getting any more deta. I hope you are right.

I am certain I am. You seen the change in the weather. It is

snowing. We have semifinally have snow. I know. Look. We have had that

data we did get from Fleet. And this is what we have seen, this

remarkable 350 kilometre journey all the way across Sussex there, finally

ending up where we lost him. He is probably still out there. One thing

to say is that if you are anywhere within this sort of radius, which is

south of the M25 and Dover and you see a fox with a collar, then let us

know, because it could be him. But, one thing it could point out is how

the spread of urban foxes has occurred. Previously we thought they

didn't go very far. Now we know they go a lot further. It might explain

this. You see, foxes only became urbanised in the '30s when we

started building suburbia. It was that that lured them into our city,

and initially, we found them in cities pretty much in the south and

the west, they were in Bristol, they were in Brighton, they were in

London. But then in the last 30 year, they have begun to spread, and

each one of these dark triangles here, isolates and identifies a city

which has been occupied by urban tobtions in that time. You can

foxes. Nay have spread to Newcastle. They haven't made it to Wales,

Kettering and bury saint Edmunds, no to of foxes in those places. If you

live there we would love to hear about it if you have seen one. It is

brilliant they have made a success and they are doing it worldwide. In

the similar period they have niced themselves in the US, Australia and

Japan. We thought that we had about 33,000, in the 1990, but we think

now, because we have built more houses, and even more people are

feeding them and there is more waste food in our cities, that that

population might have increased. I am sure it has, but it is incredible

how much information we are getting from the ground-breaking collar, did

you think for one Minna a fox could travel that far? No, we knew that

some foxes would travel great distances in other countries but in

this one we didn't. We are learning so much quickly with the collar, I

have to say we will learn more tomorrow. Another one of our fox

stars, onces that live in the inner city, one of them is called Silver

and it seems he has found himself a lady. Tune in tomorrow for fox

romance. Fantastic. It seems like foxes

aren't the only ones spreading their territory, it seems that this bird

is doing the same. It is a ja. It had only been -- Jay.

Now it is seen regular I, this is what you are used to seeing them

doing. Caching their acorns in the autumn. Stashing them away, so they

have plenty to eat in the winter. Now we have been seeing a lot of the

jas on camera. We -- Jays on camera, it is Jay cam. This might surprise

you. Have a look. It is eating carrion. Is that surprising? Well,

not really, because they have a very varied diet. They eat a lot of nuts,

fruit, seeds, insect, small birds and they will take advantage of any

dead meat. You know, when times are enough in the winter, these birds

are opportunistic, that is a jolly good meal for them. Nice birds as

well. Noo its the so see them close up. We expect golden eagles and

buzzards and we get Jays. It is snowing and it has got colder. It is

just as well Martin has a huge thick coat like a St Bernard! Yes, it is

snowing a bit now, but fascinatingly there is a mystery going on, we are

going to try and solve it right now. Everywhere you look, they look like

thatched cottages round, here is one of them.

A thatched cottage, now we are going to hurl technology at this and find

out what is living in that. Let me get it working.

St has gone off again, I knew it would. Now, if you look, I don't

know if you can see, there is a light on the end of that, is it

still working? There is a camera too.

So we are going to try and put the camera down, right into the thatched

cottage, down it go, that is not much use. Let us look at the screen

see what we are seeing. Ooh! Down it go, very mysterious.

Oh, no. It Hazard gone. Why has it gone? The light has gone

off. Let me have another go. Why did that go off. -- it has gone. Let me

try, here we go again. Down we go. Down we go. Down, down.

Come on, what is down there? Oh, it keeps going out. It is not going to

work. We did this a bit earlier and we did manage to see. Let us see

what we managed to film down here earlier.

There it is. It is a wood ant nest. Crammed with these wood ants down

there. It is messy, not the sort of place Chris would like to live! But

the woot ants are in here. -- wood ants are in here. It very cold for

them. They have slowed down, in summer it would be 25-30 degree, now

it is only just above freezing. Let us have a proper look at the wood

ant, because they have a profound influence on the whole of the forest

round me, now that is a work e these are all the worker, there will be

tens of thousands the looking after one Queen, there maybe more than one

Alexander Queen in the nest. How -- one Queen in the nest. They protect

the Scots pine tree, because they go out hunting, they are tremendous

carnivore, they are hunting for food. This is a saw fly lava which

is going to eat the pines. But it is not going to eat the pines now

because the ants have got it. And it is now being dragged off into

the nest. So who a real way, these tiny little

ants are having a big effect on the forest all round us, let us have

another look at the nest. Here is this nest itself, this is

deceivering, because 50% of the nest is under the ground here. And it --

deceiving. It is not just one nest, there are lots of them. Let us look

at it during the daytime. Here they are, here is the really big one, but

that is not just the colony, the colony will spread out round lots of

different enests, during the summer. It is called Polly domy, because

they are all like little domes. But then, in the winter time, when

it gets cold, they will come back from all the colonies that have been

far away and go back in to one colony, and they will try and

surround the Queen or Queens and keep her just above freezing, that

is what is going on in there, earlier on they were coming out and

having a go and trying to attack me, Bray little wood ants, we love you.

I hope they are protecting the forest here, but they themselves can

fall food to other insects round here, badgers love them. A bird you

may see round you and that is the Greenwood pecker, these are

specialist ant feeders, they have a long sticky tongue designed to do

nothing but pick up ants. This looking for nem in the ground. You

will see them in the garden. I have seen the most amazing thing n the

middle of winter, under snow the Greenwood peckers dig down and find

the ants' nest, how can nay remember where they are? They remember where

the nests are, I hope we can remember where the cabin is, because

we are off. See you in a minute! We have come out of the cabin and

come to this. It really is snowing, we could have a white out here

tomorrow morning. It is too warm and wet. Warm? It is all relative. It is

not just Martin and ourselves that are out in the element, our thermal

camera is outside. Let us see what they have live.

Got some splodges of snow, that is for sure. It must be challenging

getting anything tonight. You can see there, that is a bit of a wet

thermal camera. Can I let you into a secret. That camera is indoors. It

is very sensitive to water and I can tell from that shot that that

cameraman has treated from this nonsense, he is probably in a nice

warm room with that peeking out of the window. With a cup of tea? He

hasn't got a wet bottom like me. He was work hard and he managed to find

us this. If you look closely there it is. Is

it a rabbit? No, it is not. If you look at the ears, they are short and

distinctive shape of that face, it is a mountain hare. It is out and

about at night because as we showed you earlier, they are white at this

time of year. Very easy to spot by predators, so it is making the most

of finding food at night. It is hopping along the bank. Sees the

cameraman gets scared. We have highlighted the fact it has pooed.

Lightened its load and run away. Dashes off like a whippet having

left that poo glowing. You have something on the end of your nose. I

don't know what it is. It is like a blob of something or other. That

camera has been spotting some of our birds, we turned it on to our black

grouse. This is what we saw first thing in the morning. It is only

just getting light. Some of the birds are flying in. These are the

male birds, the ones we call black cock. The females are grey hen. Some

are walking, they are not so rushed to get there. When they arrive, they

are really spectacular. Glamorous, exotic and exuberant in their

extraordinary displays. Sometimes they fancy themselves as a boxer,

taking the other one on. It is very entertaining. I think they will

provide us with more entertainment. I think we promised entertainment

from these birds last night, but we need to explain what they are doing

there this time of year. They are displaying and it is about

attracting females, but why are they going there?

What is this? It is a physical area the male grouse hunting to display

to try to impress the females. They choose these areas within about 200

metres of the trees, the Woodland where they are feeding, or nesting

in the summer. They don't like the heather, they like an open, grassy

patch. Once they have chosen a spot, they stick with it, sometimes for up

to 50 or 60 years. And this is it. Although it is grassy here, and this

particular spot, which is only about four or five metres in diameter, the

grass is shorter and it is pushed down. But even this is subdivided

and at the moment, I am crouched in the medial region and that would

mean I am one of the sub dominant males. This is where they come to

learn to say the experts at work. And the experts are displaying just

over here. The grass is much shorter and there is definitely a central

area. You can see activity have been peeking here, there are lots of

droppings. And the tell-tale feathers from the tail from the

black grouse. They come into this central area, and this is subdivided

into tiny patches, where the dominant males will hold their

territory. The could beat that just this area here, belongs to one

dominant male. And it comes throughout the year because they

want to protect this patch. If they leave it, another male might come in

and they might have two fight to get it back. If they come through the

winter, right through to spring, they are guaranteed to be in the

right face at the right time when the females come to choose the males

in the spring. Fabulous. Aren't they fabulous? , yes

typically they display at 9pm. So yesterday we told you to tune into

Winterwatch extra on the Internet and on the red button to see what

happened. Lots of you did and this is what you saw.

Absolutely nothing! Terribly sorry about that. I blame you because you

really build it up. It is one of those cases you should have been

here yesterday. About six black cocks had been turning up. All I can

say to you is, if this holds off until tomorrow morning, it is worth

tuning in. They don't like the rain and the wind, but this morning it

was fine. The question is, where were they? Our cameramen have been

out and they were in the trees. In the winter, the black cock, the

males and females go into the Woodland and it is that they find

their food, take shelter of course, and to some extent avoid predators.

Look at this one feeding furiously on the woodland floor. Absolutely

fantastic. Have we got anything live on our cameras? Let's go to our

otter camera because we think we have got an otter. Can we see

anything? There was an otter there a second ago. This is literally

seconds ago. Let's go back live. Look at that! It is not very far

from where we are sitting at the moment. We should keep our voices

down. Unfortunately, he is facing the wrong way. He is as wet as

those. But he is better insulated than us. And he has a more food. It

is fantastic to see this otter on the bank. Last night when Martin was

talking about this, behind the branches, it was interesting but not

a great view. Our monitor up here is completely covered in snow! We can

tell you it is an otter, but I, tell you if it has any genitalia so I

cannot tell you if it is a male or a female. You probably have a better

view than us. That was amazing. They are very skittish around here. It is

early in the evening and that was a real treat. Getting back to the

grouse, a specialist species of woodland hedge. Up here we have the

ancient, Caledonian forest and it has been on the change for thousands

of years. Too many, these glorious open views

epitomise the Scottish Highlands. What few realise is this is a

landscape largely created by humans. A shadow of what once was and of

what could be again. This is an area that thousands of years ago would

have been covered in forest? that thousands of years ago would

have been Yes, 6000 years ago this would have had peak forest cover.

Trees stretching all the way around here up to 650 metres even higher.

Since then, Neolithic man came and chopped the trees down and also the

climate became cooler and wetter which made it less suitable for pine

trees to grow. As humans, sheep and cattle flourished, so did the

Caledonian Forest shrink to just 1% of its former size. Meanwhile, the

extermination of wolves in the mid-18th-century meant Scotland's

read here had no natural predators. As they became increasingly valued,

their population boomed. How many red deer do you think there are in

Scotland? The best estimate is about 350,000 of red deer across Scotland.

If you go back to the 1860s there were 150,000. In parts of Scotland,

this means up to 40 red deer per square colour matter. Together with

lives -- together with livestock they can have an impact on the

forest. Traditionally, land owners fenced off their trees to protect

them. But offences are expensive, hard to maintain and can be a death

trap. So to restore a natural balance, the deer population needs

to be controlled. The best guess you need to get the numbers below five

per square colour matter to let the trees grow. So that means culling

the deer? Yes it does. Culling is costly and controversial, but in

some parts of Scotland it is already having an effect. This area looks

encouraging because there are loads of saplings? It is a fantastic idea

what is happening in many areas of Scotland now. About 20 years ago

there was a recognition in the loss of habitat. You can see a huge

response from the trees. It might take about 20 years for them to get

above the browsing height of the deer. If you look at this, the gap

represents a year of growth. If you want to try to gauge it, it is

straightforward. Last year, good growth, the year before, the year

before that. But when you come down to here, there is a lump of stem

which is probably where it was repeatedly browsed when the deer

numbers were high. It could have sat at this level for maybe ten years

without growing at all. If we look over there, how old are those pine

trees? Probably about 200 years plus. It shows the generation gap.

Nothing between these new ones and those 200-year-old ones? I think

that is why people started to realise they needed to do something

now be for the forest disappeared altogether. Once this forest got too

old to produce seeds, we would have been in trouble. The last 20 years

has seen an increase in this -- increased awareness of the

Caledonian Forest. Now the Scottish landscape looks set to change once

again. It is all about balance, despite the

fact 80% of the deer living in Scotland live in open areas, they

are a forest species. Ideally, the deer need the forest and the forest

need the deer because they open the forest out for other highland

species, they help to germinate the forest and spread the seed. Let's

hope we can get some sort of balance.

If you would like to find out more, there are links on our website.

You can also post your views as well. Having fun? You are a bit of a

drowned rat. It cannot make its mind up. Can we revel in these? It is

full of these lovely lichens. It is a sign of clear air. It must be so

clear for them to grow. There is a crusty one you often see in stones

in graveyards. There are the leafy ones here. These are some of the

ones we have filmed here. Look at the beauty of them. They are and an

usual organism, because they are a mixture of fungus and algae.

Combined together. They help each other out. The fungus provides

protection for the algae and the algae photosynthesise as an provides

nutrients that the fungus. They are incredible tough. In 2005, they took

some of this lichen into space, exposed it there for 15 days and

when it came back, perfectly OK. They are the oldest living organisms

on the planet. They think they found some lichens in the Arctic that are

eight thousand 600 years old. 8600 years old! That is what I call

ancient. You can tell these two are liking lichen. We have been enjoying

the ancient forest of here in the Cairngorms, because there is only 1%

of it left. 6000 years ago, three quarters of Britain would have been

covered in ancient woodland. But what would it have looked like? It

would have been a very different place.

In one corner of south-east England, there is a very special

wood. A woodland to visit and enjoy during the short days. Somewhere to

let our imagination wander, and wonder about the wildlife that lives

there. Weak sunlight and the woodland scenes almost lifeless. But

need the roots, out of sight... Here, dormice slumber to escape the

cold, resting in true hibernation. They may stay curled up in this cosy

nurse for up to seven months, waiting for the temperatures to

rise. Further underground, bigger creatures retreat from winter's

grip. Badgers. They don't actually hibernate, but often sleep huddled

together to help keep warm. But not everything here sleeps through the

long, freezing nights. A wood mouse delves amongst the leaves under the

cover of darkness, looking for seeds and nuts. It's sensitive nose sniffs

out food, ears and eyes constantly alert for danger. And it must be

cautious. Because height above, a tawny owl's huge eyes and Keane ears

are intently watching and listening. A wood mouse would be a welcome meal

in these lean times. As dawn breaks, some of the wood's other residents

stir. While Bor Digg and furrow their way through the sodden ground,

looking for roots, plans and anything else they think they can

eat. Fallow deer. They stick together in

a herd for safety. Because they sense danger here.

They can smell predators. Lynn, are waiting, watching. A small

deer would make perfect prey. -- lynx. Thick fur keeps out the winter

chill, even the soles of their paws are covered.

This loan hunter, about the size of a sheepdog hasn't been seen in our

countryside since Roman times. -- lone. Now, it is only disturbed

by the master of the woods. The wolf.

By hunting in pack, wolves can take on the largest prey, red deer.

Wolves are top predators, keeping nature in check, ensuring Ballance.

But wolves haven't roamed our land for centuries either, so where is

this mythical place? Where is this ancient wild wood, home to

historical hunters? It is all we have left. It is a wildlife park.

Just a dream of our past. But there are people here, trying to make this

dream come true. Zoos are breeding these animals, and in some cases

releasing them too. Not the big predator, not yet any

way. Some people talk of a forest, that will be truly wild again.

Wolves, lynx, even bear, perhaps they could all return. Perhaps this

wild wood is more than an echo of our history. Could it be a vision of

wild things to come? It is amazing to think about what would have been

here, but how feasible is it to put any of those animals back into the

wild? It is an interesting question, in a way it's a legal requirement,

because under the EU directive, it is article 22, the EU directive, I

had to write it down, on cons va, it says this, member states shadow

study the desirable of reintroducing species native to their Terry, the

EU want us to try and study at least that possibility. In fact they have

done it in certain parts of Europe, Switzerland, Germany, France have

tried it. In Switzerland it has been very successful. I think they

started in 1971 with lynx. Switzerland is a highly populated

country, I mean, much more densely than the Highlands of Scotland, so

it is possible. It is being done. We can learn from those what is

happening in France, Germany and Switzerland, it wouldn't be like

opening a door and letting them out. It would have to be carefully

considered, and like the fobs, they would have collars so they would be

monitored and managed carefully to make sure it was working properly.

They would have to be careful. It is an interesting possibility. It's a

good debate. You know, now we only really have the small predators

left, like these Wildcats. Now this is a wildcat filmed in the Highlands

in 2008 on Springwatch. Very elusive. Very shy. But look at this.

This was sent in by a viewer. It is in 2013. But if we just highlight

the back of that cat. And then highlight the one we filmed. Back in

2008. Look how incredible that is. It is the same cat. Because each

wildcat has distinctive markings, so it means that cat, that was six

years a it is probably at least seven-and-a-half years old. So it is

doing well. Thank you very much for sending that footage in. It is great

if see. Now, Wildcats are exotic and that would be a real thrill to see

one, but sometimes the very common animals we see in the back gardens

can still surprise us. Great tits are superb problem

solvers. And when they are pushed to the

limit, during the cold winter moneys, this ability to innovate is

of vital importance. We first realises how clever the

birds are in the 1920s. When a group of tits in the southern town of

swatheling discovered they would be rewarded with a fat rich meal of

cream if they peeled off the tops of milk bottles. But what was even more

surprising, was that this clever technique didn't remain localised.

Instead, it spread like wild fire. So it wasn't long before tits were

stealing the cream from doorsteps across the country.

But how did this knowledge spread throughout the tit population? To

answer that question, I have come here, to the woods in Oxfordshire,

home of the most well studied great tits in the world.

Dr Lucy Aplin is one of the scientists monitoring them. So Lucy,

what was happening then, in the case of those tits in the milk bottles?

We are not sure. That is what is fascinated people for so long about

this milk bottle innovation, we saw this apparent cultural spread of new

behaviour, but we are not sure if it spread from a single individual or

the way across the UK or whether there was multiple sites of

innovation. We tend to think of animals as little robots and acting

the same way to a stimulus, but that isn't the case is it? No, great

tits, are one of the good examples of behavioural flexibility in bird,

they are very good at problem solving, as well as have been

opportunistic over their lifespan. Lucy's research is attempting to

recreate the milk top story by training wild great tits to solve a

puzzle box, by pushing on the blue side of a sliding door, or the red

side, in order to get a reward. The training of the birds begins in the

lab. So Lucy, how does the puzzle box,

how does it work? It's a simple design, so I have got mealworm,

which great tits love, and I have a sliding door in front of this

feeder, and one half is blue, one is red. It can be pushed all the way.

In some population, I train it to push it on the blue side. In other

populations they push it on the red side. So if I get that right, if you

go back to that population, and you see that the majority of that

population from which these birds come are using the blue side, not

blue and red, then you know that the learning has been passed on. That is

exactly right. Look at that. He is trying to work

it out. After three days, Lucy releases

birds trained to push the blue side of the door back in to the wild.

Along with the puzzle boxes from her lab.

Here she can track how their new found knowledge spreads the through

the population. This great tit might come down, he

is looking. Here with go. Come on, I want to see it happen. They are

coming in now. Here is a great tit. He did it. As fast as that. The door

just shut again. Yes. It doesn't hang about, does it? We have seen

science in action. Yes. It is exciting. That was great. In order

to identify and record unique visits, each bird has a microchip in

a ring attached to its leg. Time to check out the results.

At the front you see the antenna and when the birds land on that their

tag is read, so we know who the bird is. It says here that 129 birds have

solved it pushing from the left, the blue side and only 24 from the

right. That is conclusive. Is that a typical result? Those proportions?

The next site down the way there was 206 solves on the blue side and none

on the right. None? None at all. That is what you like to hear as a

scientist. Conclusive! One question, how long does it take for the

behaviour to spread throughout this population? Well, so in a local

population like this size, which is about one hundred birds it takes

four weeks to spread. We see this with a slow up take at the

beginning, when there is only a few knowledgeable birds then we have

this fast increase of individuals learning until actually it plateaus.

If I have got it right, it looks like the other individuals are

learning from the birds that have the behaviour in the first place.

Yes, basically, by copying another individual you socialiate with, you

are getting fast track reliable information without having to invest

in trial and error learning by yourself. And it might be vital to

get them through the winter months. I was going to say, in a cold winter

force, a small bird, that literally could be... The difference between

life-and-death, it really could. Astonishing. One bird, the others

learn from it. We think that happens in lots of species, it might have

been happening in the urban foxes, it might be now we know they were

travelling greater difference -- distance, the habit was spread in a

similar way, you can learn a lot from looking after common thing,

especially if you take a different look, we have been using a high

speed camera close to where we are, to record common garden birds, but

in a different way. High speed means slow motion. Just look at the way

these blue tits approach and land and fly on the feeder. Also, it

gives you time to analyse the behaviour. That blue tit got the nut

half out but the sparrow takes advantage because its beak is too

big to get the nuts out easily. That one managed to pull it off. A nice

goldfinch too, perched on the top. You can see how it uses the beak so

neatly. Here is something else we have noticed. As the birds approach

the feeder, they do a bit of base jumping. Look at this. They just

freefall. Dive Diving off the ten metrers isn't it Chris. Beautifully

done. That is a tree sparrow. Look how sweat it esvelte it is.

The birds are not designed to glide at all. They are all flying species,

but what is the point in flying if you can drop down on to it. Saving

energy, it is probably quicker. We want to learn things about our birds

and to try and learn more about the decisions garden birds make and what

and when to eat, we got together with Oxford University, to do a

little garden bird table experiment. We have launched it yesterday. We

are going to recap it right now for you. Day one, which should have been

today for you, you put out your normal seeds. We then asked you to

observer the birds between three and four o'clock for three minute, you

watch them. Mark down what birds come to table. Take seven minutes

off. Watch them again for three, take seven minutes off. Watch them

for three. Day two, tomorrow, you put out either cheese if your

surname begins A to L or apple if your surname begins with M to Z so

that is what you should have done tonight, or first thing tomorrow and

you watch those birds tomorrow. And let us know. It is complicated but

great science, if you want to find out more detail, go to the website

or Winterwatch extra, or press the red button. Do you want to know the

results from today? We got nine coal tit, one Robin and two great tits.

That is what we got on the bird table. On the general food. Tomorrow

will be interesting. Do they go for the choose or the apple. We will

test that over the next couple of days. -- cheese. Tomorrow we are on

at 8.00 for a packed hopefully less snowy. We have the black cock, they

might be lekking live in the morning, I headed off to Aberdeen

harbour to find out about dolphin communication. And I am going into

the river Dee for a nice refreshing dip! So we will be back tomorrow at

8.00, keep watching for Winterwatch unsprung, with Nick Baker, he is

there. Give us a wave. Watch him on the red button and on line. But that

is it. I think we are all a bit wet and soggy, it has been a great

evening. See you tomorrow. Bye.