Episode 10

Available for over a year

10/40. We catch up with our European Cranes at the Wildlfowl & Wetlands Trust (WWT) centre in Slimbridge. This is a project shared between WWT, the RSPB and the Pensthorpe Conservation Trust to release cranes back into the wild in the Somerset levels - a wetland where they have been extinct since the 17th century. The conservation project is building up tempo as the chicks, which were brought over as eggs from Germany, are nearing full size. Chris Sperring will meet up with our feathered friends in Gloucestershire and see how they are being hardened up to life in the wild. The plan is to release them into the Somerset Levels in August - Chris Sperring scopes the release site in this programme and asks how the rest of the wildlife might react to the re-introduction. We return to Hokkaido in Japan and stalk a Stellers Sea Eagle eating something mysterious near a fishing community. It turns out these giant fish eating eagles have indeed switched prey - they have turned their attention to land. And we catch up with our Purple Emperor Butterflies, now voracious caterpillars heading to the canopy tops where they will pupate. Which of the larval poets (remember, the animals we're following are all named after famous poets) are flourishing and which have disappeared? Matthew Oates will be telling us from his secret research site in Wiltshire. Kelvin Boot will be on the show as ever with news and comment about wildlife making the news from around the world. Presented by Brett Westwood Produced by Sheena Duncan Series Editor Julian Hector.