Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Panther who came to tea
BIG CATS ABOUT THE HOUSE
BBC2, 8pm
WHILE it may look perfectly cute and cuddly, we imagine there are some downsides to having a pet panther roaming about your house.
Yes, it’s like a real live The Tiger Who Came To Tea for big cat expert Giles Clark, who takes on the rather ‘above and beyond’ undertaking of raising a neglected big cat in his home.
Back from a decade-long stint at Australia Zoo in Brisbane, this three-parter follows Giles as he takes over the running of the Big Cat Sanctuary in Kent, which he hopes to build into a centre of global excellence for conservation.
And his first task is the care of Maya, a weak and vulnerable five-day-old black jaguar (or panther) cub, who has been neglected by her mother.
After knocking together a makeshift bed in his suburban house, Giles encourages a shaking, terrified Maya to get used to her new home.
“He’s just animal crazy,” says Giles’ 23-year-old daughter Sam, while his fiancee Kathryn admirably goes along with this latest “adventure”.
Giles says: “The majority of cat species are facing a crisis in the wild. We cannot allow these animals to disappear.”
And you have to hand it to him, as he provides Maya with round-the-clock care, including night feeds of formula, it’s all very much like caring for a newborn baby.
Meanwhile there’s also the day job of looking after 50 big cats at the sanctuary, and we also follow Giles on a trip to Cambodia, where he witnesses the plight of big cats living in the wild.