Animal Park Catch up, Summer 2023: Episode 7 on BBC 2

Animal Park

Summer 2023: Episode 7

We discover how the keepers are going to great lengths to keep us all safe from an invisible killer. \n\nLongleat has become a centre of excellence for the breeding and care of one of Australia’s most celebrated animals, the Southern koala. Now a male and a female have both been born in Koala Creek, the first of their species to be born anywhere in Europe. Good news travels fast and now they have another animal in their care, Yani, a female, who has joined the collection from Hong Kong. But there is a problem. Hong Kong is an area known to have cases of rabies, and it is the keepers’ responsibility to protect us all and their animals from this potentially lethal disease. For five months, the keepers must wear protective suits as they care for Yani on a daily basis. With such a lethal disease potentially on the park, everyone has everything crossed for the results of today’s vet check.\n\nThe great stately home at the centre of the park is almost 450 years old, lived in by Lord and Lady Bath and full of treasures, including 44,000 books. Many of them are very special, but Kate slips off her muddy wellies and joins Emma the archivist to look at a particularly special one. Four hundred years ago, the plays of William Shakespeare were collated for the very first time and published as a folio, and the house has one of the first editions! Kate has an extraordinary opportunity to get close to this piece of history, and in an extraordinary revelation discovers that Shakespeare’s star-crossed lovers may have even had a connection with Lord Bath’s distant relatives.\n\nIt’s not just exotic animals that excite wildlife cameraman Hamza Yassin. He’s just as passionate about native species. He joins Animal Park veteran Ian Turner for a vital audit of the creatures that live deep in the woods. They discover insects of all different shapes and sizes, and find evidence of fallow deer and even beavers. Will it be enough to prove that the woodland is an ecosystem bursting with life? \n\nElsewhere, zoologist Megan has joined the vet on their rounds visiting a series of creatures great and small in the family farmyard. A goat, a turkey and a sheep all need a check-up, but they’ve got to catch them first!

Source: BBC 2

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