Animal Park: Episode 10 (BBC One Friday 18 August 2023)

Animal Park: Episode 10 airs Friday 18 August 2023 on BBC One

What can we expect from this episode

Bart the capybara’s arrival in 2022 marked a significant milestone at Longleat. Given that his species is the largest rodent in the world, the fact that he was the first to enter the care of the keepers was cause for celebration. Now that a female has shown up, things can only go up from here, because it opens the door to the possibility of a romance between two giant rodents. Aella has made its way to Longleat from a Scottish collection, but its native habitat is South America, where you can find very large and social communities of this species. It appears likely that these two will get along, but that is not a given.

They didn’t seem to have much chemistry in their first meeting together. The keepers are curious about their behaviour when no one is looking at them, fearing that they may be keeping to themselves out of necessity. When the keepers return the next day to watch the footage, they are shocked to see how far this romance has progressed. In fact, it’s embarrassing enough to make the guards blush!

Kate travels to Koala Creek, located on the opposite side of the park, but not to see the eponymous marsupials. She meets a bettong and a long-nosed potoroo, two animals that suffered greatly in the recent Australian bushfires but are now playing an important role in the recovery of the region’s forests.

Hamza Yassin, a wildlife photographer, uses a macro lens to determine the sex of spiders for a crucial breeding programme, but he must exercise caution because the Desertas wolf spider is not only extremely rare but also poisonous.

Megan McCubbin, a zoologist who specialises in native species, and the park’s keepers are eager to learn whether or not bats make their home in and around the historic home at the park’s centre. They settle in for the night with low-light cameras and an amazing bat detector that lets us hear their high-frequency calls. Incredible as it may seem, bats have finally begun to emerge; the question now is how many species can be identified.

Series exploring life behind the scenes at Longleat Estate and Safari Park.

Season 21 Episode 10

When can we see the episode

Animal Park: Episode 10 airs Friday 18 August 2023 at 13:45 on BBC One

Featured image credit: BBC One