Penguins on a Plane: Great Animal Moves

Every day thousands of different animals are being moved around the globe on our roads, ferries and planes. Penguins on a Plane: Great Animal Moves follows the expert handlers entrusted with transporting some of the world's most precious and challenging cargoes safely to their destinations. With access to a range of animal transport companies, zoos and aquariums, this two-part series charts the logistical challenges of moving some of the biggest, the smallest, the most dangerous and the most delicate animals across the world. In this episode, a flock of gentoo penguins are flown from New Zealand to Birmingham's National Sea Life Centre, requiring a high-tech, custom-built transport crate costing £40,000. With refrigeration, air filtering and even seatbelts, the 'penguin hotel' must keep the birds in peak physical condition during their 12,500-mile journey. At the West Midlands Safari Park, two-tonne hippo Pinky must be coaxed into her transport crate before her move to the south of France to take part in a breeding programme. But on the day of the move, months of preparation are at the mercy of an extremely stubborn hippo who puts the super-strong travel crate to the test. Beekeeper Murray McGregor is importing eight million bees from Italy to provide pollinators for British fruit farmers. With bee numbers plummeting in the UK, Murray's cargo is especially precious.

At Crocodiles of the World in Brize Norton, Shaun Foggett is preparing to receive three of the most aggressive and territorial crocs in the world - saltwater crocodiles. They are arriving from a zoo in Normandy, France, where successful breeding has resulted in too many of them living in one enclosure. Shaun is one of the most experienced crocodile handlers in the UK and he only moves the animals when it is absolutely necessary - even juvenile crocs can take a limb off. At Birmingham's National Sea Life Centre a seven-stone, six-foot, bowmouth shark ray named Boris has to be caught and stretchered into a bespoke transportation tank to travel 125 miles to Blackpool. Bowmouths have become threatened in their native waters of the Indian and Pacific Oceans due to fishing, so Boris is making the journey in search of love with a carefully selected female called Betty. In Hungary, specialist wildlife transporter Matt Ford tries all the tricks of the trade to lure two timid arctic wolves into their transport crates. Anwik and Inoko must be re-homed because of dangerous social dynamics within their pack. They are moving 1,600 miles to the Five Sisters Zoo in Scotland.