Skip to playerSkip to main contentSkip to footer
Minor M
  • 2 days ago
Inside.Longleat.2025.S01E01
Transcript
00:00With around 1 million visitors a year, Longleat House and Safari Park is one of Britain's busiest tourist spots.
00:08And we're going behind the scenes to find out what goes into keeping it all running seven days a week.
00:14Have a nice night.
00:17365 days a year.
00:19Welcome to your Longleat Safari bus.
00:21With lions and red pandas, monkeys and mazes, constant cleaning and maintenance,
00:29the staff have their work cut out.
00:32Are you ready?
00:32Go for it, yeah?
00:35Now Lord and Lady Bath have granted exclusive and unprecedented access to the running of their stately home,
00:4375 years after it first opened to the public.
00:48From the extraordinary yet everyday...
00:51There's no other loo in the world with this view.
00:53To one-off Spectaculars, we bring you a year in the life of a very special home.
01:02This time...
01:03If we see any damage being done to a car, guys, we smile and we wave.
01:10There's monkey business in the monkey enclosure.
01:14Lord Bath reveals how the lions came to Longleat.
01:17There was a very famous picture of my grandfather sitting on this sofa with a lion.
01:24We discover if the park has the tallest coastal redwood in the UK.
01:28If we want to have the tallest one in the UK, it needs to be 56.2 metres.
01:32And rookie zookeeper Ben gets to know the gorillas.
01:36So how do you know that he's the dominant one?
01:38It's actually his head.
01:40That shows other gorillas that his bite is stronger than theirs.
01:43That's what makes him the dominant male.
01:44Set in the heart of the Wiltshire countryside, 100 miles west of London and 30 miles south of Bristol,
01:59Longleat House Gardens and Safari Park welcomes up to 9,000 visitors a day.
02:05There you are. Have a nice time.
02:07It's 600 full and part-time staff.
02:09Cover everything from park managers to gardeners, historians to handymen.
02:16Cup it up. Hello.
02:18Lion keepers to cooks.
02:22But for many, the first member of staff they meet is safari driver Dave.
02:27I'm known as the legend.
02:30A lovely lady wrote in and said they'd had a wonderful tour.
02:36Dave is a legend and the legend has stuck ever since.
02:40As for the tattoo on the arm.
02:44I love it where I'm meeting different people every day.
02:47All walks of life, old and young and even little ones as well.
02:51And it's just a great job to be in.
02:53Four times a day, Dave and his fellow drivers take up to 90 passengers on a safari tour.
02:59There's no scripts. It's all done in the head.
03:02But I talk non-stop. I don't take a breath.
03:06So just give them a wave, guys.
03:09Oh, look, they're actually working.
03:10And not only that, they are the first wild animals you're going to see this morning.
03:16Remember, please don't tell them I told you.
03:19We do get what we call crib notes.
03:22If we got new animals, we'd get new crib notes.
03:25We'd go through those and then we'd just lock it in the brain and away we go.
03:28Dave's safari tour takes in all the park's most popular animals.
03:32The lions, the cheetahs, the wolves.
03:37Here we go, this one right by the side of the bus.
03:39But what everyone's really waiting for is the monkey drive-through.
03:43I now need all windows closed, please, because we are about to enter.
03:50Sounds like 20 shotguns going on.
03:53We are about to enter into a monkey drive-through.
03:56Now, if you look at the postage, you will see number plates, hubcaps, wiper blades, front grills, brake light clusters, front bumpers.
04:04You'll also see wing mirrors.
04:06Now, these are only some of the things that they will take off your cars.
04:11Let's go find some monkeys and let's go find some damage, shall we, guys?
04:15Now, if we drive past and we see any damage being done to a car, guys, what we do is we smile and we wave.
04:37Now, one thing our monkeys do not like, they do not like top boxes.
04:57Now, that day, there were six of them, six macaque monkeys, jumping up and down on the top box.
05:04When we drove up through this way, the gentleman said to me, he said, Dave, you said, what's that running through the grass?
05:10Well, that was two macaque monkeys with a pair of boxer shorts on their heads.
05:15Now, I do hope they were clean.
05:16Unfortunately, today is Dave's last tour and he's going to have to take a back seat for a while.
05:23Yeah, I've had some bad news just lately.
05:27I went to the doctors.
05:29I asked if they could screen me for prostate cancer.
05:32And unfortunately, it came back as stage four to five prostate cancer.
05:38So, I'm going to have to take time off for treatment.
05:44I went down to Bath every day for five weeks, Monday to Friday, for radiotherapy.
05:50Hopefully, Dave will make a full and speedy recovery and he'll be back behind the wheel before too long.
06:02There are around 1,000 animals at Longleat, living in two distinct areas.
06:09In the drive-thru safari, there's all the big cats.
06:15And the other large animals, rhino, giraffe, wolves, recent arrivals, the African painted dogs, all free to roam in large habitats.
06:28In Jungle Kingdom are the smaller, more sedate creatures.
06:34Meerkat, sloth, tortoise.
06:39Animals the public can get a closer look at without risk to life and limb, mostly.
06:46And down at the walking safari, there's a new kid on the block.
06:51New keeper Ben is learning the ropes.
06:54Today, he's giving the desert-dwelling fennec fox enclosure a tidy.
06:59When I was very young, there were two things that I really wanted to do.
07:03First of all, I wanted to be an ice cream man.
07:06And the only reason I wanted to be an ice cream man is because I loved eating ice cream and I thought that's what the whole job would be.
07:11But I realised after being taken to a local zoo that I just loved animals and I wanted to look after them.
07:19And for me, it didn't really matter what that job was.
07:23I must admit, I did imagine that it was going to be a little bit more cuddly than perhaps it is.
07:29But it's a lot of raking, a lot of poo-picking, a lot of food-chopping, and I wouldn't swap that for the world now.
07:37Ben is on a three-month probationary.
07:39If he completes it successfully, he'll be made permanent.
07:43If he doesn't, well, there's always ice cream.
07:45But how did he become a zookeeper?
07:49Other than research and have passion and love for all animals, I did study animal management at college.
08:00And then tried to just gain as much experience as I possibly could.
08:06And then over the course of many years, applied to Longleat and managed to be successful this year.
08:15I think they're going to love the new raked enclosure.
08:18It's nice and flat.
08:19Lots of places for them to dig.
08:21Lots of tunnels that we've covered up so they can go burrowing through the same way they would in the wild.
08:25So the only thing that's left for me to do is to let them out.
08:30And see if they like it.
08:38Hi.
08:39You're going to come and see what we've done.
08:40You've got nice fresh raked sand.
08:43So it's not on your nelly.
08:44Far too chilly.
08:47Coming up next, Lord Bath tells us the history of the Lions of Longleat.
08:53It was the first safari park in the world outside of Africa.
08:57The forestry team find out if they have the tallest coast redwood tree in Britain.
09:04So it's really exciting.
09:05We just had a radio call saying that they are at the top of the tree.
09:08I imagine the view is fantastic.
09:11Hey, beautiful girl.
09:12And rookie zookeeper Ben gets up close and personal with the Sloths.
09:16Having that little bit of close time with them feels very special.
09:31Whilst Longleat is home to a stunning house and gardens, it is most famous for its safari park.
09:36The safari has been going just short of 60 years.
09:40And there's a fascinating story behind its opening.
09:44As the current Lord Bath's Zulin Thin explains.
09:47We're in the Red Library.
09:49And there was a very famous picture, which became a postcard,
09:55of my grandfather sitting on this sofa with a lion with its paws draped over the sofa,
10:01with my grandfather sitting right next to the lion.
10:04Something that would never happen today.
10:05On Tuesday, the 5th of April 1966, the Lions of Longleat opened for the first time
10:12and 164 cars paid the £1 entrance fee.
10:17It was the beginning of a revolution in how wild animals were shown to the public
10:21and the end of 18 months of planning for the 6th Smart Quest of Bath.
10:26Well, the Lions came to Longleat as a result of a conversation and a negotiation
10:31between my grandfather and Jimmy Chipperfield of Chipperfield Circus.
10:36It started as a joint venture.
10:39They decided to bring 50 lions from Africa in a rickety old aeroplane to the Wiltshire countryside.
10:47And I believe the fencing that they used was old World War II prisoner of war camp fencing.
10:53So this was a bit of a shoestring operation to start with, I think.
10:57But it had never been done before.
10:59It was the first safari park in the world outside of Africa.
11:02Those 50 lions were free to roam 100 acres of fenced reserve.
11:08They came from zoos and circuses across Europe.
11:12Ten of them came from Kenya, where they were extras in the film Born Free
11:16and bought from the production company for £10 each.
11:20Finally, the 6th Marques came back from Ethiopia
11:23with a group of young lions from the emperor's private collection.
11:27He created the safari park in 1966 because having opened the house in 1949,
11:33he understood that that wasn't going to be sufficient to maintain the upkeep of the house
11:38and to keep it in private hands.
11:40And then over time, he added various other attractions.
11:43And then the real game changer was the safari park in 1966.
11:46And for the first time ever, people had the opportunity to see, in this case, lions to start with.
11:53The other animals came later, but to see lions in wide open enclosures, not a cage in sight,
11:59which was something absolutely brand new.
12:02So if you could imagine in the 60s, if you wanted to see exotic animals,
12:07either you went to a zoo, which back then would have been a pretty miserable experience
12:12with animals in really not very salubrious environments and cages and all of that sort of thing.
12:19You had to be a member of the super-rich and be able to go on safari in Africa,
12:24and there was nothing in between.
12:27And so in 1966, my grandfather changed all that
12:29and created an industry that hadn't existed before.
12:32Of course, there was never any guarantee that it would be a success,
12:36and many people were firmly against lions wandering around Wiltshire.
12:40Questions were asked in Parliament, where MPs called it plain lunacy,
12:45and an editorial in the Times newspaper proclaimed it
12:48one of the most fantastically unsuitable uses for a stretch of England's green and pleasant land
12:53that could ever have entered the head of a noble proprietor.
12:58But free enterprise prevailed.
13:00The safari opened on a Monday, and by the end of the week,
13:03cars were queuing for up to six hours,
13:05and an estimated 50,000 people saw the lions that first weekend.
13:10If my grandfather hadn't had that pioneering entrepreneurial instinct
13:14and hadn't had the foresight to open the house to the public,
13:18hadn't had the foresight to add additional attractions,
13:21hadn't had the foresight to create the first safari park in the world outside of Africa,
13:25if that sort of assemblage of things hadn't happened,
13:29it's very unlikely that Longleat would have remained in private hands.
13:34Instead, many others followed in the sixth Marquess's footsteps,
13:38and there are now six safari parks in the UK,
13:41and worldwide, Antarctica is the only continent without one.
13:46At Animal Adventures, probationary keeper Ben's next task is food prep.
13:56So I've got to prepare some diets for the sloths.
14:00So we get parsnip and some carrots, hopefully some sweet potato.
14:04There is some sweet potato.
14:06And then each day, they get some additions,
14:09and today it is sweet corn and broccoli.
14:12Ben has waited almost 15 years to get his opportunity at Longleat.
14:23It is an extremely competitive field of work.
14:27As you can imagine, people that start to work with animals don't just stop.
14:31So in order to wait for a full-time permanent position to become available,
14:35normally you're waiting for someone to retire.
14:38So you can imagine that that's not a quick turnover of staff.
14:42You prepare the food differently for different animals.
14:46Because the sloths, being two-toed sloths, only have two toes,
14:51for them to hold on to small amounts of food is really hard work.
14:54So if you cut them into long chip shapes,
14:57then they can grasp onto them and still feed themselves comfortably.
15:01Whereas if they were little bits, they wouldn't be able to pick them up.
15:03So all we're going to do is put that diet that we've just prepped for the sloths
15:15and separate it out into each of these baskets.
15:18And then we can hang that up around the sloth room
15:20and it gives them the opportunities to sort of forage throughout the day
15:23and feed themselves.
15:25Encourages that same sort of natural foraging behaviour
15:28that we would expect to seize in the wild.
15:32Truffles!
15:33Having that opportunity to feed an animal
15:44really does help you to bond
15:49and create that relationship with it.
15:50Having the opportunity to get as close to our animals
16:04as you do when you're feeding them
16:07is very rare
16:08because it's one of the few opportunities
16:10that you are ever that close.
16:12These animals that we work with are not domesticated animals.
16:15They are wild animals that are kept under the care of a zoo.
16:18So having that little bit of close time with them feels very special.
16:34As well as the safari park and the house,
16:36the estate has over 4,000 acres of forestry
16:39containing an estimated 1 million trees.
16:42Saplings are added to that number each year
16:45and in 2024, 1,100 young trees
16:49were planted in Hazel Meadow behind the Gorilla Compound.
16:53The estate is also home
16:55to the largest coast redwood forest outside of America.
16:59Head forester Jim McConkie
17:00believes that one of the coast redwood trees
17:03could well be the tallest in the UK.
17:05Good to see you guys.
17:06How are you doing?
17:07Good to see you.
17:07Planted 150 years ago in 1874,
17:11Jim's hoping the tree
17:13can beat the current UK record of 55 metres.
17:17If we can get 56 metres,
17:19I'd be really happy.
17:20It'll put us up there
17:21for the tallest coast redwood in Britain.
17:24That'd be lovely.
17:25But the only way, as you know, is...
17:28Putting a tape measure up there.
17:29Getting a tape measure on there.
17:30Charles and Simeon need to climb
17:32to the very top of the tree.
17:34But before they start,
17:35Charles catapults the guide rope
17:37over a branch halfway up the trunk.
17:39We're good to go?
17:41Yep, go.
17:45Yes!
17:45Oh, wow!
17:47That's exactly where we wanted it.
17:49Then Simeon attaches a climbing rope
17:51to the guide rope
17:52and they hoist that up into the tree
17:54and tie it off around the trunk.
17:59Finally, they check the climbing rope
18:03to make sure it will take their weight.
18:06Yeah, that's fine.
18:08So, are you ready?
18:09We are ready.
18:09All for it, yeah?
18:10Put it all limbered up.
18:11Are you ready?
18:11I'll have a lovely climb, guys.
18:13I will do.
18:13All right.
18:32It's really good to see them getting up there,
18:33getting some...
18:34They're climbing really quickly.
18:36They're getting through all the branches.
18:37Yeah, it's quite branchy in places.
18:39It's dead wood as well,
18:40so it's hard.
18:41And then the tree itself
18:42is actually spongy as well,
18:44so there's all sorts of textures to go through.
18:47But, yeah, it's going to be a little while yet
18:48until we get our final results.
18:50Yeah, these branches are getting a bit...
18:52A bit flimsy.
18:55I am very excited about the final results.
18:58There's been a lot of talk about this tree
18:59in my time at Longleat
19:00and to actually have some information about it,
19:03it's going to be really exciting.
19:04Can you imagine this tree
19:06in 300 years' time?
19:11It's going to be mental.
19:14Oh, wow.
19:15We're getting slim Jim up here.
19:17Finally, they edged closer to the top.
19:22Right, so we're right at the top now.
19:25So we are getting to a point
19:28where we have to be quite delicate
19:30with this foliage.
19:32So, Jim down there
19:35is going to be getting very excited.
19:37So it's really exciting.
19:38We just had a radio call
19:39saying that they are at the top of the tree,
19:41which is amazing.
19:42I imagine the view is fantastic.
19:44While Simeon and Charles wait
19:46at the top of the tree,
19:47back on the ground,
19:49Jim prepares the tape
19:50that will be used to measure the redwood.
19:52So what we're doing
19:53is tying the tape
19:56to the top of this pole.
19:58This is a telescopic pole
19:59we're going to send up
20:00to the top of the tree.
20:01The idea of this is
20:02that we'll be able to reach up
20:03to the leading chute
20:04so we can get the total height of the tree
20:06because the tree is very brittle at the top
20:10and obviously we can't climb it.
20:11Also, it's very skinny.
20:12We can't climb it.
20:13So this pole here will open out.
20:16How long is this tape?
20:17So the tape is 100 metres
20:19and this extendable pole
20:21is going to go up to 4.5 metres.
20:23This can ensure that
20:24they were able to reach the very tip
20:26without snapping any new growth out
20:27and then one will descend
20:29and bring the tape down.
20:32Yep.
20:33All good.
20:34Charles now hoists up the tape measure
20:36and the telescopic pole.
20:38It coming up all right?
20:39Yeah, it's coming up fine.
20:40So now we've just got to set it up
20:42then I've just got to run it down.
20:49And drop it.
20:52Really?
20:52I've got it.
20:54Do you want to hold a pole for you?
20:55Because the very top of the coast redwood
20:57is too delicate to carry their body weight
20:59Simeon and Charles use the telescopic pole
21:02to stretch the tape measure to the tree's tip.
21:05A bit higher.
21:08There?
21:10Is that good?
21:12OK.
21:13Right.
21:14I'm going to descend now.
21:16I'm going to start coming down.
21:18Once the top of the telescopic pole
21:20is level with the tip of the tree
21:21Charles holds it in place
21:23while Simeon shimmers back down
21:25unfurling the tape measure.
21:27They're coming down the tree.
21:28I can see them now.
21:29The tapes are going to appear.
21:31It's quite exciting.
21:32I've got the measurements
21:33of what we hope to get
21:34or to beat here in my hand.
21:37And if we want to have the tallest one in the UK
21:39it needs to be 56.2 metres.
21:41But if we want the tallest one in Europe
21:43then it's 63.
21:44And I don't think we're anywhere near that on this tree.
21:47But it'd be really nice to have
21:48the tallest coast redwood in Britain.
21:50Not normally competitive
21:51but this has got me quite excited.
21:54The tallest coast redwood in Europe is in France.
21:57The tallest in the world is in America
21:59and is a staggering 116 metres.
22:02But having the UK record
22:04would be quite something for the estate.
22:07Hold it straight Chas!
22:10Right.
22:11What's it need to beat?
22:12We need to beat
22:13UK
22:1456.2
22:16We are at
22:1857.2
22:21So about half way.
22:26Well done.
22:28Well done.
22:29Congratulations.
22:30Oh thank you.
22:32And that thing is still growing.
22:33It's still growing.
22:34Five years time that'll be
22:35we'll see.
22:36Lovely.
22:37Brilliant.
22:39Top trunks.
22:42Well done everyone.
22:43You alright?
22:43Yeah.
22:44That went well.
22:45That was good wasn't it?
22:46Yeah.
22:46That was good.
22:47I believe you brought a suitcase.
22:48Fantastic result.
22:49Coming up next.
22:52Gorillas are one of the most peaceful animals
22:54you are ever going to encounter.
22:56We learn some interesting facts about gorillas.
22:59They're a hundred times less deadly
23:01than a bourbon biscuit.
23:03And Lord Bath shows us his secret hideaway.
23:07This is my favourite space
23:09because it's one of the few places
23:11on the whole of the Longlead estate
23:13where you have absolute privacy
23:14and you also have the very best views.
23:32With 128 to choose from
23:34Lord Bath isn't short of rooms at Longlead.
23:37But his favourite corner of the estate
23:41is not in the house itself.
23:45It's on the roof.
23:48This is my favourite space
23:50because it's one of the few places
23:52on the whole of the Longlead estate
23:54where you have absolute privacy
23:55and you also have the very best views.
23:58You've got the Capability Brown landscape
24:01over here
24:03which obviously looks like
24:05it was entirely naturally created
24:07but it's an artificial construction
24:10by Capability Brown.
24:12You've got the view of the lake.
24:14You've got the view of the island over there
24:16that was Gorilla Island
24:17where Nico, our silverback,
24:19lived for many, many, many years
24:22and now we have Colobus monkeys there
24:23and then if you pan over there
24:26you've got the main drive
24:28that leads right up to the lodge
24:29and then beyond that the Bath Arms.
24:32Parts of the experience
24:34of being on the roof up here
24:35is that you can hear the lions
24:36roaring from over there
24:37you can hear the sea lions
24:38barking from the lake over there.
24:40Longlead house was built around 1580
24:53and has been in the Thin family
24:55for 16 generations.
24:57This year is a significant anniversary for both.
25:02This year is so special
25:03because it's the 75th anniversary
25:05of the opening of the house to the public.
25:08So the house opened in 1949
25:09my grandfather opened it.
25:13On his father's death
25:14the death duties were enormous
25:16and so he understood very quickly
25:19that things would have to change.
25:21So he opened the house to the public
25:23to try to make it pay its way
25:25because a lot of these houses
25:26and estates were falling into
25:28well, were falling out of private hands
25:29and being taken over by the state effectively.
25:34He was the kind of guy
25:36who thought rules were there to be broken.
25:38Whether they be legal rules
25:40or social norms
25:42he was always looking to push the boundaries.
25:44Amongst his milieu
25:45they were a bit scandalised
25:47when he opened his hat to the paying public
25:49but he didn't care about that kind of thing.
25:51So he was very much a pioneer.
25:53Today there are 22 lines at Longleat
26:03split into two prides
26:05and with 25 acres of Wiltshire countryside to roam in.
26:09Although when the rains are falling
26:11just like a domestic cat
26:13they'll often cuddle up together
26:14even though they've got a whole building
26:16and all that land to roam around in.
26:18Lions have been here for 58 years now
26:28and carnivore keeper Ian
26:30has looked over them
26:31for 49 of those.
26:34Barry!
26:35What?
26:36I know!
26:37I know!
26:39At least you're in the dry mate!
26:41At least you're in the dry!
26:42So I started here in 1975
26:45so coming up to 50 years
26:47and obviously these lines weren't around in those days
26:50and they've well gone
26:51but I've known these lines from little babies
26:53growing up and stuff.
26:54Harry!
26:55Are you going to come and say hello?
26:58Or are you just going to grumble?
27:00Leader of the pride is Harry.
27:02Harry was born here at Longleat.
27:04Harry's good because he's handsome.
27:06He's a nice looking lion.
27:08You can see him with Harry
27:09he's got a little nick on his nose
27:10and he's got a cut above his head.
27:12his left eye
27:13and that's all from the girls
27:14and that's freshly banter
27:16that's called.
27:17But they can mate up to 26 times a day.
27:20Every time he mates
27:20he bites the back of the female's neck
27:22to stimulate her
27:23she then rolls on her back
27:25smacks him round the face
27:26and gets off.
27:27So you imagine 26 times
27:29you're going to get caught once
27:30and he's got six girls to look after here.
27:33Jump it up.
27:34Hello!
27:35And you can see look
27:36all the claws look
27:37that's what does all the damage
27:38isn't it?
27:40Eh?
27:40She's a good girl.
27:42The original 50 lions of Longleat
27:44were the springboard
27:45for a breeding programme
27:46that established prides
27:48in parks across the world.
27:50Several generations later
27:52many other lineages
27:53have been added
27:54to that original gene pool.
27:56But was Harry a descendant
27:57of the lions of 66?
27:59If you had the family tree
28:01probably somewhere
28:02along that family tree
28:03Harry will be there.
28:05Yeah, we had 50 lions
28:06in the first place in 66
28:07so you can imagine
28:08all those lions
28:09all over this country
28:10somewhere along the lines
28:11he's going to be related
28:12to the original ones.
28:13No!
28:14No!
28:14No!
28:15No!
28:15No!
28:16No!
28:17No!
28:17No!
28:18No!
28:18No!
28:19No!
28:19No!
28:20No!
28:21No!
28:22No!
28:23No!
28:24No!
28:25No!
28:26No!
28:27No!
28:28No!
28:29No!
28:30No!
28:31No!
28:31No!
28:32No!
28:32No!
28:33No!
28:34No!
28:34No!
28:34No!
28:35No!
28:37No!
28:39No!
28:45It's just like a London cabbie
28:47learning the street names
28:49but in this instance
28:50puedes' got to learn
28:50how to pilot the boat
28:52and identify and name
28:53every monkey
28:54gorilla
28:55and sea lion.
28:55helping him is keeper dean so welcome in thanks so this only has the three gears forwards neutral
29:04and backwards right very apprehensive still well luckily these boats don't have all that much power
29:11gives you lots of time to react and also taking all the beautiful views yeah beautiful view number
29:16one baby sea lions i've just spotted the babies yes so obviously baby's always a highlight for
29:24people coming to long lake they're so squishy mum's milk is about the same fat content as double cream
29:31so they grow really quickly so is this is this mum down here that's actually dad excellent
29:42so that is memphis so the way to tell him apart is when we see the other sea lions he is considerably
29:48bigger but he's also getting this quite large forehead okay uh the girls can sometimes be
29:54harder to tell especially when they're moving really quickly
29:59so we are coming to the gorilla colony that is the dominant silverback kisho so how do you know that
30:06he's the dominant one so he's a little bit wider than his brother alfie who's the one laying down
30:11next to the house yeah but the most important thing is actually his head when he popped it up
30:16then you can see it kind of comes to a little cone shape point yeah massive forehead yeah so that's
30:20called the crown that's the migration of his jaw muscle and that shows other gorillas that his
30:25bite is stronger than theirs that's what makes him the dominant male so nothing to do with the silverback
30:30at all no that's all just to do with maturity wow
30:34so i've heard loads of people keep talking about them being like really aggressive do you hear that
30:52a lot we do get that a lot because that's how they're depicted in films but to be honest with you
30:57gorillas are one of the most peaceful animals you are ever going to encounter in the last hundred years
31:03in the wild there's only really been about three people killed by western lowland gorillas which
31:07is phenomenal when you consider there's around a thousand people per year by hippos oh wow uh there's
31:13like 14 by vending machines 12 by champagne corks six by ants and four by biscuits they're
31:20a hundred times less deadly than a bourbon
31:25let's hope ben's been taking notes as we'll be back to see him not only pilot the boat but also give
31:31his first on-board commentary for paying members of the public
31:37still to come
31:41red alert we've got an emergency situation in third section we've got a guest bar that's crashed into
31:47the tree there's an emergency in the lion enclosure and we find out how dave is getting on after his
31:53treatment
32:02one of the downsides of running an attraction that receives around one million visitors a year
32:07is that inevitably although very rarely a car will break down in the safari park
32:13that's fine if it's in an area with gentle animals like the zebra and the giraffe
32:17but if a breakdown occurs in one of the carnivore habitats it has the potential to get tasty which
32:26is why the zookeepers hold regular unannounced drills today the park's longest serving keeper ian
32:33is going to spring a surprise on the rest of the staff today we're going to do a drill in the carnivores
32:41which is obviously a little bit tricky because you've got the carnivores and we're going to pretend
32:45that we've got a overheated car and we need to be rescued obviously the downside is they'll recognize
32:52me and i am so we're going to do a little bit of a disguise job to hope they won't be able to spot us
32:58we've got an unmarked car so we can go in that so they don't know it's us and for added authenticity
33:06ian's also going incognito as well what do you reckon would you recognize me
33:13ian's first challenge will be getting through the entrance gates without being recognized
33:21can i have one senior please and one child we don't we don't have to do a senior ticket so
33:27i'll just bring one adult thank you very much thanks for that then well the good thing is i don't
33:34think he recognized us which is the main thing and we had a conversation this morning the disguise
33:40might be daft but the drill is deadly serious in my time here we've had at least four major car
33:48fires the main one we had was in the tigers they were parked next to the tigers and then obviously
33:55he went to pull away and the engine wouldn't start but then he had smoke coming in the cab with him
33:59and flames were coming out of the volley the carnivore team ushered the tigers back into their
34:04pound and then rescued the family at the same time somebody had called the fire brigade because we
34:10obviously knew it was a proper fire that it wasn't just smoke and uh the overheating it was a complete
34:15water right in the car and that's why in every section of carnivores there's also a patrol person
34:21all the time watching out watching out for cars in trouble breakdowns and coming to assistance
34:28on patrol in the lion reserve today is carnivore keeper ryan he's being accompanied by a camera
34:34operator ryan thinks the camera's here to film harry and his pride he knows nothing about the drill
34:41the public are driving through the park as normal and ian has just arrived in the line enclosure
34:48i reckon if we just park up here sort of opposite this gate because then the lines are going to be
34:52chased down towards us and then we can see a bit of action what's going on every visitor to the safari
35:01park is told that if they break down they should sound their car horn and the keepers will come
35:07immediately so engine off henry broke down handbrake on let's see if we get any assistance
35:18i've just got a desk card sand that horn i say
35:23make sure they're all right keeper ryan reacts immediately and steps into action
35:29but will he rumble its fellow keeper ian in the car we've got a horn going off
35:38bro down
35:41so i can tell it's in already so what we're going to do we're going to run a drill
35:44although ian has been rumbled the drill must continue ryan just to put you at ease this is a
35:51drill okay but we want you to pretend it's not we can't move we're stuck the vehicle won't start
35:57broken down yeah i'm stressed yeah yeah that's fine well it's all going to be okay if you just want
36:02to stay in your vehicle stay nice and calm we're now currently getting the lions in yeah because we
36:06had a bit of smoke coming through so it could be getting on fire okay yeah ryan follows the protocols
36:11exactly as he would in a real breakdown okay we've got an emergency situation in third section
36:18um we've got a guest car that's crashed into the tree can we get some assistance please morgan
36:22do you want to get the slider open we'll start getting the lines in yeah keeper morgan joins the
36:26drill he opens the gate to the lion's secured pound and begins to herd them into it and away
36:32from the broken down vehicle come on there barrel in you go darling come on the lions let's go
36:41come on the lions we're going in the lions are used to being ushered into their pound at the end of
36:46every day but that's when the public have already left and there are no cars to navigate
36:52can you start directing any more traffic coming through out the middle gate please
36:57the gates to the lion enclosure have now been close to the public and the cars inside are being led out
37:03okay lines are going in
37:07what i don't want is them to climb up onto that climate thing so i'm going to back up for a second
37:11okay betty you can go out there oh no we'll get malika in malika is the boss so hopefully the
37:16rest of them are going to follow malika in after that
37:28okay couple more to go
37:29that's the last one in one two three four five six seven eight
37:44lovely right can you just double set how many you got an electric pad up please
37:49yeah i've got three in the link in i can see the gate shut i can see the rest of the girls are in the
37:53main so once you've secured that we um we've got third in thank you from the moment ian sounded his
38:01horn it took ryan and the carnivore team just three minutes and 56 seconds to secure the lions
38:07and complete the rescue we practice these formations quite a lot um to make sure that in the moment like
38:14today we're um we're ready for it even if you did catch me out with the wig then this is the man who
38:20rescued me a successful drill completed for the big cat team
38:28back at half mile lake rookie zookeeper ben is taking his life and the lives of 118 passengers
38:34into his own hands we're going to sort of head straight out into the middle of the lake
38:40it's his maiden voyage at the helm of the lady bath because that so this is where you want to start
38:45finding your nice straight line feels like a big responsibility having lots of people there actually
38:50i have full faith in you and together we will smash this yeah i don't want to smash it that's the
38:55point in fairness ben appears to have taken to boat driving like a duck to water but now he has to
39:03do his very first turn as the onboard tour guide you guys have the delight of ben's first ever commentary
39:11uh so give it up for ben let's see how he does having crammed hard to absorb the knowledge will he
39:19remember all those animal names facts and statistics we have five adult sea lions here at longleaf that's
39:28memphis memphis is quite obvious to spot because he's a great big fat sea lion with a massive forehead and
39:33about seven chins all right so you'll see him and you'll also see bell rue and ida and of course molly as well
39:47now i'm going to ask the impossible of you now ignore the sea lions now i want you to focus on my
39:54personal favorites of our westland lowland gorillas but can ben remember which one is which
40:01now i'm going to go out on a limb here i'm going to say that that is alfie
40:08yuba is it yuba it's yuba i had one in four chance
40:1320 minutes of rat-a-tat facts figures and entertainment later ben and his audience are
40:19ready to disembark enjoy the rest of your day at longley but for now goodbye
40:24despite the odd slip ben's passed with flying colors and as he wraps up the tour over at safari
40:35buses there's news from dave the weather's bad but it is great to be back to work i didn't know at one
40:41time whether i would be coming back but yes they give me the all clear now so i'm allowed to come back
40:46to work and it's great to be back on the bus again before i left i had loads of cards and presents and
40:52everything else from the staff and then you know it was all cuddles and hugs when i come back so it's
40:59great to be back because i did miss them i did miss them the legends there and then i will turn my arm
41:05over and put i beat the big c there so right then guys here we go if you wouldn't mind breathing in
41:13now if i do forget to say breathe out don't worry i am a train first leader the legend is back on his
41:20throne and all's right on the safari buses next time on 75 years at longlead the balloons arrive for
41:31the icons of the sky festival but will the weather ruin everything currently we are on a 50 50 which
41:38is gutting this is my granny heather one staff member reveals an incredible coincidence from
41:45longlead in the 1940s we have had our first air raid warning in the school this week and there's a
41:51major effort to persuade the public to fall in love with one of the park's most misunderstood residents
41:56i really want to make people fall in love with them the same way that we have
42:26now