Catch up TV

Summer 2022: Episode 15

Kate Humble and Ben Fogle return to Longleat Safari Park for another spectacular summer series following the fascinating stories of the exotic animals and the keepers who look after them. \n\nThe Longleat keepers have some extraordinary news. When doing her morning rounds, Amy spotted some nesting behaviour amongst the critically endangered African white-backed vultures, and on further inspection discovered that one of the birds was sitting on an egg. It’s been ten years since the park had a successfully reared chick, often due to the birds laying too late in the season - poor weather conditions can result in the parents not sitting on the egg. This year the timing is spot on, so everyone has everything crossed for success. Not wanting to disturb the parents, the keepers call in Animal Park’s very own wildlife cameraman, Hamza Yassin, to try to find out if they are still sitting on and caring for the egg.\n\nKate is astonished to hear that an anteater can eat 30,000 insects a day with their 60-centimetre-long tongue. She helps one of the keepers recreate a termite mound in the anteater enclosure. Meanwhile, Ben takes the lead in the rhino field, creating a mega wallow for the three females that live at the park. Megan McCubbin discovers that Koala Creek isn’t just home to Australia’s iconic marsupial but also to hundreds of stick insects. These masters of disguise start out life pretending to be an ant, then, when fully grown, they look exactly like a leaf.

Source: BBC 2