An otterly compelling look at life in the zoo
THE SECRET LIFE OF THE ZOO
Channel 4, 8pm
ASK the keepers at Chester Zoo which animal is the most intelligent, and you’ll most likely start an argument.
Orangutans win for one, while the zoo’s longest-serving keeper, Niall, champions the chimps that he has been working with for 45 years.
But when they make the animals work for their food – to exercise some brain power – which creatures will prove their wit?
A bear struggles to get to his food, hidden inside a pot, but the chimps are quick to realise they can use bamboo as a makeshift spoon to dig peanut butter out of a hosepipe.
“People ask how do I know a chimp is intelligent? I say just look into his eyes,” says Niall.
And Chester Zoo’s elder statesman chimp, Boris, who’s about to turn 50, certainly has some street smarts.
In most gentlemanly fashion, he takes it upon himself to protect the females from some of the more aggressive males.
But he gets sexual favours in return, so perhaps not such a gent after all.
There’s upheaval for the chimps when a new female, Vila, arrives from a zoo in Germany – will Boris protect her too?
Meanwhile, cheetah mum Kinky Tail is clever enough to find her food – but she is vomiting after every meal and losing weight. She has to be taken off to the zoo’s medical centre for tests.
Elsewhere, Asian shortclawed otter Annie recently gave birth to a large litter of five pups. But she’d rather play with stones than commit to her parenting duties.
Before long, Bo, the runt of the litter, goes missing and it’s down to dad Wallace to launch a search and rescue operation.