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What an extraordinary winter. What unprecedented weather. The warmest | :00:07. | :00:14. | |
December and the wettest January since records began. We're going to | :00:15. | :00:17. | |
be exploring just how this weird winter has been affecting our | :00:18. | :00:22. | |
wildlife, both here in the Highlands and right across the UK. | :00:23. | :00:27. | |
We're going to dig deeper and climb higher than we've ever done before | :00:28. | :00:32. | |
and I'm going to be exploring the peaks and troughs of Britain's | :00:33. | :00:37. | |
biggest wilderness. Welcome to a brand new series of Winterwatch! | :00:38. | :01:01. | |
Hello and welcome to Winterwatch 2016. Welcome to the Highlands of | :01:02. | :01:09. | |
Scotland and the very wonderful and beautiful Mile Lodge estate here | :01:10. | :01:13. | |
nestled into the Cairngorms. We're back with our programmes for the | :01:14. | :01:16. | |
rest of this week, as I'm sure you know. I've said this before, I often | :01:17. | :01:22. | |
say this at the start of a series, I promise you this time, we're going | :01:23. | :01:25. | |
to deliver. We've got some fantastic stuff. Today, though, we had buckets | :01:26. | :01:30. | |
of rain. It was different last week when we arrived. It was minus ten. | :01:31. | :01:38. | |
This was a vertible winter wonderland. Then things began to | :01:39. | :01:43. | |
change. The temperature began to increase and the thaw started. | :01:44. | :01:46. | |
Across Scotland in the last week, there's been no less than a 28, yes | :01:47. | :01:53. | |
28-degree centigrade range in temperature. In one place it was | :01:54. | :01:57. | |
minus 12, then it went up to plus 16. Of course, not only this last | :01:58. | :02:02. | |
week, but the entire winter will have had a profound effect on our | :02:03. | :02:06. | |
wildlife. That's one of our missions this year, to discover what all of | :02:07. | :02:10. | |
this unusual weather has done to our wildlife. Of course, it's been | :02:11. | :02:14. | |
extraordinary and on that account, I can promise you an extraordinary | :02:15. | :02:19. | |
series too. In this strangest of seasons, the | :02:20. | :02:24. | |
Winterwatch team is being more ambitious than ever. Here she goes, | :02:25. | :02:30. | |
oh, yes! I'm already remarkably close. We are scouring the length | :02:31. | :02:36. | |
and breadth of the UK. In this vicinity there must be several | :02:37. | :02:41. | |
thousand already. I think they're extraordinary, such a unique little | :02:42. | :02:45. | |
dance that they're doing. With the latest technology. Wow, this gives | :02:46. | :02:49. | |
us an amazing perspective looking right down at the reed bed. To | :02:50. | :02:58. | |
discover how creatures great, small, secretive, and bizarre are surviving | :02:59. | :03:00. | |
at this, the toughest time of year. Indeed, it's not going to be all | :03:01. | :03:12. | |
about the weather, though. We will bring you charismatic and icon | :03:13. | :03:17. | |
species. Raisz we will show you rove -- we will show you some revelations | :03:18. | :03:24. | |
and great new science. In order to achieve that, we pretty much Have | :03:25. | :03:30. | |
cameras spread over a vast area. We will show you what they have | :03:31. | :03:33. | |
captured through the week. Behind me, we have our live cameras set up | :03:34. | :03:37. | |
in the woods here. Let's have a look. This is a camera we've set up | :03:38. | :03:41. | |
to try and record a species live. Which we have seen before, but not | :03:42. | :03:45. | |
on our remote cameras and not always very close up. We baited it with | :03:46. | :03:51. | |
apple. What can it be? It turned up earlier and gave us a cracking view. | :03:52. | :03:57. | |
It's the mountain hare. They're very much a specialist of this upland | :03:58. | :04:02. | |
region. You can see from this animal, they turn white in the | :04:03. | :04:06. | |
winter. That normally camouflages them, hides them from predators. | :04:07. | :04:09. | |
With the absence of snow, it creates problems. Martin is going to be | :04:10. | :04:14. | |
telling us more about that later on. What you're thinking at this moment, | :04:15. | :04:17. | |
Winterwatch is back, that's great. But we're stuck with just that | :04:18. | :04:24. | |
Packham bloke. The BBC cuts have not crept in yet, the other two are | :04:25. | :04:30. | |
here. Michaela is about 200 metres down here perilously perched on the | :04:31. | :04:36. | |
banks of the River Dee. I don't know about perilously perched. It is | :04:37. | :04:40. | |
exposed here. Let's face it, a few days or weeks ago it would have been | :04:41. | :04:44. | |
foolish and dangerous to be standing here. Because just last month, the | :04:45. | :04:49. | |
River Dee burst its banks and flooded the valley, causing very | :04:50. | :04:54. | |
dramatic scenes. This is a photo that we took two years ago when we | :04:55. | :04:58. | |
were here, that's Martin standing just under a bridge crossing the | :04:59. | :05:02. | |
River Dee. It's very calm, and gentle river, beneath that bridge. | :05:03. | :05:07. | |
This is what that same bridge looked like a few weeks ago, same bridge, | :05:08. | :05:14. | |
very different river. It's a fierce torrent of water Thunderering down. | :05:15. | :05:19. | |
Now the cause of this was relentless rains, storms, mild weather, which | :05:20. | :05:23. | |
melted the ice on top of the mountains adding to that huge volume | :05:24. | :05:29. | |
of water. In fact the volume of water was so great, in some parts of | :05:30. | :05:34. | |
the river the level went up three metres, which is a huge rise. The | :05:35. | :05:39. | |
river was the highest level it's been since records began. If you | :05:40. | :05:43. | |
look at it now, you can see that the river has dropped. It's still very | :05:44. | :05:47. | |
fast, very full, but if you look at this tree next to me, you can see | :05:48. | :05:51. | |
that there's debris all over the tree. That's how high the river was. | :05:52. | :05:58. | |
This volume of water and the flooding caused chaos locally. Lots | :05:59. | :06:01. | |
of people were isolated. They were evacuated. People lost their homes. | :06:02. | :06:05. | |
Some of the road was washed away, making a lot of this area | :06:06. | :06:10. | |
inaccessible. At one stage we didn't think we would be able to get here | :06:11. | :06:18. | |
for Winterwatch. This is a 450-year-old castle. The bank has | :06:19. | :06:22. | |
been eroded and it's perilously close to the edge. The worry is that | :06:23. | :06:28. | |
water level is still pretty high. It's mild weather again, the snow is | :06:29. | :06:33. | |
melting, the ground is water logged, the floods could continue on. In | :06:34. | :06:39. | |
fact, just this evening, we've heard that the road coming in has been | :06:40. | :06:43. | |
flooded. It's caused devastation for the people locally. But how has | :06:44. | :06:47. | |
flooded. It's caused devastation for affected our wildlife? It's going to | :06:48. | :06:50. | |
take a long time for the ecosystem of this river to recover. | :06:51. | :06:55. | |
Inevitably, there have been lots of casualties. We're going to | :06:56. | :06:58. | |
Inevitably, there have been lots of looking at those casualties as the | :06:59. | :06:58. | |
days go by. looking at those casualties as the | :06:59. | :07:04. | |
rescue centre close to here, that's taken in an unbelievable amount of | :07:05. | :07:10. | |
animals. It's one particular animal that's probably -- that probably | :07:11. | :07:13. | |
comes as a surprise to most people as being a flood victim. | :07:14. | :07:25. | |
The Scottish national wildlife rescue centre is currently home to | :07:26. | :07:29. | |
21 otter cubs. It's feeding time. I'm helping | :07:30. | :07:45. | |
Sheila on her rounds. Just a small morning feed for them. | :07:46. | :07:57. | |
A lot of people are surprised that flooding affects otters so much | :07:58. | :08:02. | |
considering that they can swim and they live in water. They have the | :08:03. | :08:07. | |
perception that no matter how harsh it's going to be they're going to | :08:08. | :08:10. | |
cope. But it's not the case at all. Especially with the young ones. They | :08:11. | :08:15. | |
don't have the agility that the adults do. They get flushed out of | :08:16. | :08:22. | |
their holt and they can't survive by themselves. Luckily people find | :08:23. | :08:26. | |
them. We had one came to somebody's door and was pawing on the door. | :08:27. | :08:32. | |
Really? It was quite lucky. Once a young otter comes in, what's the | :08:33. | :08:37. | |
rehabilitation process? Initially we will have quite hands on with them, | :08:38. | :08:40. | |
to stabilise them and get them eating. Then we introduce them to | :08:41. | :08:45. | |
other ones. When they're good company, it's totally hands off and | :08:46. | :08:49. | |
usually they're kept for about a year old. They're with you for a | :08:50. | :08:55. | |
year before you release them? Just that's how long they're generally | :08:56. | :08:58. | |
with their parents for, maybe longer, it's just to replicate that | :08:59. | :09:02. | |
kind of time. Otters breed throughout the year including | :09:03. | :09:07. | |
winter. It's already harder to find food right now, but the recent | :09:08. | :09:10. | |
flooding has seriously added to their problems. That leaves the cubs | :09:11. | :09:15. | |
particularly vulnerable. For those brought here to the centre, they've | :09:16. | :09:21. | |
got a second chance. This recent arrival is three months old and is | :09:22. | :09:27. | |
unusually tame. At this age, I shouldn't be able to do this. You'd | :09:28. | :09:30. | |
expect quite a harsh response to you. She's be snapping and wanting | :09:31. | :09:35. | |
to hide away. It's odd behaviour. Are you concerned about that? I am, | :09:36. | :09:42. | |
yeah, just because it's obviously not natural and not something we | :09:43. | :09:46. | |
usually see. We will have the vet look at her today and make sure that | :09:47. | :09:50. | |
there's nothing going on. All otter arrivals get seen by the vet to get | :09:51. | :09:54. | |
the once over. When they're five months old, they'll be released into | :09:55. | :09:59. | |
these outdoor pens. Already outside are the otters that have been kept | :10:00. | :10:04. | |
at the centre since last winter. At this stage, human contact is kept to | :10:05. | :10:12. | |
a minimum. In you know. The manager, Colin, must monitor their progress | :10:13. | :10:15. | |
to find out when they can be released back into the wild. He's 9. | :10:16. | :10:24. | |
6. Oh, you are a big boy. A huge, broad head of a male. Lovely | :10:25. | :10:27. | |
condition. He's ready basically? He's ready. All three are pretty | :10:28. | :10:33. | |
much ready, in the next couple of weeks they'll have reached target | :10:34. | :10:36. | |
weights. As soon as we have a decent spell of weather and the water | :10:37. | :10:40. | |
leaves have subsided. The last thing you want to do is release them into | :10:41. | :10:44. | |
the floods. Sometimes we keep them right the way through winter | :10:45. | :10:47. | |
depending on weather conditions. Where do you release these guys? | :10:48. | :10:51. | |
They will go down the southern part of Scotland. As much as we can, we | :10:52. | :10:55. | |
try to get animals back in the appropriate environment. Has it | :10:56. | :10:58. | |
taken you by surprise the amount of otters you have in at the moment? It | :10:59. | :11:04. | |
has. It's not something we would have ever catered for. The floods | :11:05. | :11:07. | |
have taken everybody by surprise, not just the wildlife. Do you think | :11:08. | :11:12. | |
more are going to come in? What's the forecast for the next few weeks? | :11:13. | :11:16. | |
I would have thought a couple of weeks ago, we wouldn't get any more. | :11:17. | :11:21. | |
But we got one yesterday, a couple of other day. All we need is high | :11:22. | :11:25. | |
water. There's more rain forecast so who knows. With the centre already | :11:26. | :11:30. | |
bursting at the seams with otter cubs, the team are going to have a | :11:31. | :11:33. | |
busy few months ahead, whatever the weather. | :11:34. | :11:41. | |
I know, I know, there's going to be sitting rooms all over the country | :11:42. | :11:49. | |
going "aahhh... " he are adorable. But it's sad that those rescued | :11:50. | :11:52. | |
otters will be in that centre for anything up to a year before going | :11:53. | :11:55. | |
back to the wild. If you think about, it the ones that are rescued, | :11:56. | :11:59. | |
are just a small per cent of the ones that were actually troubled by | :12:00. | :12:03. | |
the floods. Although, having said that, they should recover quickly. | :12:04. | :12:08. | |
They should do. They could recolonise the water courses. If any | :12:09. | :12:12. | |
of the adults are lost as breeding animals, they should be replaced | :12:13. | :12:16. | |
quite quickly. In this part of the UK, there are quite a lot of otters | :12:17. | :12:21. | |
at the moment. Quite robust. It is. Last year we had otters here. We | :12:22. | :12:26. | |
captured them on our remote cameras. Here's one playing in the snow here, | :12:27. | :12:29. | |
I say playing, it's rolling around, might be a bit of scent marking | :12:30. | :12:33. | |
going on, or giving itself a bath with the snow. Nice to see that. Who | :12:34. | :12:38. | |
needs a panda rolling in the snow when you have an otter! This is what | :12:39. | :12:43. | |
we've got this year. Blame it on the rain, if you like, but there's a lot | :12:44. | :12:46. | |
more water out there. This means it's going to be harder for us to | :12:47. | :12:49. | |
tie the otter down. There's more space for it to explore. That's | :12:50. | :12:53. | |
typically what they do when there are floods, they push into the | :12:54. | :12:56. | |
environment. They can feed on terrestrial things. They don't have | :12:57. | :13:00. | |
to just feed of crustaceans and fish. Otters could be anywhere. | :13:01. | :13:05. | |
Don't give up. We will try our best to bring you pictures of the otters | :13:06. | :13:12. | |
It's going to be challenging, but we are going to try. We will hopefully | :13:13. | :13:15. | |
bring you lots of amazing pictures from around the estate. This is our | :13:16. | :13:21. | |
live pine marten camera. There's nothing on there right now. He has | :13:22. | :13:24. | |
made a couple of appearances. Let's look at what we got earlier. Here he | :13:25. | :13:30. | |
is. This is the pine marten. About the size of a domestic cat. Looks a | :13:31. | :13:37. | |
bit like a weasel. It's a gorgeous Highland specialist, climbing up the | :13:38. | :13:40. | |
tree. No doubt it's looking for food. It's a generalist predator, | :13:41. | :13:46. | |
small rodents, birds, beetles, carrion, berries. But what's it | :13:47. | :13:54. | |
looking for? You'll see in a minute. It's delving deep into the trunk. | :13:55. | :13:57. | |
It's come out with an egg. This is an egg that we planted there to see | :13:58. | :14:02. | |
if it would find it. It's astonishing the way it's coming down | :14:03. | :14:06. | |
that tree, the egg's in the mouth. It's not breaking it. We want to | :14:07. | :14:10. | |
know where does it take it? Where does it hide it? And how does it | :14:11. | :14:17. | |
stop other ceeures from find -- creatures from finding it? Great | :14:18. | :14:22. | |
when it came down the tree, it twisted its foot you'd. They have | :14:23. | :14:27. | |
very long claws to hang on. They are very agile creatures spending time | :14:28. | :14:31. | |
in the trees. Ewant to know how this -- we want to know how this winter | :14:32. | :14:36. | |
has affected the wildlife in your area. Send us your observation r | :14:37. | :14:44. | |
observations and pictures to Facebook and Twitter. There's lots | :14:45. | :14:50. | |
of seasonal updates on the website. Funny stuff as well. Probably too | :14:51. | :14:58. | |
early for a graph... I think so! But it's about time for a map. We've got | :14:59. | :15:04. | |
to have a map. Here we are. This is Aberdeen here. Inverness is up here. | :15:05. | :15:14. | |
We're down here. We're in this part of north-eastern Scotland. The | :15:15. | :15:17. | |
question is - where is Martin? We've sent him off into the cold rain and | :15:18. | :15:26. | |
the snow. Here we are, Mar Lodge. Here up here where he's probably | :15:27. | :15:31. | |
going to turn into an abominable snowman given half a chance. | :15:32. | :15:37. | |
Yes indeed, Chris. I might be abominable but I am not a snowman. | :15:38. | :15:50. | |
No snow here whatsoever. I am in part of the Cairngorms and this is | :15:51. | :15:54. | |
an incredible place. This is the wildest, the coldest, the snowiest | :15:55. | :16:01. | |
plateau in the whole of the UK. This is a place where weather records are | :16:02. | :16:05. | |
broken. Let me give you some examples. Just down there is the | :16:06. | :16:11. | |
village of Braemar. They had to endure a temperature one winter of | :16:12. | :16:16. | |
27.12 Celsius. The coldest temperature ever recorded in the UK. | :16:17. | :16:21. | |
If you keep going, beyond Braemar you get to Cairngorm, the mountain | :16:22. | :16:26. | |
itself and at the top of Cairngorm they recorded a wind speed of 170 | :16:27. | :16:34. | |
mph. Unofficially, 193. Just today, here, the wind has hit 104 mph. | :16:35. | :16:41. | |
Obviously, any animal that is going to live here, we'll have two endure | :16:42. | :16:46. | |
these brutal conditions. I wanted to share with you what that actually | :16:47. | :16:51. | |
feels like, so I wanted to go up to the top and tried to live, spend a | :16:52. | :16:57. | |
night in a snow hole. A few days ago I set out to do just that. | :16:58. | :17:05. | |
It was covered in over a metre of snow. Mountain guide Bill and I got | :17:06. | :17:14. | |
down to business, building a snow shelter. I think this is quite a | :17:15. | :17:20. | |
good place, because you can see a ptarmigan across the. It is good | :17:21. | :17:28. | |
because the weird and is Westerly, the forecast is the wind is coming | :17:29. | :17:33. | |
this way. The snow is quite deep. Brilliant, this will be my home? | :17:34. | :17:38. | |
Yes, relax, you will be quite comfortable. Let's dig down. Make a | :17:39. | :17:48. | |
good job of it. It took a whole day to build, but what a difference a | :17:49. | :17:56. | |
day makes. When we came back to complete the job, the weather was | :17:57. | :18:02. | |
much warmer and wetter. The snow had been crisp and fluffy yesterday, but | :18:03. | :18:12. | |
now, not so much. I will just try the inside. Lovely! A bit wet. | :18:13. | :18:26. | |
Unfortunately, my hopes of sleeping in a snow hole were literally | :18:27. | :18:34. | |
melting away. Well, it wasn't to be, the snow has | :18:35. | :18:38. | |
gone, well it hasn't gone, it is here. It has turned into these | :18:39. | :18:44. | |
blundering streams. All the rivers around me are raging torrents now. I | :18:45. | :18:47. | |
know that is the same for many of you at home, because I checked just | :18:48. | :18:52. | |
before the show and the Met office have issued more than 90 flood | :18:53. | :18:56. | |
warnings, so it is happening all over again. I have been driven off | :18:57. | :19:00. | |
the mountain down to here, but I'm glad to say, so has the animal I | :19:01. | :19:08. | |
really wanted to try and show you. They are in fact all around me here | :19:09. | :19:11. | |
in the dark, but I wanted to see them during the day, so I set off to | :19:12. | :19:15. | |
try and have a closing counter with a snow hare. | :19:16. | :19:21. | |
It's soggy, it's blowing a bitterly cold gale and this mountain is | :19:22. | :19:33. | |
teaming with hares. But these chaps are much too frisky, I need one that | :19:34. | :19:35. | |
is hunkered down. And there it is. They tend to be | :19:36. | :19:40. | |
very timid. These hares don't go down burrows, | :19:41. | :20:01. | |
they are not like rabbits. They make a little impression in the heather | :20:02. | :20:04. | |
or choose a little bank like this one has. It cuts out 90% of the wind | :20:05. | :20:14. | |
and will generally angle it so they can get a view out, to see any | :20:15. | :20:21. | |
predators. I'm already remarkably close. You can never tell with | :20:22. | :20:28. | |
mountain hares, sometimes they just sit really tight, and other times | :20:29. | :20:33. | |
they are off. I'm going to try and get a little bit closer, so I can | :20:34. | :20:37. | |
get a slightly better look. You never know whether to crawl along... | :20:38. | :20:45. | |
The poor old hare might think I am a predator of some sort. Or whether to | :20:46. | :20:53. | |
stand up... I'm going to try that on a crawling down a bit, just to get a | :20:54. | :20:58. | |
bit closer. What a magical experience. To be quite so close. | :20:59. | :21:07. | |
Eating, look at that! In summer they eat grass, and in a period of two | :21:08. | :21:16. | |
weeks therein tyre. Technology changes and switches over, allowing | :21:17. | :21:20. | |
them to eat Woody heather. It is so efficient, the mountain hare, | :21:21. | :21:25. | |
contrary to what you might think, puts on weight during the winter. | :21:26. | :21:38. | |
Oh. He's off. To find a juicy bit of heather, somewhere out. -- somewhere | :21:39. | :21:42. | |
else. Fantastic experience. Of course, the | :21:43. | :22:00. | |
mountain hare is the original hare. The Brown hare was introduced, so | :22:01. | :22:07. | |
this one, the tough one, is the original one. As I say, there should | :22:08. | :22:12. | |
be mountain hares around me right now. We have a thermal camera that | :22:13. | :22:16. | |
can peer into the darkness and with a bit of luck we might be able to | :22:17. | :22:19. | |
see them right now. Let's have a look. We've got deer, grazing away, | :22:20. | :22:38. | |
lying down. There are stags. There they are, mountain hares. I think | :22:39. | :22:48. | |
they are feeding, grazing, out of their holes. A couple of nights ago | :22:49. | :22:55. | |
we had a close look at them. They have to come out of that protective | :22:56. | :23:04. | |
holes to feed at night. You can see they are losing a lot of heat, | :23:05. | :23:10. | |
through their back and through their eyes, but they have to come out. | :23:11. | :23:17. | |
Fantastic animals, perfectly adapted to these bitter conditions. When we | :23:18. | :23:24. | |
come back, I will look even deeper at these extraordinary animals | :23:25. | :23:27. | |
because they have a whole array of adaptations that keep them here. | :23:28. | :23:35. | |
But, the weather has been playing havoc with us. I can't tell you what | :23:36. | :23:38. | |
will happen in the next few hours, let alone the next couple of days, | :23:39. | :23:43. | |
but I know a man who can. Nick Miller at the BBC centre. What does | :23:44. | :23:46. | |
the weather hold in store for our mountain hares? | :23:47. | :23:53. | |
You are witnessing first-hand the swings of weather in the Cairngorms | :23:54. | :23:56. | |
are more of that to come this week. For much of the UK winter has been | :23:57. | :24:00. | |
about the rain and the floods, not just in December but in January as | :24:01. | :24:05. | |
well. This was the start of the month, at Mar Lodge. It took only | :24:06. | :24:09. | |
about all week the Aberdeenshire to record its wettest January and -- on | :24:10. | :24:17. | |
record. And these pictures, daffodils in full bloom in Dorset. | :24:18. | :24:24. | |
Early emergence records for flowers and impacts on birds as well. This | :24:25. | :24:34. | |
was in Northumberland today. For US ones, and birds who shouldn't be | :24:35. | :24:38. | |
here at this time of year, like swallows. One like this has been | :24:39. | :24:46. | |
spotted on the 13th. Amphibians and in vertebrates that should be | :24:47. | :24:50. | |
hibernating have been spotted as well. What can expect this way? | :24:51. | :24:56. | |
Still big swings in the weather, my old one moment and colder the next. | :24:57. | :25:01. | |
Jet stream pushing wetter systems across the Atlantic. About rainfall | :25:02. | :25:07. | |
amounts in the west of the UK. Just for Winterwatch, some rain in the | :25:08. | :25:11. | |
Cairngorms tonight. Colder for the next few days, potentially very | :25:12. | :25:13. | |
windy at the end of the week. Extraordinary weather in the | :25:14. | :25:19. | |
countryside, in your backyard. Cairngorms or Chiltern Hills, get | :25:20. | :25:22. | |
out, because there is something to spot near you. Thank you, get out | :25:23. | :25:28. | |
but put your Wellington boots on, doesn't look like much chance of | :25:29. | :25:32. | |
sunshine after the rain. A lot of the wildlife seems so confused. | :25:33. | :25:37. | |
Daffodils out, Swift Sound swallows, what have you seen down south? We | :25:38. | :25:43. | |
had a butterfly on Christmas eve, primroses in the garden. Thrushes in | :25:44. | :25:56. | |
full song. The crew saw a bat here. We want to know what you have seen, | :25:57. | :26:00. | |
what weird winter wildlife you have spotted. Send your photographs in | :26:01. | :26:05. | |
using the #weirdwinter. This is where the action starts, where | :26:06. | :26:11. | |
things start to get good. I will promise you an eagle -fest. I said | :26:12. | :26:15. | |
we had our cameras out across the Cairngorms and some of those set up, | :26:16. | :26:20. | |
remote on carcasses to attract scavenging birds and of course what | :26:21. | :26:24. | |
we wanted to get were eagles. We have been successful and the first | :26:25. | :26:28. | |
camera to deliver was about 100 miles south-west of here. | :26:29. | :26:36. | |
The island of Mull on the West Coast of Scotland is home to a guild of | :26:37. | :26:47. | |
carnivorous birds. Who did Crowes -- hooded crows, buzzards and white | :26:48. | :26:51. | |
tailed eagles. As the temperatures drop and winter | :26:52. | :27:08. | |
approaches, food becomes scarce. But all these birds are highly | :27:09. | :27:12. | |
intelligent and extremely wary, so even a fresh deer carcass takes time | :27:13. | :27:16. | |
to tempt them. Once a single bird has found a large | :27:17. | :27:46. | |
carcass like this, they will bring others to the location. They do this | :27:47. | :27:54. | |
in the hope that greater numbers will help defend the food resource. | :27:55. | :28:01. | |
Ravens are very vocal, using more than 30 different calls and | :28:02. | :28:05. | |
constantly communicating with each other. Once on the carrion, it is | :28:06. | :28:12. | |
the lead bird that will dominate the feasting. Ravens will eat up to a | :28:13. | :28:18. | |
third of their body weight in a single day. They will also take meat | :28:19. | :28:27. | |
away and save it for later date. But their -- they are still wary. Some | :28:28. | :28:32. | |
birds take it in turns to watch for danger. | :28:33. | :28:36. | |
A second visitor, a buzzard. Similar in size, but with a more delicate | :28:37. | :28:51. | |
bill, the buzzard seems happy for the ravens to do the hard work and | :28:52. | :28:54. | |
then bullies them off to get access to the best pickings. | :28:55. | :29:13. | |
After four days, eagles arrived on the scene. | :29:14. | :29:27. | |
This young male golden eagle weighs three times as much as array even. | :29:28. | :29:36. | |
They regularly hunt for their parade, but they are not above | :29:37. | :29:42. | |
scavenging and easy meal. And as the light fades at the end of the day, | :29:43. | :29:45. | |
the largest bird of all joins the feast. | :29:46. | :29:51. | |
This young white tailed eagle has a darker head and a much bigger bill. | :29:52. | :30:04. | |
At carcass, golden eagles tend to dominate, but this time he is seen | :30:05. | :30:12. | |
off by the bigger bird. Capturing these giant characters side-by-side | :30:13. | :30:13. | |
is a really unique Highland treat. Lodge, Seeing those two eagles | :30:14. | :30:28. | |
together is a special treat. We've got a better treat now. We're going | :30:29. | :30:32. | |
to look at them close up. That gives us the perfect opportunities to look | :30:33. | :30:39. | |
at the differences. On my arm I have the impressive, beautiful golden | :30:40. | :30:44. | |
eagle. Over by Chris is the enormous white tailed eagle. We're | :30:45. | :30:48. | |
eagle. Over by Chris is the enormous look at mine first. Let's | :30:49. | :30:50. | |
eagle. Over by Chris is the enormous the size. Noisy bird! This is a | :30:51. | :30:55. | |
male, probably about four kilos. It's smaller than the female. The | :30:56. | :30:56. | |
female can be anything It's smaller than the female. The | :30:57. | :31:01. | |
larger, maybe around six kilos. It's smaller than the female. The | :31:02. | :31:08. | |
called sexual dimorphism. An impressive wing span of two metres. | :31:09. | :31:16. | |
This bird is perfectly adapted to hunting fast-moving prey, | :31:17. | :31:21. | |
terrestrial prey like mountain hares. First there's the beak. A | :31:22. | :31:31. | |
typical rap tore beak. -- raptor. It's perfect for ripping open flesh. | :31:32. | :31:36. | |
If you look at the clause, gripping my hand -- claws, gripping my hands | :31:37. | :31:41. | |
here, strong tallons, they are great for catching the prey and pinning it | :31:42. | :31:45. | |
down. Look at the feathers on the legs. This ego all the way down to | :31:46. | :31:50. | |
-- they go all the way down to the feet. That indicates this is a bird | :31:51. | :31:54. | |
of prey that would prefer to catch live prey rather than carrion, | :31:55. | :31:59. | |
although as we've seen, it will take advantage of carrion. That is the | :32:00. | :32:03. | |
very beautiful golden eagle. Chris, how does that differ to your white | :32:04. | :32:08. | |
tailed eagle? Considerably in some ways. The first thing is size. There | :32:09. | :32:12. | |
is a great deal of variety in the size of eagles. You | :32:13. | :32:21. | |
is a great deal of variety in the big females. The white tails can | :32:22. | :32:25. | |
weigh up to seven kilos, three more than Michaela's male. Another | :32:26. | :32:30. | |
obvious thing is the beak. It's more powerful, larger bill. This is | :32:31. | :32:33. | |
because it does spend quite a lot more time, particularly in the | :32:34. | :32:38. | |
winter, feeding on carrion. It needs that large beak to tear it open. | :32:39. | :32:40. | |
It's also got that large beak to tear it open. | :32:41. | :32:44. | |
part of those legs. Again, that's an adaptation to feeding on carrion. | :32:45. | :32:48. | |
doesn't want to cover those with lots of blood and guts it's it's | :32:49. | :32:55. | |
wading in amongst the carcass. If it opened its wings it would look | :32:56. | :32:59. | |
different. It has a wing span of up to 2. 7 metres, broader wings too. | :33:00. | :33:06. | |
Much lower wing loading, weight to wing area ratio. This is one of the | :33:07. | :33:09. | |
things that we're looking at later in the week to further contrast | :33:10. | :33:13. | |
these birds, not in terms of their physical appearance, but in | :33:14. | :33:16. | |
these birds, not in terms of their that they fly and therefore, the way | :33:17. | :33:20. | |
in which they hunt. Whether it's goaden or while tailed -- golden or | :33:21. | :33:25. | |
white tailed, there's no doubt, there's very beautiful, special | :33:26. | :33:30. | |
birds indeed. From these couple of iconic predators, let's look at | :33:31. | :33:34. | |
another very iconic predator that we have here in | :33:35. | :33:37. | |
another very iconic predator that we Scotland. Now cats are one of the | :33:38. | :33:40. | |
world's most favourite animals, think of tigers and snow leopards, | :33:41. | :33:51. | |
nature's master pieces. Many of these species incredibly rare, the | :33:52. | :33:58. | |
Iberian lynx is incredibly rare with 156 of these left in the wild. But | :33:59. | :33:59. | |
that could be wrong. We think 156 of these left in the wild. But | :34:00. | :34:03. | |
Scottish wildcat could be equally endangered. This week, we're going | :34:04. | :34:08. | |
to explore this animal. The first thing we've got to do is establish - | :34:09. | :34:18. | |
what is a really wildcat? Scottish wildcats are arguably the rarest | :34:19. | :34:27. | |
mammals on the planet. This tiger of the Highlands has always been | :34:28. | :34:31. | |
persecuted by man, but today, they face a far more inSidious threat - | :34:32. | :34:39. | |
domestic cats. You see the problem is that wildcats and domestic cats | :34:40. | :34:45. | |
can mate and in doing so, the Scottish wildcat is quite literally | :34:46. | :34:51. | |
being bred out of existence. Scottish wildcat action, a | :34:52. | :34:55. | |
conservation effort involving 20 partners, is being set up to reverse | :34:56. | :35:01. | |
this. A full genetic assessment of the wild and captive population ises | :35:02. | :35:04. | |
now under way. -- populations is now under way. The Royal Zoological | :35:05. | :35:11. | |
Socitey of Scotland are spearheading the research. Today captive bred | :35:12. | :35:16. | |
kittens are due to be health screened and DNA tested. The project | :35:17. | :35:21. | |
leader, David Barkley, allows unprecedented access to this | :35:22. | :35:26. | |
process. This is, for me, a unique opportunity for me to see what is a | :35:27. | :35:29. | |
pretty good Scottish wildcat on the table. Talk me through the key | :35:30. | :35:33. | |
features you're looking for to identify this as a good wildcat. | :35:34. | :35:39. | |
What we look for are some of the unique markings. A complete band, | :35:40. | :35:42. | |
not broken up into spots. That's brilliant. That's what we want to | :35:43. | :35:47. | |
see on a nice cat. If we look at the tore alstripe, it's -- dorsal | :35:48. | :35:53. | |
stripe, it goes to the base of the tail and stops and then ringed tail. | :35:54. | :35:57. | |
Aren't the feet meant to be bigger than domestic cats? The main | :35:58. | :36:01. | |
difference is that these are the killing machines of the wildcat. | :36:02. | :36:05. | |
This allows them to feed and hunt in the wild. They're not massive but | :36:06. | :36:11. | |
they're deadly when they need to be. To me, this lovely club tail here | :36:12. | :36:16. | |
and the patterning, dark feet, broad feet, it looks pretty good really. I | :36:17. | :36:21. | |
tend not to make too many assumptions, but at a quick glance, | :36:22. | :36:25. | |
this looks great. This is a young female. So at nine months old the | :36:26. | :36:31. | |
tail is likely to get a bit thicker. In two, three years, this girl will | :36:32. | :36:34. | |
be a fantastic looking cat. Obviously, we will have the genetic | :36:35. | :36:38. | |
test on top of that, which is a great tool. Once the blood samples | :36:39. | :36:44. | |
have been taken, the kittens are given time to recover, before | :36:45. | :36:52. | |
returning to their enclosure. The samples are sent to the wild genes | :36:53. | :36:59. | |
lab at Edinburgh Zoo. Geneticist Dr Helen Senn is in charge of the DNA | :37:00. | :37:04. | |
testing that takes place here. These tests have been carried out for the | :37:05. | :37:08. | |
last two years, not just on captive animals, but also on cats taken from | :37:09. | :37:13. | |
the wild. It's an ongoing process and one that's enabling them to | :37:14. | :37:18. | |
build up a true picture of exactly how many wildcats are left. You've | :37:19. | :37:24. | |
done your DNA analysis. This bar chart represents that. Talk me | :37:25. | :37:28. | |
through what we've got here. Each bar represents a single cat and the | :37:29. | :37:33. | |
proportion of green colour represents the proportion of wildcat | :37:34. | :37:37. | |
genes and the proportion of red colour are the domestic cat genes. | :37:38. | :37:41. | |
You've got a real mix here. These animals here nudging the top are | :37:42. | :37:45. | |
more wild. What about this gaping hole here, hardly any wildcat genes | :37:46. | :37:50. | |
at all. These cats are domestic reference cats, that's why they're | :37:51. | :37:53. | |
all red. They are pets from Edinburgh. We use a lot of reference | :37:54. | :37:57. | |
samples to ensure the validity of the test. If we present the results | :37:58. | :38:03. | |
in a slightly different way, each of these points represents a cat and | :38:04. | :38:07. | |
the height on this axis represents the proportion of wildcat genes. | :38:08. | :38:13. | |
These cats up here are all pure wildcats and these cats down here | :38:14. | :38:17. | |
are all pure domestic. The challenge is to decide where to draw the line. | :38:18. | :38:21. | |
Using the research we've done here, we've come to the conclusion that | :38:22. | :38:25. | |
the best cut off is approximately 75%. That means a worst case | :38:26. | :38:32. | |
scenario for breeding, we'd be choosing cats with one grandparent | :38:33. | :38:36. | |
as a domestic cat, but we're hoping to have cats that are better than | :38:37. | :38:39. | |
that. These are very good up here. There's a strip running along there, | :38:40. | :38:43. | |
which are close to the line. Where are those animals? So those cats are | :38:44. | :38:48. | |
our capitalive wildcats. They're cats that have been taken from | :38:49. | :38:53. | |
across the UK captive breeding programme for wildcats. So it seems | :38:54. | :38:59. | |
that any hope for this tiger of the Highlands now lies with this | :39:00. | :39:05. | |
precious captive population. We're going back to wildcats in a second. | :39:06. | :39:08. | |
We've come into the co-iness of the house. Lock, what's outside, live on | :39:09. | :39:13. | |
our live camera, it's the mountain hare. That's brilliant. It is. It's | :39:14. | :39:19. | |
been tempted with those apples, which isn't a surprise, given that | :39:20. | :39:24. | |
apart from that all it has to eat is dry heather. It gives us a chance to | :39:25. | :39:30. | |
look at the animal in close-up. Look how short the ears are than the | :39:31. | :39:35. | |
brown hare. The eyes on the top of its head ideal for looking for | :39:36. | :39:39. | |
predators and on the side as well so they see forward and behind at the | :39:40. | :39:42. | |
same time. What we didn't talk about with the eagles is that your golden | :39:43. | :39:47. | |
eagle at this time of year would be preying on these if it had the | :39:48. | :39:50. | |
opportunity to. It always has to be wary. There we are, what a treat. A | :39:51. | :39:56. | |
bit of golden delicious for the mountain hare, we spoil the animals! | :39:57. | :40:00. | |
They've turned white to be camouflaged but with the snow | :40:01. | :40:04. | |
melting they will be easy prey. We'll keep an eye on that. Going | :40:05. | :40:08. | |
back to wildcats, something that occurred to me in the film was it's | :40:09. | :40:13. | |
a real worry that the only true wildcats left are the ones in | :40:14. | :40:17. | |
captivity. It is a worry. That's basically what that graph showed us | :40:18. | :40:21. | |
at the end of the film there. Let's go back to that graph now. On this | :40:22. | :40:27. | |
axis here we have degrees of wildness, if you like. So up here | :40:28. | :40:35. | |
100% wildcat genes, down here domestic cats. Further testing will | :40:36. | :40:40. | |
be taking place. Down here, these are pretty much animals which are | :40:41. | :40:45. | |
full of domestic cat genes. The very best wildcats are these ones up here | :40:46. | :40:50. | |
at the top and the rather unromantic thing is that the best wildcats are | :40:51. | :40:55. | |
no longer wild. All of these animals are currently in captivity. What | :40:56. | :40:59. | |
about the two that we tested in the film there? Well, we've got the | :41:00. | :41:04. | |
results back from their DNA. We have found out that they're pretty much | :41:05. | :41:10. | |
up here at the about the 97% level. There's some degree of variability | :41:11. | :41:14. | |
but that's the optimum thing. So they're pretty good wildcats. Yeah, | :41:15. | :41:19. | |
not very romantic, if you see a wildcat out in Scotland at the | :41:20. | :41:22. | |
moment, the chances are that it's probably going to be one of these | :41:23. | :41:25. | |
animals on this part of the graph, which is not truly a wildcat as an | :41:26. | :41:32. | |
animal. This gives us hope. We have these very good animals, animals | :41:33. | :41:36. | |
with good genetic integrity in captivity, that means we have the | :41:37. | :41:39. | |
opportunity to breed them and perhaps, one day, even release them | :41:40. | :41:42. | |
back into the wild. In fact, we're going to be exploring that in our | :41:43. | :41:46. | |
films through the week. It begs the question though, does it matter that | :41:47. | :41:50. | |
they're not true wildcats? Don't they fill the same niche? I think it | :41:51. | :41:54. | |
matters on a couple of counts. Morally we have an obligation to try | :41:55. | :41:57. | |
and preserve them certainly because we have the ability to do that. | :41:58. | :42:01. | |
Secondly, the answer is no. The domestic cat is a subspecies of the | :42:02. | :42:06. | |
wildcat. When it's in the wild, even when it's gone forel it fulfils -- | :42:07. | :42:15. | |
ferel it fulfils a different niche. Wildcats spend more time in | :42:16. | :42:20. | |
woodland. In terms of playing the role they need to play in Scotland's | :42:21. | :42:28. | |
Bayeux die -- bio diversity, we need these animals. There's the cultural | :42:29. | :42:31. | |
thing, where we shouldn't ought to be leaving them. They're an | :42:32. | :42:35. | |
important part of Scotland's culturement They're iconic and | :42:36. | :42:38. | |
beautiful. Indeed. It would be great to preserve them. We'll look more | :42:39. | :42:44. | |
into wildcats throughout the week. You know what they're also | :42:45. | :42:47. | |
into wildcats throughout the week. mountain tigers. We have our very | :42:48. | :42:49. | |
own mountain tiger. He's up the mountain and he's taking a closer | :42:50. | :42:53. | |
look at hares. How are you getting on? I'm a rather chilly tiger. Yes, | :42:54. | :43:01. | |
I'm living amongst the magical mountain hares. Let's have a little | :43:02. | :43:08. | |
bit more look at those hares. They change colour. They go from brown in | :43:09. | :43:14. | |
the summer to white in the winter. How do they manage to do that? It's | :43:15. | :43:23. | |
called seasonal crypsis. You look at them, when they're in the snow, of | :43:24. | :43:27. | |
course, being white in winter makes them perfectly camouflaged. But how | :43:28. | :43:32. | |
it happens is fascinating. The change begins at their feet and | :43:33. | :43:39. | |
slowly the white works its way up over their flanks, up to their back | :43:40. | :43:43. | |
and their head. That's triggered by the change in day length and the | :43:44. | :43:48. | |
speed at which it happens is controlled by the temperature. Also | :43:49. | :43:51. | |
the amount of snow. This is fascinating. This is a museum | :43:52. | :43:55. | |
specimen. It's not just the colour of the fur that matters. It's the | :43:56. | :43:59. | |
quality. Now I don't know if you can see, this is a summer coat. It's | :44:00. | :44:04. | |
lovely and soft. But it's quite thin there. Let's compare that with the | :44:05. | :44:13. | |
winter coat. Can you see that? It's actually really, really thick. I can | :44:14. | :44:18. | |
hardly get my fingers through it. There are many more hairs per square | :44:19. | :44:22. | |
centimetre in this coat and that keeps the hare lovely and warm. As | :44:23. | :44:27. | |
Michaela said, you might think being white in amongst all this green | :44:28. | :44:32. | |
stuff would be pretty disastrous and you'd be partially right, but the | :44:33. | :44:36. | |
mountain hare has an amazing trick up its sleeve. When called upon, it | :44:37. | :44:43. | |
can streak off like a bullet. When you look at their back legs, you can | :44:44. | :44:48. | |
see just how long they are when they stretch. They can accelerate away, | :44:49. | :44:54. | |
almost from a stand still up to 40 or 50mph in an instant. Generally, | :44:55. | :44:59. | |
they'll run uphill as well, leaving any potential predator panting in | :45:00. | :45:05. | |
their wake. Quite often, people have seen foxes approach the mountain | :45:06. | :45:10. | |
hare to within two metres, the hare's not bothered. It's so | :45:11. | :45:15. | |
supremely confident it can get away. Now another thing that they have, | :45:16. | :45:19. | |
they have this thing called low foot loading. That means that their feet | :45:20. | :45:24. | |
are very big compared to the weight of their body. That means they can | :45:25. | :45:28. | |
run over the surface of the snow at high speed. That low foot loading | :45:29. | :45:33. | |
coupled with their speed gives them the ability to do something | :45:34. | :45:36. | |
occasionally almost Look at this. Watch that | :45:37. | :45:41. | |
snowboarder. We will get a bit Look at this. Watch that | :45:42. | :45:49. | |
closer and beside him, look Look at this. Watch that | :45:50. | :45:51. | |
comes out from the right, a Look at this. Watch that | :45:52. | :45:56. | |
hare, into the path of an avalanche. You would think that would be the | :45:57. | :46:02. | |
end of that hare, it disappears and reappears. Those feet and it's | :46:03. | :46:06. | |
amazing speed keep it just above all of that tumbling snow and ice and | :46:07. | :46:13. | |
that hare, unbelievably, manages to escape from the avalanche. | :46:14. | :46:19. | |
Astonishing pictures, that is what hares do. I did say I wanted to try | :46:20. | :46:23. | |
and share with you exactly what it's like to live amongst the hares. I | :46:24. | :46:28. | |
and share with you exactly what it's couldn't do it up the mountain, but | :46:29. | :46:31. | |
they have moved down here and I am up for it. Look at this. This is | :46:32. | :46:42. | |
going to be my form for the night. I will sleep here and report to you | :46:43. | :46:46. | |
tomorrow morning what it likes to live among the hares. That will be | :46:47. | :46:50. | |
for tomorrow, I am looking forward to it, rather. It has been stored -- | :46:51. | :46:58. | |
stormy up and down the country. Camerawoman Sophie went to Giants | :46:59. | :47:02. | |
Causeway in Ireland to watch the storms rolling in from the Atlantic. | :47:03. | :47:19. | |
It's been a particularly hard winter, in the whole of the UK. | :47:20. | :47:28. | |
We've had such relentless weather and I think the reason I chose to | :47:29. | :47:34. | |
come to the Giants Causeway is I could think of nowhere better to | :47:35. | :47:38. | |
come to feel the full force of the Atlantic in the middle of winter. | :47:39. | :47:46. | |
There's a sort of mystic feel to this spot. It is an epic legacy to | :47:47. | :48:01. | |
lava. It's like being on some mad kind of board game. You cannot | :48:02. | :48:05. | |
believe it's real. It looks like art. It's so easy to understand why | :48:06. | :48:14. | |
people talked of Giants fighting battles and creating these | :48:15. | :48:21. | |
incredible rock. And I think the battle is sort of ongoing, really, | :48:22. | :48:24. | |
because you look at the sea and the weather and it is a continuing | :48:25. | :48:29. | |
struggle for anything that lives here. From the Olympics who are on | :48:30. | :48:37. | |
the edge, to this seaweed and the snails, who are clinging on for dear | :48:38. | :48:43. | |
life. You have to be extremely tough to live on the coast and on the | :48:44. | :48:46. | |
North Atlantic coast, extremely tough. The winter visitors are the | :48:47. | :48:55. | |
birds and some of the birds that are here are the goals. At this time of | :48:56. | :49:00. | |
year, just when winter is kicking in, the males will return to the | :49:01. | :49:06. | |
nest sites. We peeked over the headland and their below us were | :49:07. | :49:15. | |
four or five. They were all just balancing on the wind like the most | :49:16. | :49:21. | |
beautiful display of elegance and aerodynamics. | :49:22. | :49:37. | |
You can see every feather moving, and the way they are adjusting and | :49:38. | :49:41. | |
trimming, it is a thing of wonder. The minute they land they are so | :49:42. | :49:53. | |
clumsy, they are obviously so designed for being up in the air and | :49:54. | :49:59. | |
knowing what to do or maybe diving for food. I would give anything to | :50:00. | :50:05. | |
know what it's like to fly like one, just imagine being able to play with | :50:06. | :50:09. | |
the wind like that. It's all so effortless. | :50:10. | :50:17. | |
They fit so beautifully into this landscape. There are peaks, their | :50:18. | :50:21. | |
soft, smoky eyes. There is not a lot of light at this | :50:22. | :50:37. | |
time of year when it is cloudy and overcast and the winds and storms | :50:38. | :50:41. | |
blowing, but when there is just a glimmer of it, it is so beautiful. | :50:42. | :50:50. | |
There is an unexpected flash of colour in the gauze, the one relief | :50:51. | :51:02. | |
from the black and white of winter. There is something hypnotic about | :51:03. | :51:13. | |
watching these huge waves crashing and hence the Causeway. There is the | :51:14. | :51:19. | |
softness and harshness of these waves against these incredible | :51:20. | :51:27. | |
angles. And then to slow it down, so you can see every, tiny bit of that | :51:28. | :51:34. | |
quarter. You could just watch that water coming in and out all day. | :51:35. | :51:40. | |
I like the fact you can be here in the winter and really experience the | :51:41. | :51:49. | |
elements in their full force and feel the power of nature, just | :51:50. | :51:51. | |
coming at you. Giants Causeway in Northern Ireland, | :51:52. | :52:07. | |
what a wonderful backdrop. Beautiful place. The way they held the wind | :52:08. | :52:14. | |
and the way their body changed shape in reaction to it so quickly. A lot | :52:15. | :52:19. | |
of people are very worried about what happens to wildlife in the | :52:20. | :52:23. | |
floods. We featured otters and we will feature other animals but we | :52:24. | :52:27. | |
have one question here via Facebook. What happens to mice in flooding | :52:28. | :52:32. | |
question on the mammal Society said they will be affected in areas that | :52:33. | :52:37. | |
have flooded. In fact, locally they could be completely wiped out. | :52:38. | :52:41. | |
Although that sounds very dramatic accommodation be able to bounce | :52:42. | :52:45. | |
back. They are prolific breeders and they are very good at re-colonising. | :52:46. | :52:50. | |
So yes, they will be affected locally, but they should be OK. If | :52:51. | :52:53. | |
you have been watching our last few series you will know we have been | :52:54. | :52:59. | |
testing rodents for their perseverance in getting food. We set | :53:00. | :53:03. | |
them a series of assault courses and tasks. Take a look at what we have | :53:04. | :53:06. | |
been up to so far and what we will be up to next. | :53:07. | :53:10. | |
In the beginning there was the obstacle course, designed to assess | :53:11. | :53:15. | |
agility, nimbleness and dexterity. Some contenders tried with all their | :53:16. | :53:21. | |
might to desperately complete the challenge, but it was the mouse that | :53:22. | :53:27. | |
ruled supreme. Next came the mini mammal equivalent of a Ploughman 's | :53:28. | :53:31. | |
lunch. Again, the mouse took up the challenge. But it wasn't the cheese | :53:32. | :53:37. | |
board that took their fancy, it was the sweet treats and mixed nuts that | :53:38. | :53:43. | |
they devoured. Then came the iron mouse challenge, to see how they | :53:44. | :53:49. | |
cope in the watery world of a reed bed. You might have thought it would | :53:50. | :53:53. | |
be a total wipe-out, but with great determination and an incredible | :53:54. | :53:58. | |
ability to jump, the mouse overcame the deadly water hazard. This time, | :53:59. | :54:03. | |
it's bigger, better, more complicated than ever. Will they | :54:04. | :54:13. | |
complete the Mouse Maze? Yes, we tested their agility and their | :54:14. | :54:16. | |
perseverance but now we are testing their intelligence. We built them a | :54:17. | :54:21. | |
maze which they have to navigate their way through. There is a very | :54:22. | :54:25. | |
good reason for this, they are after food. Their ability to find food and | :54:26. | :54:29. | |
remember where they found the food is implicitly important in winter. | :54:30. | :54:33. | |
We set up a couple of days ago and will show you the results in a few | :54:34. | :54:37. | |
seconds, but first we must say these are wild mice. They went into | :54:38. | :54:38. | |
seconds, but first we must say these maze of their own accord to get a | :54:39. | :54:43. | |
treat of not. We didn't make them go in. If you look at | :54:44. | :54:46. | |
treat of not. We didn't make them go the dark. Let's have a look at the | :54:47. | :54:51. | |
maze and see what happened. Here comes the mouse, first contestant | :54:52. | :54:57. | |
into the entrance hole and is looking for those tasty nuts. Will | :54:58. | :55:03. | |
it get to them straightaway? No, it missed the entrance. Turns around, | :55:04. | :55:09. | |
has a little luck, sniff, sniff, and found in 14 seconds. Goes back | :55:10. | :55:15. | |
really quickly, stands by the hole thinking, I've lost my nuts. It goes | :55:16. | :55:19. | |
back, remembers the way it came, gets its dropped nut and goes back | :55:20. | :55:27. | |
again. A bit stupid for dropping the nut. One of the first times it had | :55:28. | :55:33. | |
gone into the maze. Here we go, second chance. Looking around. Will | :55:34. | :55:39. | |
it do any quicker? Will it make the same mistake it made the first time? | :55:40. | :55:44. | |
No, it didn't. Just ten seconds this time. So again, learning all the | :55:45. | :55:51. | |
time. So here we go, the third attempt, in it goes and look how | :55:52. | :55:54. | |
quickly it gets it this time. Five seconds. Obviously this could be | :55:55. | :56:00. | |
three different mice, but we are presuming that is the same mouse | :56:01. | :56:04. | |
three different mice, but we are because it's faster each time. You | :56:05. | :56:06. | |
can see, it is remembering and it has learned and it goes and | :56:07. | :56:12. | |
can see, it is remembering and it goes. Using its | :56:13. | :56:14. | |
can see, it is remembering and it its way through, it could also be | :56:15. | :56:18. | |
smelling a route through. The most important thing is it goes straight | :56:19. | :56:22. | |
back to them. Optimising the amount of time it takes to return to the | :56:23. | :56:26. | |
nuts so it can carry them away and store them. That is what it is | :56:27. | :56:30. | |
doing. They are a very important food source they can store. It is | :56:31. | :56:34. | |
hiding them away so they can eat them later in the winter when the | :56:35. | :56:39. | |
food supply runs out. That all looks a bit easy, Chris. It was a simple | :56:40. | :56:44. | |
maze, so we stepped it up. This is what | :56:45. | :59:01. | |
Let your New Year start with a bang and visit an explosive new China. | :59:02. | :59:08. |