Highlights: Mammals
Highlights: Mammals
Published: 26 September 2016
One of the animals that Arne is best known for is the herds of Sika Deer. At this time of year they will be in the middle of their rutting season, when hinds (female deer) choose their stag as they in turn fight it out to win the best territories.
Stags don’t just use antlers, they get dressed up with mud coats and make an astonishing array of noises and calls. We will be following all the action during the day, and live at night with our special night time thermal cameras. The ambition is to film one of the famous white harts (stags).
Molecam
For an Autumnwatch first, we are going to try and bring you moles live! Moles are one of our most widespread mammals and yet very few people have ever seen one let alone know what they are doing at this time of year. Our team of wildlife camera operators will be attempting to install tiny cameras in a network of mole tunnels to unlock this hidden world and tell us how moles prepare for Autumn.
Mouse maze
Following on from the success of the mouse maze in Winterwatch, we will be bringing the rodent puzzle back but with a twist. Finding food is crucial for small mammals at this time of year, as is working out and remembering where it is. We will be putting the puzzle solving abilities of Arne’s wild mice to the test and watch them solving the maze live.
Bats swarming
Five years ago, a team of chiropterologists* (bat researchers) discovered a mysterious seasonal gathering in a disused quarry on the Isle of Purbeck.
Every autumn, 15 of Britain’s 17 bat species come together for a few nights in this spectacular coastal location. The motivation for their “swarming” behaviour is unclear - is it to feed, to breed, or to prepare for hibernation? With mist nets, a bat detector and state of the art thermal imaging, Gillian Burke investigates.
Squirrel island
Brownsea Island is one of the last refuges of the red squirrel in England. Yet its 200 tufted residents are under threat from leprosy. Gillian Burke joins a team of scientists from the University of Edinburgh urgently trying to understand the impact of this much-misunderstood disease.
Happily, it seems Brownsea’s cutest inhabitants are immune, and their resistance could have important implications for their mainland relatives.
Dormouse explosion
When Lord Rothschild introduced a cute Mediterranean mammal to his gardens in Tring in 1902, little did he realise the consequences. This year has seen an explosion in Edible Dormouse numbers - a fivefold increase in just twelve months means there could be 100,000 in Britain. It now presents a serious threat to some of our native wildlife, as well as the wiring and insulation of rural homes in its range.
Lucy Cooke investigates the reasons for its success and the consequences of its spread, and spends a night in the Chilterns getting to know these enigmatic and little-known creatures.
Badgers and Cows
A film looking at a very recent scientific study that ingeniously put tracking devices on cows and badgers to look at their movements. Broadcast journalist, Sabet Choudhury, visits a farm to see for himself these new findings on badger and cow behaviour, and the revelation that cows and badgers never seem to meet face to face.
Autumnal Otters on the River Wye
As autumn bathes the River Wye with its red and gold hues we follow local cameraman Robin Smith as he tracks a family of otters, amongst other wildlife, downriver from his canoe.
Setting off just before dusk Robin places camera traps along the bank of the river wherever he sees signs of life. Using his canoe for shelter he camps on the banks before paddling back upstream through the morning mist to collect his traps, revealing the wildlife that rely on the Wye’s rich resources to feed up before their winter fast.
