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00:00Fast, fierce, fleeting.
00:04The hobby, an agile acrobatic aerial predator,
00:08an exciting bird to see in flight,
00:10perfectly evolved for hunting on the wing.
00:13Scientific name, Falco Subutio.
00:16And like the game which bears its name,
00:18it relies on skill and speed to win.
00:22The chase is on.
00:23Welcome to Springwatch.
00:46Hello, and 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.
01:02I want you to get excited about polydomous animals
01:05that are blighted by memecophiles, coming up later in the programme.
01:09Stay 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 memecophiles.
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 sledges, and 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, peeking out of the nest.
01:53It's been really hard to know how many chicks are inside.
01:57Our nest watchers have seen at least five beaks, so we think there are five chicks.
02:01Anyway, this is what happened.
02:03One of them pops out, looks like it's ready to fledge.
02:06That's the adult that it lands on top of.
02:09So here we go, there's our fledgeometer.
02:10One's fledged successfully.
02:13There we go, there's another two.
02:15A couple more sticking their little beaks out.
02:18That's three, keep counting, four, five.
02:22Well, that's curious.
02:23There are two more in the nest.
02:25Six, hang on a minute, how 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,
02:36because then they start flying back in the nest.
02:39So we're down to, well, three are fledged successfully.
02:42Oh, no, four.
02:44How many now?
02:45Are they in, they out?
02:45Oh, 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.
02:52OK, so we're down to two.
02:53Three.
02:54OK, there's beaks everywhere.
02:56There's wings everywhere.
02:57There's flapping everywhere.
02:59Four, five.
03:00OK, keep counting.
03:01Six, seven, hang on a minute, there's another one.
03:04Eight.
03:05No way, there's not another one.
03:07Nine.
03:08So eventually there were nine chicks that fledged out of that nest.
03:14It must have been a TARDIS.
03:16I mean, it is unbelievable that they all managed to fit in.
03:19And you can see they're still very fluffy.
03:21They're going to stick around for a bit, adult coming in to feed them.
03:25And they'll wait until they've got better feathers
03:27and they're more capable flyers before they fully fledged.
03:31Lovely bird then.
03:32Really lovely to see so many of them fledged successfully.
03:35Right now, I'm going to ask you a question
03:36which every single viewer knows the answer to already.
03:39I'll just go through it, you know, for the sake of it.
03:41Which bird would you say was the, you know, the star of our series this year?
03:44Let me think about that for one second.
03:46Spud, the tawny owl.
03:47It 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?
03:53He'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, a 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,
04:20isn't it?
04:20But what about the rest of his life?
04:21How about a life and times of Spud the owl 2025?
04:31Meet Spud, just a few days old, but all by himself.
04:37And if there's one thing Spud loved to do, it was sleep.
04:42And this is where he got his name, from his resemblance to a fluffy potato.
04:50But Spud also had quite the appetite, with his diligent parents bringing in food, big and small.
04:57Even if it got a bit confusing at times.
05:04But as the days went on, the food was doing its job.
05:08And Spud was starting to think outside the box.
05:22Taking a long look at the outside world, he decided that it's not for him just yet.
05:34Over the next few nights, Spud's bravery grew.
05:39Propelling him to new heights.
05:43Until finally, a leap of faith.
05:51Now his first test flight might have ended in a crash landing.
05:54But flying the nest is an important step in any young owl's life.
06:02For 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.
06:19I felt a bit like that earlier on, a 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.
06:32We'll be back tomorrow, and if we've still got sight of him,
06:34obviously we'll say goodbye live.
06:37However, his nest box was now empty.
06:39And 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 dove?
06:57Well, it's a dove, a pigeon, smaller than the wood pigeon,
07:01lacking the white on the neck and the wing.
07:02Spends most of its time feeding on the ground, seeds and so forth.
07:07But it's a very numerous bird, about two million pairs in the UK,
07:11which is the largest population in Europe.
07:13Although they're quite shy.
07:15You don't get to see them often, or at least not very well.
07:18Anyway, look, the male on the right-hand side has already made a decision.
07:21This is the spot for him.
07:23Can he entice the female into thinking about staying in this fetid, vol-ridden, pellet-strewn,
07:30poo-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.
07:41They might be back.
07:42And I love the stock dove.
07:44Mick, do you know one interesting thing about the stock dove?
07:45They're monogamous birds, so they pair, you know, male and female sticking together.
07:49But they stay together all year round.
07:52Whenever you see them, you see pairs, you see fours, you see sixes.
07:56You always see them in even numbers.
07:58And the only other species that I can think of that do that are bullfinch and owl, reminding
08:03me that stone shadow the same.
08:05In the UK.
08:05In the UK.
08:06Yeah, nice birds though.
08:07Beautiful.
08:08Do you know, I don't think they'll be back for a second viewing because nobody wants excrement
08:12splatter all over the wall.
08:13It's not a good seller from the estate agent, is it?
08:16A bit of abspatch expressionist poo splattered up your wall.
08:19Oh, no.
08:20I might try that at home.
08:22I don't think so.
08:23Moving on very quickly, let's go to Yolo in Northern Ireland, who is also
08:28in a very beautiful sun splattered wood.
08:35Yes, indeed McKillor, it's a lovely evening here at Mount Stewart, owned and managed by
08:40the National Trust since 2014.
08:44The wind is there down.
08:45It's the second nice evening in a row.
08:48I'm not quite sure what's happening, but somebody over here loves us.
08:51Now, this is a beautiful place.
08:53It's about a thousand acres in all.
08:55And 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.
09:11But then you go down below the canopy, you've got hazel, you've got holly, you've got ivy as well.
09:18Ivy flourishes here.
09:20Another great plant for wallop, of course.
09:22Plenty of flowers here, too.
09:24And they're inviting all kinds of invertebrates.
09:28And, of course, you get invertebrates.
09:29And 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, where we were battered by a series
09:48of horrendous storms.
09:50Now, the worst one to hit this part of Northern Ireland was Storm Eowyn in January.
09:56It 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.
10:11They reckon they lost about 10,000 trees here.
10:15Now, most of them were conifer plantation trees.
10:19But 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.
10:36These two beet trees were brought down in that storm.
10:40And it looks tragic, doesn't it?
10:42But it's also an opportunity.
10:45Because with the canopy gone, the sunlight penetrates.
10:49It hits the floor and it gives other plants and animals opportunities.
10:54Now, just look at the saplings that are growing here.
10:57This 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.
11:07It's an opportunity for these to thrust up towards the sunlight.
11:12It's also a great place for flowers, too.
11:16And one in particular.
11:18In the areas that have been worst hit by the storms, the dominant flower is the foxglove.
11:25Now, it's spread by seeds carried on the wind.
11:29And because of that, it's a pioneering flower.
11:32Some of these are over a metre and a half tall.
11:35And, of course, they're native.
11:36They're packed full of pollen and nectar, attracting bees like this.
11:41And it is a sea of colour at the moment.
11:45I walked past that site earlier on to 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.
11:56And look at this.
11:58This is a root plate of one of the big beech trees we saw earlier on.
12:03It is enormous, but notice that the roots are not going very deep here
12:07because 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.
12:21And if you look very carefully, I'll tread gently down here.
12:26If you look very carefully, in the far corner there is a wren's nest.
12:33And you see that nestled in there?
12:35A 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.
12:43But earlier on this morning, I saw the cockwren, the male wren, singing from a branch just nearby.
12:51Now, what wrens do is they'll build half a dozen nests and the female will choose one of them.
12:59They'll line it.
13:00She'll lay her eggs in there.
13:01They'll rear their young.
13:03And what might happen later on in the spring is that the wren may well come back and use this
13:11very nest there.
13:12It's a typical wren site, tucked in under there.
13:17Lovely to see.
13:19Now, if I was to say to you, lords and ladies, wild arum, snakeshead, friar's hood,
13:28would you know what I was on about?
13:29Well, they're all colloquial names for the same very common plant.
13:35But if you're an insect, beware, because the plant has a dark side.
13:45In this forgotten corner, nature has regained what is hers.
13:54Once a place of memorial, it now belongs to another order of roots, decay and ruin.
14:07And where the dead sleep, they awaken.
14:20At the break of spring, Mother Nature lays her most twisted trap yet.
14:25And where the dead sleep's
14:59Arum Maculatum.
15:03They aren't like the others.
15:06There's no colours to dazzle, no nectar to entice,
15:12no kindness in their design.
15:18They decide to lure with something darker.
15:35This is no ordinary bloom.
15:39Using this flower, they masquerade as death itself,
15:46unleashing the fragrance of rot and decay.
15:50They don't stop there.
15:52They hold a truly spectacular ability.
15:58To produce a rare property known as thermogenesis.
16:07In the cold shadows of the cemetery,
16:11they lure guests with warmth.
16:17But the cruelty is far from over.
16:28A wanderer has caught the deathly fragrance.
16:42What seems like seduction...
16:48..is imprisonment.
16:51Small filaments block the exit.
16:54As the walls close in, there's no escape.
17:07With each panicked movement,
17:10their captives become further coated in pollen.
17:14And those who arrived with pollen from another bloom...
17:17..deliver it, unknowingly solidifying their legacy.
17:31And those who are still clinging to life.
17:34They can do nothing but wait in the shadows.
17:51Survival here is not granted.
18:13At dawn, the filaments wither.
18:18This prison collapses, releasing its captives
18:24so they can deliver this precious pollen cargo far and wide,
18:30guaranteeing the future of the species.
18:35In the shadows of this graveyard, their work is complete
18:39until next spring, when their trap will once again be set.
18:59I love the cuckoo pine, fascinated them by, you know, when I was a kid,
19:03the whole interaction between the insects and the plant is absolutely remarkable.
19:07Another thing I love is all of that life in that cemetery.
19:11I love the idea of life prospering after you have gone, you know,
19:15it's reassuring, isn't it? All of that recycling.
19:17Well, I just find it amazing what plants do to get pollinated
19:21and so many plants do so many different things
19:23and that one is just extraordinary.
19:26No, an amazing plant.
19:27Yeah. Love it.
19:28Sort of co-evolution of things working together.
19:31Now then, we are here in the Peak District National Park
19:35and 30% of this park is given over to moorland.
19:39It's an incredibly important habitat.
19:41We've got 70% of this here in the UK.
19:46Now, I have to say, in the past it's suffered quite a lot from overburning,
19:51overgrazing, over-draining, and this is really detrimental,
19:54not just because of all of these specialist species that live here,
19:58things like these merlins doing a beautiful food pass there,
20:00or the absolutely archetypal red grouse, very much a bird of this type of habitat,
20:07but also because it's a very important carbon sink.
20:11And when it's wet, it produces pink peat.
20:14And there's a lot of peat tied up in this habitat.
20:17And if you drain it and if you burn it and if you overgraze it,
20:20then it erodes and it disappears.
20:22I'm very pleased to say that the National Trust
20:25have been working fantastically hard here on the Longshore Estate
20:28and they've rectified all of these problems.
20:30And as we saw earlier in the series,
20:31they've even been out planting hundreds of thousands of plugs of sphagnum moss,
20:36which will regrow and re-wet these areas.
20:39It's a very special place.
20:40It's very important.
20:41And it's got some great species living here.
20:43It really has.
20:44And there's one bird of prey, absolutely stunning bird of prey,
20:48that has made the moorland its home.
20:50But it's notoriously difficult to see.
20:53And it's this, the hen harrier.
20:55It's a red list species in the UK.
20:57It's a species that's been affected by historical poor landscape management.
21:02And despite being legally protected,
21:04it continues sadly to be persecuted.
21:07As a result, there are only 30 to 40 pairs in England.
21:11And according to the local raptor monitoring groups,
21:14there's currently only a single nest reported in the whole of the Peak District.
21:20And that is an area that could support so many more nests.
21:25So, one reported nest, very difficult to see, even harder to film.
21:32So, what did we do?
21:33Well, we sent Mark, our long lens cameraman, a little challenge.
21:37We sent him up into the moorland and we said,
21:39bring us back some stunning shots.
21:44The hen harrier pair Mark is hoping to film nest in a secret protected location,
21:49deep in the heart of the moors.
21:59Some of these tracks could be a little bit sketchy.
22:08OK, we made it.
22:12This is as close to the nest as Mark can get in the car.
22:17He'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.
22:34Finally, Mark reaches the nest site.
22:38It's almost impossible with this sort of size of kit to hide yourself.
22:42It's just about the distance away from them.
22:45So, at least 500 metres.
22:47It makes it a long way.
22:49But by being that distance, we know we're not going to disturb the harriers at all.
22:58So, basically, we're waiting to hopefully see the male coming in with some food.
23:01He's a light grey colour, so he could be basically coming from any direction.
23:09It's always a privilege to be waiting somewhere like this,
23:12because there's all sorts of other stuff going on.
23:14I heard a cuckoo on the way up.
23:17We've got Golden Plover here.
23:25But no hen harriers yet.
23:35It's nice now the sun's come out of it.
23:37It can be cold here with so much wind.
23:51At last...
23:56..the waiting has paid off.
23:59..a stunning male hen harrier, bringing in prey for his mate.
24:15He passes food to the female throughout the day.
24:21She is incubating the eggs and can't hunt for herself.
24:29If their chicks fledge, this will be the first pair of hen harriers
24:34to successfully nest in the Peak District since 2022.
24:39I totally didn't expect to get multiple food passes like that.
24:42And also, to see the male and the female bringing in nest material
24:46was a real bonus.
24:51Although we can't see it,
24:53the nest is on the ground beneath the heather,
24:55made up of a small bowl of branches brought in from elsewhere.
25:00I had no idea that that was going to be happening.
25:03The female is literally tugging at the heather
25:05to pull in big lumps to take back to the nest.
25:09It's amazing to see them being so attentive.
25:12For Mark, getting even these distant views
25:15of this secretive and protected pair
25:18is an incredible privilege,
25:20albeit a hard-earned one.
25:23Well,
25:23what a great day.
25:30Stunning, stunning birds.
25:32Such a shame that there's only one reported nest on the moors.
25:36But I tell you what,
25:37it was time,
25:39dedication, skill,
25:40and more importantly,
25:42patience,
25:43that Mark had to get those shots.
25:45So, well done to Mark,
25:46and well done to the National Trust as well,
25:48because since the 1990s,
25:50in this area,
25:51the only successful hen harrier nests
25:54have been on National Trust managed land,
25:57except for one,
25:58except for one,
25:58and that was just south of the Peak District.
26:01So, it just goes to show that the National Trust
26:03are successfully managing this land,
26:05not just for hen harriers,
26:06but for all the other species that we've been lucky enough to film.
26:10So, hats off to them.
26:11Out here on the Longshore Estate,
26:13it's easy to get lost in nature,
26:15but just eight miles away over there on the edge of Sheffield,
26:18it could be easy to lose the nature.
26:21But that's not the case.
26:22We've enjoyed some fantastic nights of suburbia,
26:26packed with wildlife,
26:28all down to the hard endeavours of a streetload of residents
26:31who've been investing in wildlife gardening.
26:34Yes, it's Springwatch Street.
26:35Let's go over now to our street operator, Jack Baddams.
26:47Yes, welcome back to Sheffield.
26:50I'm here, not actually on Springwatch Street today,
26:54I'm in the gardens of Ben and Charlotte and Jean,
26:57just next door,
26:58because we've heard about a family of animals here
27:01that we really wanted to check out.
27:03Now, I'm talking quietly,
27:04because they're just on the other side of these bushes here,
27:08and we're now approaching the time of day
27:10where they might start to emerge.
27:13Now, that means that we can't go and actually have a look
27:15at where they're living live,
27:17but a couple of days ago,
27:18I came down in the afternoon
27:19while they were snoozing
27:20and had a look around their digs.
27:27This is a pretty unassuming garden
27:30that's hiding a pretty big secret.
27:32It's just normal garden, normal garden,
27:35normal garden, normal garden,
27:37normal garden,
27:37whacking great big badger set.
27:39Let's go and have a look.
27:42Look at this.
27:45It's huge.
27:46Here's one of the entrances here.
27:48There's loads spread around.
27:49There's probably about 10.
27:50They're coming out of everywhere,
27:51out of the walls, out of the sheds.
27:53The amount of earth that's been moved here is incredible.
27:57I mean, take a look at this shed.
27:58I have no idea the last time anyone went in here for the rake,
28:01because that has been completely buried.
28:05I mean, the shed roof is up to my knee,
28:08near enough.
28:09What I really want to do is see these animals in action.
28:12So tonight, I'm going to come back for a badger stakeout.
28:17So, I mean, it really is quite amazing just how much earth they've moved down there.
28:23And we should say, that set has been in operation for years.
28:26You wouldn't just wake up one morning and find a badger set like that,
28:30that's swallowed your shed.
28:31And Jean, whose garden it's in,
28:33is 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 Springwatch has been handed over to me,
28:43but I'm not alone.
28:44I've got camera operator James Stevens here with his long lens.
28:48Have we got anything, James?
28:49No, not even a sheep or a seal in these parts to give us some live mammal action.
28:55But no worries, because on the same day that I came to have a look around the set,
28:59I stuck around in this very spot for my very own badger stakeout.
29:05I've taken my seat on the most uncomfortable garden chair ever known.
29:10It's about half past eight.
29:12The badgers should come out any time now.
29:16The set's just around the corner.
29:18I'm hoping, hoping that they should come out into that open area just there.
29:27It's a very peaceful spot to sit.
29:30And hopefully it will be interrupted by rowdy badgers.
29:45If I don't see a badger after this, after this level of dedication, I'm going to be most displeased.
29:58I refuse to be moved.
30:00I am going to watch these badgers, whether it's the last thing I do.
30:04It may well be the last thing I do.
30:14It's the wrong animal.
30:24It's the wrong animal.
30:39It's the wrong animal, not right you.
30:40There is a badger right in front of me.
30:59Imagine if this was your garden, why would you go anywhere else?
31:14I don't even want to move, it's beautiful, wow, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here,
32:09I'm here, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here, I'm here.
32:14Here's an idea of how big this family is.
32:15You can have a look at these clips that we've got here that show that we've seen, there's
32:19four in this one, we've seen about five badgers at one time and that's a pretty normal size
32:26clan for an urban area.
32:27They tend to have around six whereas in the countryside they can have sort of very normal
32:32to have up to 30.
32:33So the clans are a lot smaller in urban areas.
32:37And what's really cool about seeing the badgers in this is seeing their normal behaviour that
32:42you might see in those woods and those fields but just taking place on patios.
32:47Have a look at this, we've got them dragging bedding around and this is just them collecting
32:51all the vegetation that they've found.
32:53There's bits of garden waste in there and this is becoming a more common sight.
32:58Here in Sheffield, badger sightings in gardens have increased five times.
33:03So seeing badgers in situations like this is becoming more and more regular.
33:09And I mean, that experience I had sat here was, I can't stop smiling just having watched
33:14that back, it was so cool.
33:16But Chris and Michaela, what about that?
33:18Of course if we see the badgers we'll be waiting here, we'll bring them to you.
33:22But it's so cool that just in a normal Sheffield garden like this, you can have that experience.
33:28Amazing.
33:29Fantastic.
33:30I mean, I'd be chuffed with you.
33:31I know, I know.
33:32Lucky old Jack.
33:33And all of those badgers in that back garden, which is absolutely fantastic.
33:37The badger, though, not too difficult to see.
33:38Obviously, it's nocturnal habits make it a bit tricky.
33:41But the last time there was a meaningful survey was in 2012.
33:44And then there were 485,000 badgers in the UK.
33:48Now, there are a lot less now, of course, but they're still not one of our rarest mammals.
33:52That would go to an animal that came here after the last ice age and was once common all over
33:58the UK.
33:59But after ruthless persecution, its range shrank to Scotland.
34:03I'm talking, of course, about the Scottish wild cat.
34:07Now, seeing them in the wild is much, much harder than trying to spot badgers.
34:11They are incredibly shy, incredibly elusive.
34:14But Spring Watch has always loved a challenge.
34:16And back in 2008, Simon King decided to take it on.
34:22Undoubtedly, one of the greatest challenges we've ever considered in Spring Watch.
34:25And for me, the holy grail of wildlife watching.
34:27And that is seeing a Scottish wild cat.
34:31A Scottish wild cat?
34:33Well, if he does.
34:33We'll believe it when we see it.
34:46He failed his challenge, basically.
34:48Come on.
34:48Because that is a hybridised cat, isn't it?
34:51I think I've seen that cat on a can of cat food, to be quite honest with you.
34:56It does look like a bit of a kitty, doesn't it?
34:58It's a bit whiskers, that one, isn't it?
35:00But basically, hybridisation of domestic cats with Scottish wild cats has become a massive problem.
35:08And then it gets really difficult to be able to tell what is truly a genetically wild cat.
35:14Defined by, as you can see, the broad tail, the stripy tail, very stubby, and the much broader face.
35:22So that is a wild cat.
35:25But their numbers dropped.
35:26The trouble is, in about 50, 60 years ago, their numbers dropped so dramatically, because of loss of habitat, and
35:33also because of persecution, that they had no other choice than to breed with domestic cats.
35:38And as I say, that has become a really big problem.
35:42Yeah, so all of those characteristics were identified in 2009 by Andrew Kitchener.
35:46That was the guide at the time.
35:48But then, as you say, numbers dropped, and it was recognised they were interbreeding with those domestic cats.
35:53What could be done?
35:53If we wanted to save this species, what could be done?
35:57Well, we needed to identify where the good wild cats were.
36:01And by this stage, we had DNA testing.
36:04So they went out, they tested the wild cats.
36:06I've got to be honest with you, they found none of them were 100%.
36:08But they found a few that were quite high.
36:11Not high enough to justify a breeding programme to produce kittens like this.
36:16Where did they find the really good cats?
36:18Well, bizarrely, it was those that had been taken into captivity, into zoos in the 1970s, which therefore, as that
36:26population had dropped, as Michaela said, hadn't had the opportunity to interbreed with other domestic feral cats.
36:33The purest ones were in the zoos.
36:34That's where they got those from.
36:36So they mixed and matched, did a fantastic job up at King Goosey, and they put them all together, and
36:41now they've got these cats, which are ready to go back.
36:43Because basically, because of that hybridisation, they became functionally extinct in the wild.
36:47I'll tell you what, though, there's an awful lot of people sitting on their sofas going, oh, look at those
36:52kittens!
36:53Well, I met a few people, Terry Nutkins being one of them, who tried to rear kittens of wild cats.
36:59They might look cute and cuddly, but I've been assured that basically you cannot tame them.
37:03They are not domesticated.
37:05They are absolutely full of spit and fury.
37:08Wild cats, they're 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 released.
37:18This is the first one being successfully released back into the wild, and since then, 28 cats have been released.
37:26And the hope is that they will eventually be able to be self-sustaining.
37:31They'll have a self-sustaining population.
37:33Great to see that.
37:34It is.
37:35It's really brilliant to see.
37:37Saving Wild Chats Project.
37:38That's the one that are doing all of this work now.
37:41So, so good.
37:41David Barkley and his team up at King Goosey.
37:44Amazing.
37:44So, we decided, it's our 20th anniversary this year, we decided to have another challenge and send some researchers out,
37:52a team of researchers, to see if they could spot a true Scottish wild cat.
37:58Wild cats have huge home ranges, covering distances of over six kilometres each day.
38:05So, keeping track of them requires the efforts of a truly dedicated wild cat team.
38:11To 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.
38:22They're set up to gather data every 15 minutes.
38:28It allows us a very small insight into the behaviour of the cats, not only about where they're going, but
38:38also about how they're behaving.
38:40With only 20 cats currently in the wild, tracking their progress is crucial for their survival, and allows them to
38:48see if any of the cats are breeding successfully.
38:52Using specialist vehicles with antennas, they search far and wide.
38:57We don't really know why they do it, but they do some epic journeys.
39:02It's a needle in a haystack kind of thing.
39:06The first port of call for Louise is to see if they've had any sightings on the camera traps.
39:13Checking the camera traps is, it's like Christmas for me.
39:16Through years of monitoring the locations, the cats may roam.
39:21The team has built a complex network of strategically positioned camera traps to catch a glimpse of them as they
39:28go about their wild lives.
39:30And these fleeting glimpses are never taken for granted by the team.
39:35And there she is on camera.
39:36So this individual, she's called Tati, she was in the area three days ago.
39:41She was released in the summer of 2023.
39:44For me personally, I really love this cat.
39:48She's quite special.
39:50With these videos confirming that Tati is in the area, Louise is keen to track her down further.
39:57And that means a bit of legwork with a radio antenna.
40:03With this area, we can get a bit more direction on where she may be.
40:10Oh, okay.
40:11So we've got a tag ID and the data is downloading.
40:17This data shows where Tati has been, the territories she's crossed into and other wildcats she may have been in
40:25contact with.
40:26All vital information for the project.
40:29And we've got to try and stay as still as possible.
40:33This is where you get the arm shake for having to hold up the antenna for too long.
40:38So that's it.
40:40That is the tag download complete.
40:45Having narrowed down Tati's location, the Springwatch team offer Louise an opportunity to see if they can catch a unique
40:53glimpse of her.
40:54With the help of Springwatch drone operator Seth, they'll be deploying a thermal drone.
41:06I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this works.
41:08It would be unbelievably exciting if we are able to pick up a tiny wildcat in this huge landscape with
41:15this piece of kit.
41:20I 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.
41:38It's really unusual for us to see them.
41:41It's, you know, when we do, it's a really special occasion.
41:46How camouflaged is a wildcat?
41:49Very camouflaged.
41:50That's crazy.
41:51Very.
41:53It is like literally a needle in a hazed earth.
41:57It's really, really hard.
42:01With dark clouds approaching, the time left that the drone can be in the air is dwindling.
42:10Do we have Miss Tati...
42:16..sleeping in a bush?
42:18How are you?
42:19Sorry, I'm like, should we?
42:21Oh, my God.
42:23That's incredible.
42:25Yes, she is.
42:26Oh, my word.
42:28I cannot believe that you got that.
42:32We've never seen the cats from this angle.
42:36Can I high-five you?
42:37You can.
42:38Yes, yeah, go.
42:40Having tracked this cat for two years, I've only ever seen her once before out in the wild,
42:46so to get this glimpse is, yeah, really magical.
42:50She does look slightly rounder in some angles, so there is a potential that she could be pregnant.
42:57Any information that we're getting is like gold dust to us.
43:01Louise and the team are hoping that Tati is one of the wild cats that'll go on to have kittens
43:07of her own this spring,
43:08continuing the success of this project and heading towards a self-sustaining wild population.
43:15It's just such a proud moment to just see that they are thriving and that there's hope.
43:31They are truly amazing animals.
43:33And last spring, I've got to tell you, I was up in Speyside in February, and in one evening, I
43:39saw two different wild cats.
43:41So they are out there.
43:42Now, some of you might be worried, thinking they're releasing the wild cats into an area which has still got
43:48feral cats and they'll hybridise.
43:50Well, the team up there are very busy trapping, and if they catch a male feral cat,
43:57then it'll be neutered and then released so that they pose no danger to those wild cats.
44:03Now, if you've been watching this week, you will know that we have set out our very own remote camera
44:09in the woods over the other side of the estate.
44:12And over the last couple of days, we've had a lot of red squirrel activity on there.
44:18They're beautiful creatures.
44:19Look at the golden tail on this one.
44:21They vary a great deal in colour.
44:25And we have had up to five at one time interacting with each other.
44:30Now, what's interesting is the fact that we haven't seen any youngsters, any kittens there this year.
44:36They usually give birth in March and again in the summer, but we haven't seen a single kitten so far
44:42this year.
44:43Most of these are first-year animals, and the National Trust put out food partly to try and help them
44:49to overcome their first winter.
44:52And we're hoping, maybe in the next month or two, that the staff here will start to see some of
44:58those kittens.
45:00Now, the history of red squirrels here in Ireland is very, very interesting.
45:05A study on their genetics was carried out in 2018.
45:09And to show you what they found, what they found, I used this prop here.
45:14Now, red squirrels became extinct in Ireland in the 1600s, and then from the 1800s onwards, they started to reintroduce
45:25them from mainland Britain, England and Wales, and also from Scotland over here, and also from the continent, from Germany
45:35and from Scandinavia too.
45:38So, 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 grey squirrel to England.
45:52It spread, it carries the squirrel pox virus, of course, which kills the reds.
45:57The reds retreated to some offshore islands to the north of England and to Scotland.
46:02So, to help to bolster the population, they introduced red squirrels from the continent to England and Wales.
46:10Now, let's go back over to Ireland.
46:12And what they discovered is that genetically, there's very little mixing between the original British mainland red squirrels and those
46:24that have been introduced from the continent.
46:26So, from a genetic point of view, the only area now where you get the pure British red squirrels is
46:35in Ireland.
46:37Now, we've also sent our wildlife cameraman back to the badger set.
46:43If you remember, two nights ago, memorably, we gave you live badger bottoms.
46:48Well, we've also had quite a bit of activity around that set since then too.
46:54These two are young badgers, some of this year's young.
46:58They've just wandered away into the fields on a very, very wet night.
47:02And then they're coming back towards the set looking absolutely soaked.
47:06They probably went off that way to look for earthworms.
47:09And earlier we saw the urban badgers carrying bedding.
47:12Well, this one's doing exactly the same.
47:15Dragging bedding back, dried leaves and grass.
47:18Now, they do this probably every 10 days to two weeks or so.
47:22And they'll have a complete clear out of bedding twice a year.
47:26Once at the end of the autumn in preparation for the winter and once when the sows are about to
47:33give birth.
47:34And if you remember, a few nights ago, we had a very greedy badger on the squirrel feeders eating absolutely
47:40everything.
47:41Well, that one has come back and is doing his version of tightrope walking.
47:46Walking along that log, it knows that there's food there and it's going to get there no matter what.
47:52And, of course, badgers are very good climbers.
47:55I once watched one climb an eight-foot wall.
47:58So, crawling along a log like that to get at some juicy morsels is nothing for a badger.
48:05Chris McKayla, I haven't added to the live mammal list tonight, but it doesn't matter.
48:12We've enjoyed.
48:12We've had a mammal fest over here.
48:16You may have had a mammal fest.
48:17Go on, what were you going to say?
48:18Top work?
48:19No, no, no.
48:19Top work, mate.
48:20Top work.
48:21Top work.
48:21Top work.
48:21You may have had a mammal fest.
48:23We've had a fledge fest.
48:25You want more fledging?
48:26I'll give you more fledging.
48:28We'll go to our pied flycatchers.
48:30Here they go.
48:31This is what happened on Sunday.
48:33We're a bit late showing you this, but they all went out of that nest box very, very quickly.
48:38There we go.
48:38There's the fledgeometer again.
48:39I'm rather liking this fledgeometer.
48:41One, two, three, four, five.
48:44Oh, six.
48:46Six of them fled and out they go.
48:48And what's so interesting about pied flycatchers is they'll migrate to West Africa,
48:53but when they come back, they're imprinted to the area that they were born and they will
48:59return to the same general area.
49:02Males, four kilometers.
49:04Females, 6.6 kilometers.
49:07That is incredible that they go all the way to West Africa and then they come back to pretty
49:12much the exact spot that they were born in.
49:15Marker stuff.
49:16Now, all these fledgling little birds, I mean, it's great, isn't it?
49:19You've got Spud, he's quite attractive, I suppose, in that way.
49:21But what about some of the little stuff?
49:23What about some of the exciting invertebrates?
49:26Let's go live to our hairy wood ants' nest now, because these really are the king of
49:32ants, Leroy de Foumy.
49:35Yes, look at them, northern hairy wood ants.
49:38The key thing is these are keystone species.
49:42They play a formidable role in the ecology here.
49:44How do they do that?
49:45Well, firstly, they are reshaping the soil.
49:49They're digging deep down beneath that nest.
49:51They're aerating the soil.
49:53They're redistributing nutrients, so all sorts of things that can grow there.
49:58The other thing is, as we touched on before, they are formidable predators.
50:03100,000 ants can kill in one day 60,000 insects.
50:10So, well, if those pied flies are trying to nip a few things out of the air,
50:13the ants here are doing truly remarkable things.
50:17They are also polydomous.
50:21And polydomous means that they have separate nests, but it's all part of the same colony.
50:27So we've got a model here.
50:29So this is a nest here, and here is another nest, which can be metres away from this one.
50:34But the extraordinary 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.
50:45It's just incredible that they know how to do that.
50:48Now, imagine there's a nest up over here somewhere, and there's a hungry nest over there somewhere.
50:52They want to get some food from there to there.
50:54Well, it's going to be quite tricky, isn't it, down through all of this vegetation.
50:58What those ants need is a nice, clean trail, and they make nice, clean trails.
51:04How do they do that?
51:06Well, they use their formic acid, which they typically spray on any potential predators and aggressors, as a herbicide.
51:15So as they are moving through the woods like this, they drop, look at that, the formic acid down onto
51:25the ground.
51:26It kills all the little seedlings, hampers the germination of seeds, and makes a nice, clean trail between the nests,
51:35so that they can efficiently and rapidly move the food between the two.
51:41What about that?
51:42Pretty clever stuff.
51:44Now, another astonishing thing is that in these nests, they are not alone.
51:50I've mentioned that they are formidable predators, but there are up to 100 species of memecophiles,
51:57animals that can live alongside ants living inside the nest.
52:02And here, look, we can spot one here acting like a friend, but it's not.
52:08This is a rove beetle, and the ants, as you can see, are totally ignoring it,
52:13and that's because it's using a chemical disguise.
52:17And why is the rove beetle in the ants' nest?
52:20Well, one of two reasons. It either tricks the ants into feeding it, so it's getting a free meal from
52:27all of the ants,
52:27or using that chemical disguise, it's got these glands that secrete those chemicals,
52:32it allows itself to be unhindered in the brood chambers where it eats the ants young.
52:38What about that? Inside the nest, the one and only rove beetle.
52:46Not the only one. What else have we got in the hairy ant guest house?
52:52Special, isn't it?
52:53OK, let's take the little door off. Here we go.
52:55And we can see that in there is another guest.
52:59It's the shining guest ant.
53:02And if we have a look at the real thing, you can see it's about quarter of the size of
53:06the host.
53:07It lives exclusively in a wood ant's nest, and it establishes several colonies.
53:13And within that nest, and then it feeds the brood on that honeydew that the ants have as well.
53:21I mean, that's amazing that it lives exclusively in this nest with the hairy ants.
53:25And they're really hard to see because they're right inside the nest,
53:28and typically you don't see the shining ants at all.
53:30They're not that shiny that they sort of sparkle in the night or anything like that.
53:33But, you know, it's not just other insects which are living in this nest.
53:36It's plants too.
53:37And growing out here in the woods somewhere, you could find some cow wheat.
53:42And cow wheat is a flower which produces lots and lots of nectar.
53:46The ants go for that nectar, which is great, but they also go for the seeds.
53:50And here you can see one of the hairy wood ants carrying the seed of the cow wheat.
53:55The extraordinary thing is, it looks just like one of the ants' cocoons.
54:00So, they carry it back to the nest.
54:03Dispersal, the seed is getting moved from one part of the woods to the other.
54:06That's ideal for that plant.
54:08The other thing is that when they put the cow wheat inside the nest,
54:11it's protected from any other animals that would eat that seed.
54:16It can germinate and then produce the nectar for the ants.
54:20What about that?
54:21Northern hairy wood ants.
54:23Honestly, they're punching way above their weight.
54:25I can tell you, I mean, a little spud up there.
54:27Do you know what I mean?
54:28I mean, he's looking good, but come on.
54:31Do you know what?
54:31If I had the choice of that nest box that we had with the long-eared owls,
54:36or this, or the hairy ant guest house, I'd go for this.
54:40What would you go for?
54:41Yeah, the hairy ant.
54:42Definitely.
54:42I'd rather like this.
54:44Anyway, time for a mindfulness moment.
54:47We're doing something a little bit different here for our 20th anniversary.
54:50It's going to be an animation.
54:52It's an animation by Will Rose, who actually helped to animate things like Peppa Pig and Hey Dougie,
55:00which if you've got kids, you'll know about.
55:02But his first love was wildlife.
55:03So we invited him here to Longshore.
55:06We asked him to take notes on what he saw and, importantly, what he could hear as well.
55:12And he transformed all of that into his own unique artwork.
55:19And he said,
55:49Ow!
56:17I'm going to get it.
56:20I'm going to lift my hand up and put it in the air.
56:28I'm going to lift my hand up and jump in.
56:39Let's see what I'm doing.
56:40I'm going to lift my hand up.
56:44I'm going to lift my hand up.
56:57I love that. I love the retro feel of the graphics there. Absolutely fantastic. Thank you, Will.
57:02We're running out of time. Just a chance to look at one photograph here. Look at this. This was taken
57:07by Shelby Grant. Fox against the sunset. What a beautiful... Look at the light down the front of
57:14Fox. Absolutely stunning. We absolutely love that. But that is all we've got time for.
57:19We'll be back again, of course, tomorrow night, bringing you the unusual antics of a group
57:24of slugs on a university campus. What could go wrong?
57:30And I'm going to be going in search of some of Mount Stewart's amazing nightlife. Bats.
57:38And Jack Baddams will be with us from Springwatch Street to answer your questions about how to
57:43make your gardens wildlife friendly. But can you believe it? It's the last show tomorrow.
57:49I know it's come so quick, but stick around on the iPlayer for Watch Out. Chris and I will
57:54be joining Hannah Stipfel as well as sports presenter Kelly Summers. So we'll see you on
57:59that. And we'll see you for our last show tomorrow. From me and Chris, bye-bye for now.
58:03Good night.
58:06The Open University has created an online interactive hike where you can explore habitat changes that
58:14have taken place since Springwatch first aired. To find it, scan the QR code that's on your screen
58:20now or go to bbc.co.uk forward slash springwatch and follow the links to the Open University.
58:54I'll see you on the next one.
58:55Bye.
58:56Bye.
58:58Bye.
59:00Bye.
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