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  • 6/11/2025
Springwatch 2025 episode 11

Category

🐳
Animals
Transcript
00:01Fast, fierce, fleeting.
00:04The hobby, an agile acrobatic aerial predator.
00:08An exciting bird to see in flight.
00:11Perfectly evolved for hunting on the wing.
00:13Scientific name, Falco Cebutio.
00:16And like the game which bears its name,
00:19it relies on skill and speed to win.
00:22The chase is on.
00:24Welcome to Springwatch.
00:30Hello. Hello.
00:48And welcome to the penultimate Springwatch of 2025,
00:51coming to you live from the Longshore Estate,
00:54run by the National Trust up here in the Peak District National Park.
00:57Now, after last night's madness, frenzy, all sorts of feroa,
01:01tonight we're going to calm things down.
01:03I want you to get excited about polydomous animals
01:06that are blighted by memecaphiles,
01:08coming up later in the programme.
01:10Stay tuned. It's worth it.
01:11I will be so impressed if anyone guesses what that is.
01:14Yeah, you could try and guess what we're going to be talking about later in the show.
01:17Polydomous animals that are blighted by memecaphiles.
01:20OK, let's look at our live cameras, see what's going on.
01:23We know that a lot of fledging has been going on this week.
01:26We really have had an awful lot of successful fledges.
01:29And we've had another one.
01:31So I'm going to take you to the nest of the wren.
01:34I haven't checked up on the wren for a little while, but there it is.
01:37It's just above that storm drain that the dipper's nest is in.
01:41You can see our equipment there, our camera outside the nest.
01:45And it's a beautiful little nest, very domed.
01:48And we've been watching those little beaks and faces, very sweet,
01:52peeking out of the nest.
01:54It's been really hard to know how many chicks are inside.
01:57Our nest watchers have seen at least five beaks.
02:00So we think there are five chicks.
02:02Anyway, this is what happened.
02:04One of them pops out, looks like it's ready to fledge.
02:07That's the adult that it landed on top of.
02:09So here we go.
02:10There's our fledgeometer.
02:11One's fledged successfully.
02:13There we go.
02:14There's another two.
02:16A couple more sticking their little beaks out.
02:18That's three.
02:19Keep counting.
02:20Four.
02:21Five.
02:22Well, that's curious.
02:23There are two more in the nest.
02:25Six.
02:26Hang on a minute.
02:27How many are there?
02:28One just takes a bit of a break on the camera.
02:31One hops back.
02:33And this is where it starts to get really confusing because then they start flying back in the nest.
02:39So we're down to, well, three are fledged successfully.
02:42Oh, no.
02:43Four.
02:44How many now?
02:45Are they in, they out?
02:46Oh, back to three.
02:47You can understand why our nest watchers just didn't know what was going on.
02:51So now two are fledged.
02:52Okay.
02:53So we're down to two.
02:54Three.
02:55Okay.
02:56Beaks everywhere.
02:57There's wings everywhere.
02:58There's flapping everywhere.
02:59Four.
03:00Five.
03:01Okay.
03:02Keep counting.
03:03Six.
03:04Seven.
03:05Hang on a minute.
03:06There's another one.
03:07Eight.
03:08No way.
03:09There's not another one.
03:10Nine.
03:11So eventually there were nine chicks that fledged out of that nest.
03:15It must have been a TARDIS.
03:16I mean, it is unbelievable that they all managed to fit in.
03:20And you can see they're still very fluffy.
03:22They're going to stick around for a bit.
03:24Adult coming in to feed them.
03:26They'll wait until they've got better feathers and they're more capable flyers before they've
03:31fully fledged.
03:32Lovely bird then.
03:33Really lovely to see so many of them fledged successfully.
03:35Right.
03:36Now I'm going to ask you a question which every single viewer knows the answer to already.
03:39Okay.
03:40I'll just go through it, you know, for the sake of it.
03:42Which bird would you say was the, you know, the star of our series this year?
03:45Let me think about that for one second.
03:47Spud, the tawny owl.
03:48It would be Spud for you, wouldn't it?
03:49Why don't we go live to see how Spud's getting on?
03:52Where is he?
03:54He's been branching.
03:55He's shown quite a lot of capability when it comes to climbing up in the trees.
03:59There.
04:00Now what about that as a view?
04:02Right in the top of the oak tree.
04:04A little bit squinty in the evening sunshine.
04:07Sporting his primary feathers there on the left hand side.
04:11So he's beginning to look mildly more adult.
04:15But that's a lovely view of a little tawny owl at the top of a tree on a sunny evening, isn't it?
04:20But what about the rest of his life?
04:22How about a life and times of Spud the owl 2025?
04:32Meet Spud.
04:33Just a few days old, but all by himself.
04:38And if there's one thing Spud loved to do, it was sleep.
04:43And this is where he got his name.
04:45From his resemblance to a fluffy potato.
04:50But Spud also had quite the appetite.
04:53With his diligent parents bringing in food, big and small.
04:57Even if it got a bit confusing at times.
05:01But as the days went on, the food was doing its job.
05:09And Spud was starting to think outside the box.
05:14Taking a long look at the outside world, he decided that it's not for him just yet.
05:29Over the next few nights, Spud's bravery grew.
05:36Propelling him to new heights.
05:42Until finally, a leap of faith.
05:48Now his first test flight might have ended in a crash landing.
05:55But flying the nest is an important step in any young owl's life.
06:03For now, he's sleeping peacefully in a new tree.
06:07And the world outside his box looks just that little bit brighter.
06:14You've got to love him, haven't you?
06:16I mean, I love the way he was sort of slumped over at the end there.
06:20I felt a bit like that earlier on.
06:21A little bit weary.
06:22I peered into your caravan, you were slumped over the sofa.
06:25I did notice that about two o'clock this afternoon, I have to say.
06:28We'll keep our eyes on Spud, of course.
06:30You can keep your eyes on him until ten o'clock tonight.
06:32And we'll be back tomorrow.
06:33And if we've still got sight of him, obviously we'll say goodbye live.
06:37However, his nest box was now empty.
06:40And holes in trees, even in old woods like these, are a valuable resource.
06:44We've already seen the stock doves turning up to do a bit of prospecting before he left.
06:48But as soon as Spud was out, those stock doves were back.
06:52They're looking for somewhere to make their nest.
06:54They nest in hollow trees.
06:56What's the stock doves?
06:58Well, it's a dove, a pigeon.
07:00Smaller than the wood pigeon.
07:01Lacking the white on the neck and the wing.
07:03Spends most of its time feeding on the ground.
07:06Seeds and so forth.
07:08But it's a very numerous bird.
07:10About two million pairs in the UK, which is the largest population in Europe.
07:13Although, they're quite shy.
07:15You don't get to see them often.
07:17Or at least not very well.
07:19Anyway, look, the male on the right hand side has already made a decision.
07:22This is the spot for him.
07:24Can he entice the female into thinking about staying in this fetid, vole-ridden, pellet-strewn, poo-spattered nest box?
07:34He can't.
07:35She's off.
07:36And so is he.
07:38But I wouldn't mind betting that they might be back.
07:42They might be back.
07:43And I love the stock dove.
07:44Mick, do you know one interesting thing about the stock dove?
07:46They're monogamous birds.
07:47So they pair.
07:48You know, male and female sticking together.
07:50But they stay together all year round.
07:53Whenever you see them, you see pairs.
07:55You see fours.
07:56You see sixes.
07:57You always see them in even numbers.
07:59And the only other species that I can think of that do that are bullfinch.
08:02And owl reminded me that stone shadow are the same.
08:05Nice bird.
08:06In the UK.
08:07In the UK.
08:08Yeah.
08:09Nice birds though.
08:10Beautiful.
08:11Nobody wants excrement splatter all over the wall.
08:14It's not a good seller from the estate agent, is it?
08:17A bit of abspatch expressionist poo splattered up your wall.
08:20Oh, no.
08:21I might try that at home.
08:23I don't think so.
08:24Moving on very quickly.
08:26Let's go to Yolo in Northern Ireland, who is also in a very beautiful sun-splattered wood.
08:33Yes, indeed my killer.
08:37It's a lovely evening here at Mount Stewart.
08:40Owned and managed by the National Trust since 2014.
08:44The wind is there down.
08:46It's the second nice evening in a row.
08:48I'm not quite sure what's happening, but somebody over here loves us.
08:52Now, this is a beautiful place.
08:54It's about a thousand acres in all.
08:56And of that, roughly 60% of it is made up of woodland.
09:01Now, look at this beautiful verdant canopy here.
09:05It's dominated by mature oak, mature sycamore and mature beech.
09:12But then you go down below the canopy.
09:14You've got hazel.
09:15You've got holly.
09:17You've got ivy as well.
09:18Ivy flourishes here.
09:20Another great plant for Wallef, of course.
09:22Plenty of flowers here too.
09:24And they're inviting all kinds of invertebrates.
09:28And, of course, you get invertebrates.
09:29Now, would you get woodland birds as well?
09:32Fabulous array of birds.
09:34And a lot of the birds at the moment are feeding their youngsters.
09:37So, plenty of food for those youngsters here.
09:40Now, cast your mind back to last winter and Great Britain and Ireland,
09:46where we were battered by a series of horrendous storms.
09:50Now, the worst one to hit this part of Northern Ireland was Storm Eowyn in January.
09:57It was the worst storm they'd experienced here for 27 years.
10:01And Mount Stewart was very badly hit.
10:0680 to 100 mile an hour winds for six long hours.
10:12They reckon they lost about 10,000 trees.
10:15You know, most of them were conifer plantation trees.
10:20But it absolutely devastated the National Trust land here.
10:24And unfortunately, as you can see behind me here, the mature deciduous trees, well, they were hard hit as well.
10:32They reckon they lost between 90 and 100 of them.
10:37These two beet trees were brought down in that storm.
10:40And it looks tragic, doesn't it?
10:42But it's also an opportunity.
10:46Because with the canopy gone, the sunlight penetrates, it hits the floor,
10:51and it gives other plants and animals opportunities.
10:55Now, just look at the saplings that are growing here.
10:58This is hazel firing up.
11:00There are beech saplings everywhere.
11:02Look at all of these saplings.
11:04There's dog cherry coming up.
11:06There's alder coming up.
11:08It's an opportunity for these to thrust up towards the sunlight.
11:13It's also a great place for flowers too.
11:16And one in particular.
11:19In the areas that have been worst hit by the storms,
11:22the dominant flower is the foxglove.
11:25Now, it's spread by seeds carried on the wind.
11:30And because of that, it's a pioneering flower.
11:33Some of these are over a metre and a half tall.
11:36And of course, they're native.
11:37They're packed full of pollen and nectar, attracting bees like this.
11:42And it is a sea of colour at the moment.
11:45I walked past that site earlier on today.
11:48It's an amazing site.
11:50They'll probably return the next year.
11:52But after that, the other vegetation will probably block them all out.
11:57And look at this.
11:58This is a root plate of one of the big beech trees we saw earlier on.
12:03It is enormous.
12:04But notice that the roots are not going very deep here because it's very rocky soil.
12:10And this has literally been ripped up out of the ground.
12:14And this, in turn, will also provide a habitat for all kinds of invertebrates and plants.
12:22And if you look very carefully, I'll tread gently down here.
12:27If you look very carefully, in the far corner there is a wren's nest.
12:33And you see that nestled in there?
12:36A ball of leaves with a hole at the top.
12:38Now, I have to tell you that there's nothing in it at the moment.
12:42Otherwise, I wouldn't be here.
12:44But earlier on this morning, I saw the cock wren, the male wren, singing from a branch just nearby.
12:52Now, what wrens do is they'll build half a dozen nests.
12:57And the female will choose one of them.
13:00They'll line it.
13:01She'll lay her eggs in there.
13:02They'll rear their young.
13:04And what might happen later on in the spring is that the wren may well come back and use this very nest there.
13:13It's a typical wren sight, tucked in under there.
13:18Lovely to see.
13:20Now, if I was to say to you, lords and ladies, wild arum, snake's head, friar's hood,
13:28would you know what I was on about?
13:30Well, they're all colloquial names for the same very common plant.
13:35But if it's an insect, beware, because the plant has a dark side.
13:40In this forgotten corner, nature has regained what is hers.
13:55Once a place of memorial, it now belongs to another order.
14:00Of roots, decay, and ruin.
14:07And where the dead sleep, they awaken.
14:12At the break of spring, mother nature lays her most twisted trap yet.
14:27And where the dead sleep is.
14:28And where the dead sleep is.
14:29And where the dead sleep is.
14:30And where the dead sleep is.
14:31And where the dead sleep is.
14:32And where the dead sleep is.
14:33And where the dead sleep is.
14:34And where the dead sleep is.
14:35And where the dead sleep is.
14:36And where the dead sleep is.
14:37And where the dead sleep is.
14:38And where the dead sleep is.
14:39And where the dead sleep is.
14:40And where the dead sleep is.
14:41And where the dead sleep is.
14:42And where the dead sleep is.
14:43And where the dead sleep is.
14:44And where the dead sleep is.
14:45And where the dead sleep is.
14:46And where the dead sleep is.
14:47And where the dead sleep is.
14:48And where the dead sleep is.
14:49And where the dead sleep is.
14:50Arum Maculatum.
15:03They aren't like the others.
15:07There's no colours to dazzle, no nectar to entice,
15:12no kindness in their design.
15:15They decide to lure with something darker.
15:35This is no ordinary bloom.
15:40Using this flower, they masquerade as death itself.
15:46Unleashing the fragrance of rot and decay.
15:50They don't stop there.
15:53They hold a truly spectacular ability.
15:58To produce a rare property known as thermogenesis.
16:04In the cold shadows of the cemetery, they lure guests with warmth.
16:15But the cruelty is far from over.
16:20A wanderer has caught the deathly fragrance.
16:33What seems like seduction...
16:46..is imprisonment.
16:51Small filaments block the exit.
16:54As the walls close in, there's no escape.
17:06With each panicked movement,
17:10their captives become further coated in pollen.
17:13And those who arrived with pollen from another bloom...
17:18..deliver it.
17:20Unknowingly solidifying their legacy.
17:28Survival here is not granted.
17:30It's earned.
17:31And for those still clinging to life,
17:35they can do nothing but wait in the shadows.
17:37Distant re educación centers weinos...
17:40So how are they going to make focus?
17:42What mode is needed?
17:47They might want to be fine...
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17:56So in an all years...
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17:58...we mwegen this past.
17:59So in the אבל series,
17:59that's not the Exodus shows.
18:00Get out of the world.
18:01So in the world...
18:02Do you want to prevent any text from us?
18:03The inquiry will never begin...
18:03My Rabias says that theos primero...
18:04I think our sehe percevizes in theAh world yen.
18:05at dawn the filaments wither this prison collapses releasing its captives so they
18:24can deliver this precious pollen cargo far and wide
18:30guaranteeing the future of the species in the shadows of this graveyard their work is complete
18:39until next spring when their trap will once again be set
19:00i love the cuckoo pine fascinated them by you know when i was a kid the whole interaction between
19:05the insects and the plant is absolutely remarkable another thing i love is all of
19:08that life in the serum in that cemetery i love the idea of life prospering after you have gone
19:15you know it's reassuring isn't it all of that recycling well i just find it amazing what
19:19plants do to get pollinated and so many plants do so many different things and that one is
19:25just extraordinary no an amazing plant yeah love it sort of co-evolution of things working together
19:32now then we are here in the peak district national park and 30 of this park is given over to moorland
19:40it's incredibly important habitat we've got 70 of this here in the uk now i have to say in the past
19:48it's suffered quite a lot from over burning over grazing over draining and this is really
19:54detrimental not just because of all of these specialist species that live here things like
19:58these merlins doing a beautiful food pass there or the absolutely archetypal red grouse very much a
20:05bird of this type of habitat but also because it's a very important carbon sink and when it's wet it
20:12produces pink uh peat and there's a lot of peat tied up in this habitat and if you drain it and if
20:19you burn it and if you overgraze it then it erodes and it disappears i'm very pleased to say that the
20:24national trust have been working fantastically hard here on the longshore estate and they've rectified
20:30all of these problems as we saw earlier in the series they've even been out planting hundreds of
20:34thousands of plugs of uh sphagnum moss which will regrow and re-wet these areas it's a very special
20:40place it's very important and it's got some great species living here it really has and there's one
20:45bird of prey absolutely stunning bird of prey that has made the moorland its home but it's notoriously
20:52difficult to see and it's this the hen harrier it's a red list species in the uk it's a species that's
20:59been affected by historical poor landscape management and despite being legally protected it continues
21:05sadly to be persecuted as a result there are only 30 to 40 pairs in england and according to the local
21:13raptor monitoring groups there's currently only a single nest reported in the whole of the peak
21:19district and that is an area that could support so many more nests so one reported nest very difficult
21:29to see even harder to film so what did we do well we sent mark our long lens cameraman a little
21:37challenge we sent him up into the moorland and we said bring us back some stunning shots
21:44the hen harrier pair mark is hoping to film nest in a secret protected location deep in the heart of the
21:51moors some of these tracks be a little bit sketchy
22:08okay we made it
22:12this is as close to the nest as mark can get in the car
22:15he'll spend the night here so he can get a really early start
22:26up at dawn he now has to trek across the moors carrying all his kit
22:35finally mark reaches the nest site it's almost impossible with this sort of size of kit to
22:41hide yourself it's just about the distance away from them so at least 500 meters it makes it a long
22:49way but by being that distance we know we're not going to disturb the harriers at all
22:59so basically we're waiting to hopefully see the male coming in with some food
23:02he's a light gray color so he could be basically coming from any direction
23:06it's always a privilege to be waiting somewhere like this because there's all sorts of other stuff
23:14going on i heard a cuckoo on the way up we've got golden plover here
23:18but no hen harriers yet
23:36it's nice now the sun's come out of it it'll be cold here with so much wind
23:48the sun's come out of it at last
23:56the waiting has paid off
24:00a stunning male hen harrier bringing in prey for his mate
24:04he passes food to the female throughout the day
24:21she is incubating the eggs and can't hunt for herself
24:24if their chicks fledge this will be the first pair of hen harriers to successfully nest in the peak
24:36district since 2022 i totally didn't expect to get multiple food passes like that and also to see
24:44the male and the female bringing in this material was a real bonus
24:48although we can't see it the nest is on the ground beneath the heather made up of a small bowl
24:57of branches brought in from elsewhere i had no idea that that was going to be happening the female
25:04is literally tugging at the heather to pull in big lumps to take back to the nest
25:10it's amazing to see them being so attentive
25:12for mark getting even these distant views of this secretive and protected pair is an incredible
25:20privilege albeit a hard-earned one well what a great day
25:30stunning stunning birds such a shame that there's only one reported nest on the moors
25:36but i'll tell you what it was time dedication skill and more importantly patience that mark had to get
25:44those shots so well done to mark and well done to the national trust as well because since the 1990s
25:50in this area the only successful hen harrier nests have been on national trust managed land except for
25:58one except for one and that was just south of the peak district so it just goes to show that the
26:02national trust is successfully managing this land not just for hen harriers but for all the other
26:08species that we've been lucky enough to film so hats off to them out here on the longshore state
26:13it's easy to get lost in nature but just eight miles away over there on the edge of sheffield it could be
26:19easy to lose the nature but that's not the case we've enjoyed some fantastic uh nights of suburbia
26:27packed with wildlife all down to the hard endeavors of a street load of residents who've been
26:31invested in wildlife gardening yes it's spring watch street let's go over now to our street operator
26:38jack baddams
26:47yes welcome back to sheffield i'm here not actually on spring watch street today i'm in the gardens
26:55of ben and charlotte and gene just next door because we've heard about a family of animals
27:01here that we really wanted to check out now i'm talking quietly because they're just on the other
27:06side of these bushes here and we're now approaching the time of day where they might start to emerge
27:13now that means that we can't go and actually have a look at where they're living live but a couple of
27:18days ago i came down in the afternoon while they were snoozing and had a look around their digs
27:22this is a pretty unassuming garden that's hiding a pretty big secret it's just normal garden normal
27:35garden normal garden normal garden normal garden whacking great big badger set let's go and have a
27:40look look at this it's huge here's one of the entrances here there's loads spread around there's
27:49probably about 10 they're coming out of everywhere out of the walls out of the sheds the amount of
27:54earth that's been moved here is incredible i mean take a look at this shed i have no idea the last time
28:00anyone went in here for the rake because that has been completely buried i mean the shed roof is up to
28:07my knee near enough what i really want to do is see these animals in action so tonight i'm going
28:13to come back for a badger stakeout so i mean it really is quite amazing just how much earth they've
28:22moved down there and we should say that set has been in operation for years you wouldn't just wake
28:28up one morning and find a badger set like that that swallowed your shed and gene whose garden it's in
28:34is very much at peace with the fact that the badgers are down there at the bottom of the garden
28:38so yes the poison chalice of live badger watching on spring watch has been handed over to me but i'm
28:44not alone i've got camera operator james stevens here with his long lens have we got anything james
28:49no not even a sheep or a seal in these parts to give us some live mammal action but no worries because
28:57on the same day that i came to have a look around the set i stuck around in this very spot for my very
29:03own badger stakeout i've taken my seat on the most uncomfortable garden chair ever known it's about
29:11half past eight the badgers should come out anytime now the set's just around the corner i'm hoping
29:20hoping that they should come out into that open area just there
29:23it's a very peaceful spot to sit and hopefully it will be interrupted by rowdy badgers
29:37if i don't see a badger after this after this level of dedication i'm going to be most displeased
29:54i refuse to be moved i am going to watch these badgers whether it's the last thing i do it may well
30:05be the last thing i do it's the wrong animal
30:19there is a badger right in front of me
30:49imagine if this was your garden why would you go anywhere else
31:04i don't even want to move
31:18i don't even want to move
31:41wow i mean
31:44that was worth getting wet for
31:53awesome absolutely awesome that was my first experience of urban ballot badgers previously
32:00i've only seen them in woods and fields so to see one climbing up on the patio just a few meters
32:05in front of me was so cool we've been up to the normal tricks that we've been up to on springwatch
32:10street here as well we've had a few of those camera traps out in the garden and that's given
32:14us an idea of how big this family is you can have a look at these clips that we've got here
32:18that show that we've seen there's four in this one we've seen about five badgers at one time and
32:24that's a pretty normal size clan for an urban area they tend to have around six whereas in the
32:30countryside they can have sort of very normal to have up to 30 so the clans are a lot smaller in
32:36urban areas and what's really cool about seeing the badgers in this is seeing their normal behavior
32:43that you might see in those woods and those fields but just taking place on patios have a look at this
32:48we've got them dragging bedding around and this is just them collecting all the vegetation that
32:52they found there's bits of garden waste in there and this is becoming a more common sight here in
32:58sheffield badger sightings in gardens have increased five times so seeing badgers in situations like
33:06this is becoming more and more regular and i mean that experience i had sat here was i can't stop
33:13smiling just to watch that back it was so cool but chris and michaela what about that of course if we
33:18see the badgers we'll be waiting here we'll we'll bring them to you but so cool but just in a normal
33:25sheffield garden like this you can have that experience amazing fantastic i mean i'd be chuffed
33:31i know i know lucky old jack and all of those badgers in in that back garden which is absolutely
33:36fantastic the badger though not too difficult to see obviously its nocturnal habits make it a bit tricky
33:41but the last time there was a meaningful survey was in 2012 and then there were 485 000 badgers in
33:48the uk now there are a lot less now of course but they're still not one of our rarest mammals
33:53that would go to an animal that came here after the last ice age and was once common all over the uk
33:59but after ruthless persecution its range shrank to scotland i'm talking of course about the scottish
34:06wild cat now seeing them in the wild is much much harder than trying to spot badgers they are
34:12incredibly shy incredibly elusive but spring watch has always loved a challenge and back in 2008
34:19simon king decided to take it on undoubtedly one of the greatest challenges we've ever considered
34:24in spring watch and for me the holy grail of wildlife watching and that is seeing a scottish
34:30wild cat scottish wild cat well if he does we believe it when we see yeah
34:46he failed his challenge basically because that is a hybridized cat i think i've seen that
34:53cat on on on a can of cat food to be quite honest with you doesn't it it's a bit whiskers that one
35:00that basically hybridization of domestic cats with scottish wildcats has become a massive problem and then
35:08it gets really difficult to be able to tell what is truly a genetically wild cat defined by as you can
35:16see the broad tail the stripy tail very stubby and the much broader face so that is a wild cat
35:26but their numbers drop the trouble is in about 50 60 years ago their numbers dropped so dramatically
35:31because of loss of habitat and also because of persecution that they had no other choice than to
35:37breed with domestic cats and as i say that has become a really big problem yeah so all of those
35:43characteristics were identified in 2009 by andrew kitchener that was the guide at the time but then
35:48as you say numbers dropped and it was recognized they were interbreeding with those domestic cats
35:53what could be done if we wanted to save this species what could be done well we needed to identify
35:59where the good wild cats were and by this stage we had dna testing so they went out they tested the
36:06wild cats i've got to be honest with they found none of them were 100 but they found a few that were
36:11quite high not high enough to justify a breeding program to produce kittens like this where did
36:17they find the really good cats well bizarrely it was those that had been taken into captivity into
36:22zoos in the 1970s which therefore as that population had dropped as michaela said hadn't had the
36:29opportunity to interbreed with other domestic feral cats the purest ones were in the zoos that's where
36:35they got those from so they mixed and matched did a fantastic job up at king goosey and they put them
36:40all together and now they've got these cats which are ready to go back because basically because of
36:44that hybridization they became functionally extinct in the world i'll tell you what though there's an
36:49awful lot of people sitting on their sofas going oh look at those kittens well i i you know i met a few
36:55people terry nutkins being one of them who tried to rear kittens of wild cats they might look cute and
37:00cuddly but i've been assured that basically you cannot tame them they are not domesticated they
37:06are fill of you know absolutely full of spit and fury wild cats they called and that's for a reason
37:10but let's fast forward to 2023 because those little kittens that were reared in captivity were then
37:17released this is the first one being successfully released back into the wild and since then 28 cats
37:25have been released and the hope is that they will eventually be able to be self-sustaining you'll have
37:31a self-sustaining population great to see it is it's amazing isn't it brilliant to see saving wild
37:38traps project that's the one that's doing all of this work now so so good david barkley and his and his
37:43team up at king goosey amazing so we decided it's our 20th anniversary this year we decided to
37:49have another challenge and send some researchers out a team of researchers to see if they could spot a
37:55true scottish wildcat wildcats have huge home ranges covering distances of over six kilometers each day
38:06so keeping track of them requires the efforts of a truly dedicated wildcat team to go and track
38:13louise hughes heads up the field team and is in charge of tracking the elusive cats when they're in the
38:19wild using gps radio collars they're set up to gather data every 15 minutes it allows us a very small
38:31insight into the behavior of the cats not only about where they're going
38:38but also about how they're behaving with only 20 cats currently in the wild tracking their progress is
38:46crucial for their survival and allows them to see if any of the cats are breeding successfully
38:52using specialist vehicles with antennas they search far and wide we don't really know why they do it
39:00but they do some epic journeys it's a needle in a haystack kind of thing
39:07the first port of call for louise is to see if they've had any sightings on the camera traps
39:12checking the camera traps is it's like christmas for me through years of monitoring the locations
39:19the cats may roam the team has built a complex network of strategically positioned camera traps
39:26to catch a glimpse of them as they go about their wild lives and these fleeting glimpses are never taken
39:33for granted by the team and there she is on camera so this individual she's called tatty she was in the
39:40area three days ago she was released in the summer of 2023 for me personally i really love this cat
39:48she's she's quite special with these videos confirming that tatty is in the area louise is
39:55keen to track her down further and that means a bit of legwork with a radio antenna
40:04with this area we can get a bit more direction on where she may be
40:10oh okay so we've got a tag id and the data is downloading this data shows where tatty has been
40:21the territories she's crossed into and other wildcats she may have been in contact with all vital
40:27information for the project you've kind of got to try and stay as still as possible this is where you
40:34get the arm shake for having to hold up the antenna for too long so that's it that is the tag download
40:42complete
40:42having narrowed down tatty's location the springwatch team offer louise an opportunity
40:51to see if they can catch a unique glimpse of her with the help of springwatch drone operator seth
40:58they'll be deploying a thermal drone
41:06i'm keeping my fingers crossed that this works
41:09it would be unbelievably exciting if we are able to pick up a tiny wildcat in this huge landscape with
41:15this piece of kit
41:21i would say that she's about three and six hundred meters away
41:28but even with eyes in the sky finding the camouflaged cat is no easy task
41:39it's really unusual for us to see them it's it you know when we do it's a really special occasion
41:47how camouflaged is a wildcat very camouflaged very
41:54it is like literally a needle in a haystack it's really really hard
42:01with dark clouds approaching the time left that the drone can be in the air is dwindling
42:08in the air is
42:10do we have miss tassie
42:16sleeping in a bush
42:17how are you sorry i'm like
42:21oh my god that's incredible oh my word i cannot believe that you got that
42:32we've never seen the cats from this angle can i high five you
42:37you can having tracked this cat for two years i've only ever seen her once before out in the wild so
42:47to get this glimpse is yeah really magical she does look slightly rounder in some angles
42:54so there is a potential that she could be pregnant any information that we're getting is
43:00like gold dust to us
43:01louise and the team are hoping that tatty is one of the wild cats that'll go on to have kittens of
43:07her own this spring continuing the success of this project and heading towards a self-sustaining
43:14wild population
43:15it's just such a proud moment to just see that they are they are thriving and that there's hope
43:24they are truly amazing animals and last spring i've got to tell you i was up in space side
43:37in february and in one evening i saw two different wild cats so they are out there
43:42now some of you might be worried thinking they're releasing the wild cats into an area which has
43:47still got feral cats and they'll hybridize well the team up there are very busy trapping and if they
43:54catch a male feral cat then it'll be neutered and then released so that they pose no danger to those
44:02wild cats now if you've been watching this week you will know that we have set out our very own
44:08remote camera in the woods over the other side of the estate and over the last couple of days we've
44:14had a lot of red squirrel activity on there they're beautiful creatures look and look at the golden tail
44:21on this one they they vary a great deal in color and we have had up to five at one time interacting
44:29with each other now what's interesting is the fact that we haven't seen any youngsters any kittens
44:36there this year they usually give birth in march and again in the summer but we haven't seen a single
44:42kitten so far this year most of these are first year animals and the national trust put out food
44:48partly to try and help them to overcome their first winter we're hoping maybe in the next month or two
44:56that the staff here will start to see some of those kittens now the history of red squirrels here in
45:03ireland is very very interesting a study on their genetics was carried out in 2018 and to show you
45:10what they find what they found us use this prop here now red squirrels became extinct in ireland in the
45:191600s and then from the 1800s onwards they started to reintroduce them from mainland britain
45:28england and wales and also from scotland over here and also from the continent from germany and from
45:37scandinavia too so i'll take that one over i'll try and stick that one on there if it'll go there we go
45:43and then from the mid 1800s onwards they introduced the non-native gray squirrel to england it spread it
45:54carries the squirrel pox virus of course which kills the reds the reds retreated to some offshore
46:00islands to the north of england and to scotland so to help to bolster the population they introduced
46:06red squirrels from the continent to england and wales so let's go back over to ireland and what they
46:13discovered is that genetically there's very little mixing between the original british mainland red
46:22squirrels and those that have been introduced from the continent so from a genetic point of view
46:30the only area now where you get the pure british red squirrel is in ireland
46:36now we've also sent our wildlife cameraman back to the badger set if you remember two nights ago
46:45memorably we gave you live badger bottoms well we've also had quite a bit of activity around that set
46:52since then too these two are young badgers some of this year's young they've just wandered away into the
46:59fields on a very very wet night and then they're coming back towards the set looking absolutely
47:06soaked they probably went off that way to look for earthworms and earlier we saw the urban badgers
47:12carrying bedding well this one's doing exactly the same dragging bedding back dried leaves and grass
47:19now they do this probably every 10 days to two weeks or so and they'll have a complete clear out of
47:25bedding twice a year once at the end of the autumn in preparation for the winter and once when the sows
47:32are about to give birth and if you remember a few nights ago we had a very greedy badger on the
47:38squirrel feeders eating absolutely everything well that one has come back and is doing his version of
47:45tightrope walking walking along that log it knows that there's food there and it's going to get there
47:51no matter what and of course badgers are very good climbers i once watched one climb an eight foot
47:58wall so crawling along a log like that to get at some juicy morsels is nothing for a badger
48:06chris mikhaila i haven't added to the live mammal list tonight but doesn't matter we've enjoyed we've
48:13had a we've had a mammal fest over here you may have had a mammal fest go on what were you going
48:18to say no no no no top work mate top work top work you may have had a mammal fest we've had a fledge
48:25fest you want more fledging i'll give you more fledging we'll go to our pied fly catchers here they
48:31go this is what happened on sunday we're a bit late showing you this but they all went out of that nest box
48:37very very quickly there we go there's the fledgeometer again i'm rather liking this fledgeometer one two
48:42three four five oh six six of them fled and out they go and what's so interesting about fly
48:51pied fly catchers is they'll migrate to west africa but when they come back they're imprinted to the
48:57area that they were born and they will return to the same general area males four kilometers females 6.6
49:06kilometers that is incredible that they go all the way to west africa and then they come back to
49:12pretty much the exact spot that they were born in remarkable stuff now all these fledging little
49:18birds i mean it's great isn't he got spud he's quite attractive i suppose in that way but what
49:22about some of the little stuff what about some of the exciting invertebrates let's go live to our
49:28hairy wood ants nest now because these really are the king of ants le roi de four me yes look at the
49:36northern hairy wood ants the key thing is these are keystone species they play a formidable role in
49:44the ecology here how do they do that well firstly they are reshaping the soil they're digging deep
49:50down beneath that nest they're aerating the soil they're redistributing nutrients so all sorts of
49:56things that can grow there the other thing is as we touched on before they are formidable predators
50:03100 000 ants can kill in one day 60 000 insects so well if those pied flies are trying to nip a few
50:13things out of the air the ants here are doing truly remarkable things they are also polydomus and
50:21polydomus means that they have separate nest but it's all part of the same colony so we've got a model
50:29here so this is a nest here and here is another nest which can be meters away from this one but the
50:34extraordinary thing is and this is amazing that this nest here because it's part of the same colony
50:40will share food with this nest over here and maybe another one over there it's just incredible that
50:46they know how to do that now imagine there's a nest up over here somewhere and there's a hungry nest
50:52over there somewhere they want to get some food from there to there well it's going to be quite tricky
50:56isn't it down through all of this vegetation what those ants need is a nice clean trail and they make
51:03nice clean trails how do they do that well they use their formic acid which they typically spray on any
51:12potential predators and aggressors as a herbicide so as they are moving through the woods like this
51:20they drop look at that the formic acid down onto the ground it kills all the little seedlings hampers the
51:29germinations of seeds and makes a nice clean trail between the nests so that they can efficiently and
51:37rapidly move the food between the two what about that pretty clever stuff now another astonishing thing is
51:48that in these nests they are not alone i've mentioned that they are formidable predators but there are up to
51:54a hundred species of memecophiles animals that can live alongside ants living inside the nest and here
52:03look we can spot one here acting like a friend but it's not this is a rove beetle and the ants as you can see
52:12are totally ignoring it and that's because it's using a chemical disguise and why is the road beetle
52:19in the ants nest well one of two reasons it either tricks the ants into feeding it so it's getting a free
52:26meal from all of the ants or using that chemical disguise it's got these glands that secrete those
52:32chemicals it allows itself to be unhindered in the brood chambers where it eats the ants young what about
52:40that inside the nest the one and only rove beetle not the only one what else have we got in the hairy
52:50ant guest house special isn't it okay let's take the little door off here we go and we can see that in
52:58there is another guest it's the shining guest ant and if we have a look at the real thing you can see
53:04it's about quarter of the size of the host it lives exclusively in a wood ants nest and it establishes
53:12several colonies and within that nest and then it feeds the brood on that honeydew that the ants have
53:20as well i mean that's amazing that it lives exclusively yeah in this nest with the and they're really hard
53:26to see because they're right inside the nest and typically you don't see the shining ants at all they're
53:31not that shiny that they sort of sparkle in the night or anything like that but you know it's not
53:34just other insects which are living in this nest it's plants too and growing out here in the woods
53:39somewhere you could find some cow wheat and cow wheat is a flower which produces lots and lots of
53:46nectar the ants go for that nectar which is great but they also go for the seeds and here you can see
53:52one of the hairy wood ants carrying the seed of the cow wheat the extraordinary thing is it looks just
53:58like one of the ants cocoons so they carry it back to the nest dispersal the seed is getting moved from
54:05one part of the woods for the other that's ideal for that plant the other thing is that when they put
54:09the cow wheat inside the nest it's protected from any other animals that would eat that seed
54:16it can germinate and then produce the nectar for the ants what about that northern hairy wood ants
54:23honestly they're punching way above their weight i can tell you i mean a little spud up there i mean
54:28do you know what i mean i mean he's looking good but come on but do you know what if i had the choice
54:33of that nest box that we had with the long-eared owls or this or the hairy ant guest house i'd go for
54:40this yeah what would you go for yeah the hairy ants definitely i'd rather like this anyway time for a
54:46mindfulness moment we're doing something a little bit different here for our 20th anniversary it's going to be an
54:51animation it's an animation by will rose who actually helped to animate things like peppa pig and hey
55:00dougie which if you've got kids you'll know about but his first love was wildlife so we invited him
55:05here to longshore we asked him to take notes on what he saw and importantly what he could hear as well
55:13and he transformed all of that into his own unique artwork
55:31so
55:41wow
56:09so
56:15so
56:17so
56:19so
56:21so
56:23so
56:29so
56:31so
56:33i love that i love the retro feel of the graphics there
56:47absolutely fantastic thank you will we're running out of time just chance to look at one
57:05photograph here look at this this was taken by shelby grant fox against the sunset what a beautiful look
57:09beautiful look at the light down the front of the fox absolutely absolutely love that but that is all we've got time for
57:19we'll be back again of course tomorrow night
57:21we're going to have to be back to the final day i'm going to be back in the early morning morning
57:27and i'm going to be going in search of some of munch stewart's amazing nightlife bats
57:39and jack baddams will be with us from springwatch street to answer your questions about how to make
57:44your gardens wildlife friendly but can you believe it it's the last show tomorrow i know
57:50it's come so quick but stick around on the iplayer for watch out chris and i will be joining hannah
57:56stick for as well as sports presenter kelly summers so we'll see you on that and we'll see
58:00for our last show tomorrow for me and chris bye-bye for now good night
58:07the open university has created an online interactive hike where you can explore habitat
58:14changes that have taken place since springwatch first aired to find it scan the qr code that's on
58:20your screen now or go to bbc dot co dot uk forward slash springwatch and follow the links to the open
58:27university
58:36so
58:38so
58:42so
58:44so
58:46so
58:48so
58:52Transcription by CastingWords