Predator Pets (2018) Season 1 Episode 2
Predator Pets (2018) Season 1 Episode 2
When you've raised cattle and horses for decades, running a herd of zebra is almost like raising any other livestock. Duane Gilbert shows us around his picturesque Utah ranch and introduces us to his aggressive herd that packs a kick capable of killing a lion. In California, we learn just how brutal Chimpanzees can be and two experts explain just what makes them such dangerous pets.
#documentary #animals
When you've raised cattle and horses for decades, running a herd of zebra is almost like raising any other livestock. Duane Gilbert shows us around his picturesque Utah ranch and introduces us to his aggressive herd that packs a kick capable of killing a lion. In California, we learn just how brutal Chimpanzees can be and two experts explain just what makes them such dangerous pets.
#documentary #animals
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00Humans have had a close relationship with animals for thousands of years.
00:26Scientists agree the domestic dog has been a trusted pet for around 15,000 years, and
00:31cats became part of the household from 10,000 years ago.
00:35And now it's estimated there are at least 600 million pet cats in the world.
00:41Exotic pets have also been kept for thousands of years.
00:46It's well documented that the Egyptians kept baboons as pets, and exotic animals kept in
00:51the home feature in many ancient texts.
00:55In modern times, the keeping of exotic pets has increased.
00:59A staggering statistic is that there are more tigers in the U.S. alone than there are in
01:04the wild.
01:09Animal owners truly believe they are playing a role in preserving the numbers of exotic
01:13animals.
01:14But on the other side of the debate, there are those who believe it is a cruel practice
01:19to keep any animals in captivity.
01:22This series explores the issues from both sides, from those who know the dangers, but
01:30see the benefits, to others who condemn the keeping of exotic pets.
01:35Their stories follow.
01:50Gilbert's Bargee Ranch sits between the Rocky Mountains and the Sinbad Desert in Castledale,
01:58Utah.
02:02Since the 70s, Dwayne Gilbert has run a variety of livestock, including cattle and horses.
02:08Today, semi-retired, he raises a small herd of grant zebra.
02:16Zebras have been domesticated for thousands of years, yet despite how similar they appear,
02:21zebra have never been tamed.
02:25They've had lions chasing them for thousands of years, okay?
02:29Anything new, anything happens, they run.
02:36That's the only thing they know, is to run, or bite and kick.
02:41So if they're cornered, they're going to bite and kick.
02:48I've heard stuff on TV that they've seen instances where a zebra could crush a lion's head.
02:55I would believe it.
03:04Dwayne has been running zebra for around 20 years, and applies the knowledge he's gained
03:10from raising horses.
03:13We raised horses for a lot of years.
03:17We had a breeding stallion, run 20 head of brood mares, so I understood horses a lot.
03:25A friend of ours in California says, you know, you like horses, you do really well, you ought
03:31to try zebras.
03:33And so we bought a few zebras, and we just really enjoyed them.
03:39When we got our first zebras, it was a little bit cold, so I called the zoo, and they said,
03:44oh, you have to have heated barns, and you have to have this, and you have to have that.
03:48So I did that, and the zebras were beating each other up.
03:59They didn't like being contained, and so when I called my friend, he says, turn them loose.
04:05Zebras have to have a place to go.
04:07I turned them loose, and everything was fine.
04:12To an experienced rancher like Dwayne, handling a zebra herd is not unlike raising other,
04:17more common livestock.
04:21When we load the babies up, when they're ready to wean, we'll go up to our corrals, and I'll
04:27feed them up there, and we'll put them in a corral.
04:30The next day, I'll feed outside the corral, and I'll just stand at the gate and wait for
04:35the ones to come out that I don't want until we have what we want left in there.
04:41We go from there into a loading alley and right into a horse trailer.
04:45It's like working with wild horses or cattle.
04:50They're not broke to lead.
04:52You're not going to just push them in.
04:54If you'll notice, I fed my zebras, I strung the hay out.
04:59They're just like other animals, they have a pecking order.
05:02If you don't string it out, if you've got it all in one container in a feeder, you're
05:08going to have three or four in there, and you're going to have them kicking and biting.
05:12They'll still grab the hay, pull it out of the feeder, and eat it off the ground.
05:18I'd rather bring it out here where there's some grass and it's a little bit cleaner,
05:22and string it out, let the zebras find their pecking order, and they have a place to run.
05:29They have a place to go more than just 10 feet in case something happens.
05:35Dwayne's years owning zebra have made him highly knowledgeable about his striped equine
05:40herd.
05:42If there's a situation that we have to have a vet here, then we'd sure call them.
05:47I've used a couple of different vets.
05:50I know more about them than they do, but they're there with their experience so that they can
05:56help do their end of it.
05:58As far as bringing them in, putting them in a chute or something, I'm more familiar
06:03with them, and they just kind of stand back, and then when we get them in there, then they're
06:07able to do what they can.
06:10While many zebra owners raise their unusual pets to be fully domesticated, Dwayne prefers
06:16his to remain wild.
06:19I leave them wild for a reason.
06:20I don't haul their break, I don't bottle feed my baby zebras.
06:25When I want zebras in my herd, I want them so that they're scared of me.
06:30I don't want one that's not scared of me to where, if there's an incident, it's going
06:36to hurt me.
06:39I don't want that.
06:41As any other animal, especially equine, you take a stallion, and if they're not scared
06:46of you, when they get their hormones, a horse of any kind, you don't know if they can turn
06:51on you or at some time bite you, and zebras are the same.
06:56And if they're tame, they're not scared of you.
07:00And I can take my stallions, and they're just like this.
07:04Slow down a little bit, bud.
07:10You can feed them, they'll come up to you, be right by you when you want to feed them,
07:15but if you move, they're gone.
07:18Okay?
07:19I like that.
07:20Another thing I like about this, this is natural out here.
07:24There's cleaner grass, they have an area, they're not in a corral where it's chances
07:29of infections or stuff.
07:33As a practiced rancher, Dwayne is always alert when working around large animals, especially
07:38unpredictable wild animals with a kick that can easily crack a skull.
07:51We do have coyotes here, we have mountain lions that will come down occasionally from
07:55the mountains.
07:57One of the things we have to watch is dogs.
08:01A zebra will kill a dog real fast, and yet if they're in a contained area, the dog will
08:06scare them.
08:08So that's, again, if they're out here, they're fine.
08:12They'll chase a dog down because it's a predator to them, and they're going to defend their
08:17babies.
08:20I could probably walk over there, but anybody different, they're just scared.
08:31They're leery of anything new, anything, you know, more than one person out here.
08:41Zebras are aggressive animals, and fights between males are common and violent.
08:53In May of 2018, a woman in Zimbabwe was attacked by a zebra she had kept as a pet for 10 years.
09:01It bit off her thumb and part of one breast.
09:10Even as an old hand, highly experienced in handling livestock, Dwayne has been on the
09:15receiving end of a zebra's bad mood.
09:20There was a time I sold a little male zebra, and he was, I think, three or four months
09:25old.
09:26And the guy wanted me to deliver him.
09:29So in order to keep it calm, to keep from hurting itself, I rode in a horse trailer
09:35with it, and I had a holder on it, and I would hold it, and he kept trying to bite my leg.
09:42Every time, every time he'd think he was okay, he'd go, ram, and he'd try to bite my leg,
09:49and I'd have to hold his head up.
09:52You know, another time we weaned a baby that was just a week old from its mother, and I
09:58usually run him through a chute that's got rubber belding on it to protect him, and then
10:04we just let the mother out and hold the baby.
10:08Well, I got in with the baby after the mother got out, and she was going over the top trying
10:14to bite me.
10:16I thought, you know, this is not a good situation.
10:19I should have been farther away, but luckily she couldn't reach me.
10:23But there again, she was protecting her baby.
10:26A strong protective instinct and an equally strong tendency to startle makes for a highly
10:32unpredictable animal.
10:34So do zebras make good pets?
10:37People want some that are bottle-fed.
10:40When they want a bottle-fed one, they take them anywhere from two days old up to 10 days
10:44old to 30 days old, and they can still bottle-feed them.
10:48When they bottle-feed them, it just makes them gentler.
10:52Petting zoos want a gentle zebra, okay?
10:55People that want to put one with a couple of horses and have in their yard, in their
11:01pasture, they want one that's calmer, so they'll buy one and raise it on a bottle.
11:08Other people, I've seen them take them at six months old, 10 months old, a year old,
11:15and put a holder on them and still break them to late.
11:18They take a lot of work in order to get them at that point, though.
11:21A bottle-fed baby will bond with the person that's feeding it.
11:27We've seen an instance in California one time.
11:30We visited some friends, and they had a little bottle baby zebra, and it was only 30 days
11:35old, and they had kind of a party.
11:37Well, this zebra would follow its mother around, which is feeding her, you know, on a bottle.
11:46Follow her around, and if somebody would come up and talk to her, she would get in between
11:51the two people, like, this is my mom, leave her alone.
11:58Duane also breeds and sells his zebras, and his customers have a whole range of different
12:03reasons for wanting to own one.
12:07You know, I've been raising them over 20 years, and you know, you just, I don't know, it just
12:15seems like we have a number of people every year still call and say, you know, I got a
12:19zebra from you, I want another one, and of course, petting zoos, they've been good clients.
12:24There's still so much of the public out there that doesn't know that you can own a zebra.
12:32And it seems owning zebras can also bring some completely unexpected surprises and special
12:38moments.
12:42One time a young girl from Salt Lake called me, and she had heard we had zebras, and she
12:47had just loved them, and I didn't know her.
12:51She called and says, if we brought a photographer down, could we get some pictures of me in
12:55my wedding dress with the zebras?
12:58And I says, you can try, but I says, you put a white dress on and step out in front of
13:04them zebras, and they're going to leave.
13:08And she says, well, I'd really like to try, I just love everything about zebras.
13:13Her and her mother showed up, and she got in her wedding gown and had the photographer
13:18down here, and we came down here, and I put some feed out for the zebras, and they left
13:24the feed and walked right up behind that girl in that white dress like, that is something
13:29different.
13:30You just don't know how they're going to act.
13:33So many times I think they're going to just run and get away from anything that's new,
13:39and yet, all of a sudden they'll turn around and say, hey, this doesn't scare us.
13:44See, we've got one here that says, there is something different over there.
13:53They may not make good riding or working livestock, and their flighty nature makes them dangerous.
13:59But it's clear that the lives of DeWayne and his family are obviously enriched by having
14:03their very own zebra herd.
14:08We love our zebras.
14:09They'll all come out here in my truck and watch them and watch them, and you'll see
14:14the same thing as you'll see zebras in the wild.
14:19And to watch them run and play, especially the babies, you know, you'll get four or five
14:25babies together, and they'll just run around the pasture playing and dart in and out of
14:30the other mares.
14:31And they're an animal.
14:34So you just have to watch them and learn about them.
15:05Well, yes, they're cute, all right.
15:08Aren't they a little unusual looking?
15:11Yes, they're monkeys.
15:14Chimpanzees share 98% of our DNA.
15:17Their intelligence, playful nature, and their resemblance to human babies once made them
15:23popular entertainers and even popular pets.
15:27Oh, boy, please, stick that in your mouth.
15:32Now, boy, you mustn't bite like this.
15:35Get up here in the chair.
15:37Out of all kinds of creatures that you could have as pets, chimps are probably the worst
15:42pet that you can ask for for the chimp's benefit.
15:52You may get the greatest joy in the world by having a chimp, but what does the chimp
15:57get out of it?
15:59Martine Collette is the founder of Wildlife Waystation, an exotic animal sanctuary that
16:04a colony of 40 chimpanzees now call home.
16:10Chimps need chimps.
16:13They need to grow up in a colony with young chimps and old chimps and in between chimps
16:19and chimps of personality, cranky chimps and happy chimps and dominant chimps and subordinate
16:25chimps.
16:27Chimps learn by watching.
16:29And baby chimps learn everything by watching the adults.
16:34And they grow up with chimpanzee skills, which then allows them to take the rightful place
16:42in the world of chimpanzees.
16:45Having worked closely with chimpanzees for more than 40 years, primatologist Bob Ingersoll
16:50agrees.
16:52I mean, it's like being a human.
16:55You could build me the nicest apartment on the planet.
16:58I could live here in this apartment and have a beautiful view like I do.
17:02But if I didn't have anyone to talk to or anyone to express my humanness to, that would
17:08be a pretty harsh existence.
17:11Chimps need other chimps, just like humans need other humans.
17:17Bob was part of the controversial NIMH research project in the 1970s, in which researchers
17:23explored captive chimpanzees' ability to learn language.
17:28Chimps are chimps.
17:30Bats are bats.
17:32And they behave with their genetic predisposition, but on the cellular level, they're very similar
17:39to us.
17:40So it makes sense to me that those animals are thinking just like us.
17:48I actually had two years of experience before I met NIMH, and NIMH came back to the University
17:52of Oklahoma in September of 1977.
17:56So I knew all of his brothers.
17:58I knew several of his other siblings that were twins, several female and male chimps.
18:04But I took to NIMH quickly, and I saw NIMH as a needy chimp that needed a friend, and
18:12I wanted to be his friend.
18:15Bob worked very closely with NIMH and his siblings, teaching them American Sign Language.
18:21He eventually learned that chimpanzees are not as similar to human beings as we'd like
18:26to think.
18:28First and foremost, chimps need to be with other chimps.
18:31Secondarily, they need an area, a place where they can be together that's comfortable to
18:36them.
18:37And in captivity, that's very difficult.
18:39I mean, I work with a number of sanctuaries, and that's always our problem, that no matter
18:45what, you can't give them freedom.
18:47We do what I call the illusion of freedom as best we can, but at the end of the day,
18:52they're still in captivity.
18:54And like I keep saying, captivity's the enemy.
18:59In most U.S. states, it is now illegal to own a chimp.
19:03And since 2015, when captive chimpanzees were classified as an endangered species, they
19:10can no longer be used in invasive testing.
19:14A few years ago, the United States, you know, put a moratorium on that and then ended it.
19:19And NIH and the government agencies that own the chimps that were part of all that are
19:25now in the process of retiring them.
19:27Chimp Haven has been established, which is the national chimp sanctuary in Louisiana.
19:34There are several hundred chimps there and probably several hundred more that will be
19:38going there.
19:39So chimps in the United States are at least the ones that were institutionally held by
19:44either the government or pharmaceutical manufacturers or drug companies or hospitals.
19:51They're now in the process of retiring those animals.
19:54The pets, on the other hand, and the entertainment chimps, not quite so lucky.
19:59Most of my colony is from biomedical research.
20:03And I am pleased and proud to say chimpanzees are amazing.
20:09They are very philosophical.
20:11They do learn.
20:13They adapt well.
20:16And we probably have the biggest group of chimpanzees in the western United States here.
20:23And there are bigger chimp sanctuaries in Florida and in Louisiana.
20:31And they have, of course, bigger grounds and big opportunities than we do here.
20:39But based on all the knowledge I have had, we've had only one really, really tragic chimp
20:50that came to us.
20:52He was a self-mutilator.
20:54And he would bite and rip and destroy anything from the end of his fingers to as far as he
21:00could reach with his mouth on both arms and hands and down his legs.
21:06And it took us five years before we could stop that type of behavior.
21:12But stop we did.
21:15Well, actually, he did.
21:17We gave the opportunities.
21:20We gave different options.
21:22And he adjusted and adapted.
21:25And towards the latter part of his days, the last few years of his life, he lived in a
21:31group of chimpanzees.
21:34And I'm thrilled.
21:36Many chimps now living in sanctuaries came from private owners who learned that baby
21:42chimps may be cute, but adolescent and adult chimps can be deadly.
21:50No, I wouldn't say that a chimpanzee was necessarily a predator in the sense that a big cat or
21:56a lion or any of those, you know, a crocodile or barracuda fish or whatever, you know, are
22:03predators.
22:05But in the wild, chimpanzees cooperatively hunt.
22:08They eat monkeys.
22:10They hunt monkeys.
22:12They hunt bushbuck.
22:14And that's fairly natural.
22:17I think that's also, you know, I'm interested in chimp cognitive behavior.
22:23And when you understand what they do in the hunting situation in the wild, it's fairly
22:28complicated.
22:29They send out points.
22:31They talk amongst each other.
22:33They move the animal to the tree that they're going to, you know, do whatever.
22:38So the planning and the advanced thinking and those sorts of things that you see in that
22:44context are complicated.
22:47And they are definitely preying on those monkeys.
22:52Those who do choose to take on chimpanzee ownership rarely keep their dangerous pets
22:57for more than a few years.
22:59Very seldom.
23:01Very seldom.
23:03By the time a chimp is five, six years old, sometimes seven, it's already becoming a chimp.
23:11It's assertive and it wants to do this.
23:13And unless you understand chimps and you are a good and a kind trainer, you're not going
23:21to be able to teach this chimp what you need him to do.
23:25Because you're not treating him in that manner.
23:28This is your pet.
23:30This is your baby.
23:32And they can be dangerous.
23:34As you've heard about some of the accidents that happen throughout the world, they're
23:38pretty brutal.
23:43In 2009, Charla Nash was severely mauled by her friend's exotic pet.
23:48She lost both her hands, her nose, ears, and her sight.
24:19What is the monkey doing?
24:26The easily visible muscles on this chimp with alopecia show just how strong these chimpanzees are.
24:34Combine that strength with almost human intelligence and the chimp can be a formidable threat.
24:42Chimps are dangerous because most people do not understand what is a chimpanzee.
24:55In a world with chimpanzees, might is right.
24:58You know, there is a very definitive hierarchy and so on and so forth.
25:02There is order in a chimp colony.
25:04It may not appear so for somebody standing outside and watching some of the behavior,
25:09but there is order.
25:11But chimps are dangerous.
25:13They are five times as strong as you are.
25:20They have an intellect of five, six, and occasionally even a seven-year-old child.
25:26That's very bright.
25:28They can plan.
25:29They can figure.
25:30They can create situations where they will pre-plan things.
25:39And they're also, they can be very volatile.
25:42And so somebody does something against them, they're explosive and volatile.
25:47And they have teeth this long.
25:49And I've got arms.
25:51And they can do serious damage to people.
25:54Due to recent changes to legislation,
25:57sanctuaries are also seeing an increase in surrendered pet chimps.
26:02Well, I think that those people that own chimps are less out there now.
26:08I think that those people should be examining the next step, which would be sanctuary.
26:16The pet chimps especially, I think, because I work at the Center for Great Apes,
26:20I know what they do, and I know it's righteous.
26:23I know that they've taken animals in that didn't, you know,
26:27you wouldn't think would have a chance to be integrated into a group and then become a chimp.
26:31But I've seen it happen.
26:33And I know people that have turned their chimps over to us.
26:37We don't deny them access.
26:40They get to come and visit.
26:41We don't disallow them from coming to visit their ex-pets.
26:45But we have a number of people that had chimp pets that realized their mistake
26:51and have rectified that by turning their chimps over to us.
26:57So, I mean, the reality is that this is ending, slowly but surely.
27:03And it's fewer and fewer chimps are sold in the United States per year.
27:07There are probably around 400 chimps that are still kind of up in the air
27:13in terms of what's going to happen, where they're going to go.
27:16And slowly but surely, we are attempting to move the chimps that aren't in an accredited situation
27:22into an accredited situation.
27:25Chimpanzees that come to sanctuaries from private ownership situations
27:30often have a hard time learning how to be chimps again.
27:34The chimps who have never seen grass or trees or sky or birds,
27:40I mean, they're startled by it and they're a little leery of it.
27:45They can be fearful to step outside.
27:48But a chimp's got a great brain, and it's curious, and it does step out eventually.
27:54And it will sit, and it will look, and it will figure things out.
28:00And it'll watch by example.
28:04Most chimpanzees raised in captivity still enjoy and even seek out human contact.
28:10We here believe in creating an atmosphere where the chimps are trusting of their keepers
28:19and of their supervisors, of their people.
28:22So you can bring them along.
28:25You can make them feel secure.
28:28You can give them options of friends.
28:31They can choose their friends who they want to hang out with.
28:34You give a chimp an opportunity and you help it along
28:39in the areas where it has not been comfortable.
28:45They settle very nicely.
28:47There are a number of chimpanzees that have been in situations that are so egregious
28:52that I can tell you about one named Clyde who lived for 35 years in a box in a garage.
28:58That's just wrong.
29:00And so when an animal like that comes to the Center for Great Apes,
29:04we read as best we can the behavior of that animal,
29:08and we do what's best we think for them.
29:11If they solicit our attention, we give it to them.
29:15If they solicit our grooming, for example, not all of us,
29:19but the ones of us that have been clearly trained and checked out
29:23so that we don't lose our hands or fingers or whatever, we do that.
29:27What we do more than anything, though, is we try to interject that chimp in with other chimps.
29:34We try to introduce them together.
29:36And we've been fairly successful at the Center.
29:40Some captive chimps even prefer being with humans to being with other chimpanzees.
29:46There are a couple of cases that, and one in particular,
29:49a chimpanzee that I, a beloved chimp to me that passed away a few years ago named Denise,
29:54she just didn't get along with chimps.
29:56She didn't have that opportunity to be a chimp when she was young, and she didn't like chimps.
30:01She grew up in a home. She drank beers and cigarettes, used cigarettes.
30:05And when she came to us, it was very tough, and she was a tough lady.
30:10She didn't like chimps. She wanted to be with humans.
30:13And at the end of Denise's life for the last two years,
30:16we did the best we could to make her life as fun and as positive,
30:21still being around other chimps, just not in direct contact because it didn't work out for her.
30:27But for the most part, we tried as best we can to get chimps with other chimps.
30:31And it's a beautiful thing when you see a chimp that's never been with a chimp
30:34grooming one another, rolling around and being a chimp.
30:37And when that happens, we don't interject.
30:41We purposefully move away from that.
30:44We attempt to let them be chimps.
30:48We don't approach them if they approach us and they solicit our, you know, like,
30:52hey, Bob, come over here, you know, because chimps know how to, you know, get your attention.
30:57Like that, for example, or, you know, or whatever, you know, they get your attention, then you know it.
31:04And then you, you know, you decide whether or not, you know, that's something that's appropriate or not.
31:11The consensus among great ape experts is that chimpanzees need to live like chimpanzees.
31:20Martine believes that even captive colonies should be able to live as wild chimps.
31:27You know, it's interesting. I believe in the case of chimpanzees.
31:32I think every chimp group anywhere in the world should be allowed to reproduce every five, six, seven years.
31:43Because a baby in a chimp colony is a glue that keeps them together.
31:51It is the joy. They are so alive.
31:57They are so interested in the baby.
32:00And there are aunts and there are uncles and there are kids to play with.
32:04And there, everybody loves a baby.
32:08And I think the quality of life for chimps is greatly enhanced when every so often there's a baby.
32:18So I think, I believe, although we don't do it, but I personally believe we should allow decent sized groups of chimps to have a baby every so many years.
32:35Chimpanzee family groups may seem similar to humans, and their babies may seem just as adorable as human babies.
32:42But all that we have learned about chimps tells us that, no matter how much they resemble humans, they are simply not meant to live as humans.
32:52Well, I am against captivity in the sense that for these animals that shouldn't be captive.
32:57But I also understand that they came to be in the situation they are over time and from a time when we don't have the viewpoint we do now.
33:07And so some of the chimps are caught up in that.
33:10For the most part, they're aging out.
33:12I mean, we have a lot of 40, 50-year-old chimps that are passing away in sanctuaries.
33:18And as they pass away, the numbers dwindle.
33:21And ultimately, I think that those situations will end.
33:26There won't be the surplus of animals that we had in the 60s and 70s and 80s when there wasn't a moratorium on breeding and that sort of thing.
33:37Find a nice sanctuary and place that animal in a nice sanctuary to allow this animal to have an opportunity to grow up to be a chimpanzee.
33:58In the United Kingdom, exotic pet ownership is on the rise.
34:03However, not all owners possess the knowledge or experience to provide adequate care for these animals.
34:11Ark Wildlife Park is the United Kingdom's first rescue zoo, homing over 180 animals who have been rescued or donated from private pet ownership.
34:22Ark Wildlife Park originally started off life as purely a reptile sanctuary.
34:26So all the snakes and lizards in here are ex-pets.
34:29And then over the years, people started bringing us more and more unusual and weirder animals.
34:34This in here is a little grey-banded kingsnake.
34:38This little lady in particular is an albino.
34:41So she's got some beautiful coloration on her.
34:44And you can see that she's got a lot of hair on her.
34:47So she's got some beautiful coloration on her.
34:50And you can see why these guys are popular as a pet species.
34:54These little snakes and lizards can make great pets.
34:57Because if you go away for the weekend, as long as you've made sure there's somewhere to give them some fresh water,
35:01these guys aren't going to pine for you like a cat or a dog is going to.
35:05And they certainly don't need taking out for walks.
35:08So in some respects, they can actually be much less low on maintenance than some of the more traditional animals like cats and dogs.
35:14But whether you actually get that reciprocal love come back to you, not really, I'm afraid.
35:19I don't think she'd ever miss me if I wasn't around.
35:23Like with any pet, people really need to do their research.
35:25And the other thing you have to factor in, a hamster or a gerbil is going to be with you two, three years.
35:30This little lady here, she could potentially be with us for about 20 odd years.
35:34So reptiles, as a general rule, not all species, but as a general rule, they can have quite long lifespans.
35:40Compared to most pet species, they thrive in a much smaller environment, because that's what they're designed to do.
35:46The reason why you go out into the countryside, you very rarely, if ever, you'll see a snake coming across you,
35:50because they're too busy hiding. That's what snakes do.
35:52So they do like to be a bit more confined than traditional animals.
36:01A small crocodilian, the best way to handle them is to grab them firmly right behind the jawline,
36:06so they can't swing their head back and grab you.
36:09Rudolph's reaching the size now where another foot or so, I would be happy handling him.
36:15But at this size, one man can easily handle one of these crocodilians, if you know what you're doing and you've been trained.
36:21Again, this is where it comes to, if they don't make good pets, make a mistake, they can easily take your finger off.
36:26I'm just going to go in behind, grab him by the back of the head, gently release him out.
36:32And then keep the hand locked behind and also support the hind quarters, more for his comfort than anything.
36:38Certainly when he starts getting much bigger than this, we wouldn't be actively handling him.
36:42Nowhere near fully grown yet, but he's potentially going to max out about seven or eight foot long.
36:47Like most of the animals here on the park, he's one of our rescues, an ex-pet that was being kept illegally.
36:52These guys have got one of the strongest bite forces of any animal in the animal kingdom.
37:01Some of the crocodilians have got a very powerful bite.
37:04Even at this size, this guy could easily remove my fingers, which is why I keep my hands nice and firmly locked behind his jaws.
37:10But they're certainly, I couldn't think of a worse animal to have as a pet really.
37:13This guy can potentially live 50 or 60 years.
37:16So that's the other thing people have to consider when they get a pet reptile, even the more common pet species like corn snakes and leopard geckos.
37:21They're not like a hamster or gerbil, it's going to be with you a couple of years.
37:24They've got the potential, a lot of these pet reptiles, 30, 40 years easily.
37:28But of course, you have to factor in potentially they are dangerous.
37:31No, he's never bitten me, but I don't give him the chance to.
37:33Crocodilians, you can't trust them. It's not like a dog or a cat.
37:36Even though he's quite relaxed and laid back as far as crocodilians go, I'd never trust him.
37:41I don't give him that opportunity. So I'd never let him just sit on my lap loose, as it were.
37:45It only takes one mistake and you're going to lose a finger. So it's just not worth it.
37:53Another animal that shouldn't be confused for a house pet is the lynx.
37:57While they may look like a beautiful feline, the lynx is a wild cat and a very skilled predator.
38:04This is Echo and she's our beautiful Eurasian lynx.
38:08They cover historically Europe and Asia, used to actually be native here to the UK.
38:14And all lynx are characterized by those wonderful little tufts on the tip of the ears and the little short bob tail.
38:20And they're the characteristics of the four-lynx species.
38:22She's been with us since she was only a little kit.
38:25She's not a rescue. She was brought in as an ambassador animal.
38:28We want to start helpfully raising funds for the Iberian lynx breeding project.
38:31Her close cousin, which is also unfortunately the most endangered wild cat species in the world.
38:36I certainly couldn't recommend any wild cat species as being kept as a pet.
38:41She certainly has a loyalty to me because she's known me since she was a kit and I can safely come in here with her.
38:46But I'm the only one that comes in with her just to be on the safe side.
38:49At the end of the day she's a wild animal and you've got to treat her like that.
38:51She's not a domestic cat despite the purring and the rolling on her back, the belly rubs.
38:55It can be very easy to forget that these guys are a wild animal.
38:58And she's certainly got the strength, the ability and the armoury.
39:02These guys have got big long old claws and teeth on them to do some nasty damage to me.
39:06I certainly, if she was a tiger or a lion, I certainly wouldn't be in here with her no matter what the bond we have.
39:20If you were to have a bad day I'd walk away from the situation, whereas if you were something like a tiger I wouldn't.
39:25But either way you've got to remember these are wild animals so you've got to treat them with that sort of level of respect.
39:29They are a predator, basically purely meat eaters.
39:32Even things like wolves and wild canines, they will actually take vegetable matter into their diet.
39:37But cats are strictly, as a general rule, they're meat eaters.
39:40They're one of the most efficient predators on the planet.
39:43Cats are fantastically designed to do what they do.
39:47Lynx are what you'd call one of the larger members of the small wild cat species.
39:51So that excludes things like leopards, cheetahs, tigers and lions.
39:54They're nowhere near the size of the big guys as it were.
39:58But as far as more of the wild species of small cat like servals, ocelots, margays, they're certainly one of the larger species.
40:08If people really want to look after an animal like this and they're willing to give it a lovely big enclosure
40:13and give it the respect and the time it deserves, then by all means do so.
40:17But never be fooled into thinking that this is a suitable pet species.
40:20For sort of 99.5% of people that consider maybe keeping a wild cat as a pet, they're really not suitable.
40:33Foxes. They're a controversial animal that divide the public's opinion.
40:39Some see them as pests and tricksters, while others think they're adorable.
40:45Keeping a fox in Britain is legal, however, not without its challenges.
40:51They are cheeky, as our crew found out when this guy decided to investigate the camera bag.
41:08The enclosure has to be investigated.
41:20That's what you'd call your traditional UK fox.
41:23These grey girls, they are actually exactly the same species.
41:26They're just a colour variation that you might be more familiar with in North America.
41:30We do rarely get this sort of melanistic dark black grey version in the wild.
41:36All three of these guys were born and bred for the UK pet industry.
41:40They're incredibly intelligent animals.
41:42As you can see, he's enjoying an ear scrunch, much like a dog would.
41:45But this again is where people sometimes think that maybe they're a good alternative to a dog,
41:49and they really aren't. They haven't had those thousands of years of domestication.
41:54They're really not designed to live indoors.
41:56We've heard some reports of foxes being kept in people's flats,
41:59and again, they really need to be kept outside if you're going to keep a fox in a nice, big, large outdoor enclosure.
42:05They could certainly give you a painful nip.
42:08They're not going to remove a finger.
42:10They're not going to do anything that's going to cause you any permanent damage.
42:13But they could certainly give you a nasty nip if you weren't expecting it.
42:19Being a zookeeper, this is part of the risk.
42:21So we do occasionally, when we have to handle these animals, give them vaccinations, they will give you a nip.
42:25It's not a pleasant experience, but I wouldn't class them as a dangerous animal
42:28in the same respect as maybe the caiman or the lynx.
42:31Not having had that domestication, there's far more chance of getting a nip off a pet fox than there would be a dog.
42:46Ark Wildlife Park is the home to many different types of animals.
42:50Some familiar, like these rabbits, goats and pigs, and others a little more unusual.
42:56But they all have something in common.
42:58They were once pets in a private ownership.
43:02Ark Wildlife Park is the place that animals end up when private pet owners don't or can't care for them.
43:09It's important to remember that exotics are not for everyone.
43:13These animals will live out their lives in captivity,
43:16but play a role in educating the public on the reality of keeping exotic pets.
43:28ArkWildlife.org
43:58ArkWildlife.org