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Nature's Boldest Thieves

Presenter Lucy Cooke sets out to explore the phenomenon of seagulls, foxes, squirrels and badgers stealing our food and discover what makes them such good thieves.

Presenter Lucy Cooke sets out to explore the phenomenon of seagulls, foxes, squirrels and badgers which are now living in our towns and stealing our food.

Starting in the seaside resort of St Ives in Cornwall, Lucy witnesses for herself the seagulls that will swoop from 50 metres and steal a sandwich out of your hand. At the height of the summer season there are as many as 15 snatches a day from tourists. With the help of bird experts, Professor Graham Martin and Steven Portugal, Lucy sets up a range of tests and GPS tagging to discover exactly what makes the seagulls such good thieves.

Lucy also goes to Rustington in Sussex, where she discovers that the fox population is increasing dramatically. She sets up a test to discover whether - given the choice - foxes would choose jam sandwiches and sausage rolls or the more natural diet of worms and fruit.

Lucy goes to Hertfordshire to encounter the black squirrel - a variety of the grey squirrel - which is now spreading through Hertfordshire and southern England. She observes it tackling a challenging homemade assault course built in a suburban garden in order to steal nuts from a bird feeder, and she explores how the unusual 180-degree ankle joint of a squirrel makes it such a good thief.

Back in St Ives, Lucy discovers that badgers outnumber foxes in the town and that they are regularly eating food from gardens. One family of badgers has developed a liking for peanut butter sandwiches!

With numbers of urban gulls up to around 250,000 in the UK and urban foxes and badgers on the increase, Lucy concludes that the phenomenon of seagulls, badgers, foxes and squirrels living in our towns and stealing our food is here to stay and we humans must learn to live alongside them.

49 minutes

Last on

Sat 14 Sep 2019 15:45
BBC Two

Clips

See all clips from Nature's Boldest Thieves (4)

Music Played

Timings (where shown) are from the start of the programme in hours and minutes

  • 00:01

    Bastille

    Things We Lost In The Fire

  • 00:03

    Calexico

    Crumble

  • 00:04

    Bombay Bicycle Club

    Home By Now

  • 00:05

    Muse

    Feeling Good

  • 00:05

    John Williams

    Theme from Jaws

  • 00:06

    Doves

    The Storm

  • 00:08

    Bonobo

    Days To Come

  • 00:12

    Foals

    Blue Blood

  • 00:14

    James Blake

    Overgrown

  • 00:15

    Tindersticks

    Running Wild

  • 00:17

    Gotye

    Somebody That I Used To Know (feat. Kimbra)

  • 00:19

    Bat for Lashes

    Moon And Moon

  • 00:20

    Bat for Lashes

    Moon And Moon

  • 00:27

    Jessie Ware

    Tough Love

  • 00:31

    Maverick Sabre

    These Days

  • 00:32

    The Herbaliser

    Generals 

  • 00:34

    Morcheeba

    The Sea

  • 00:36

    Morcheeba

    The Sea

Credits

Presenter Lucy Cooke
Director Matthew Ainsworth
Executive Producer Debbie Christie
Production Company Finestripe Productions

Broadcasts

  • Sun 25 Jan 2015 16:05
    BBC One Scotland & Scotland HD only
  • Sun 25 Jan 2015 17:10
    BBC One except Scotland, Scotland HD, Wales & Wales HD
  • Sun 1 Feb 2015 16:25
    BBC Two Wales
  • Tue 11 Aug 2015 22:35
    BBC One except Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland HD, Scotland & Scotland HD
  • Tue 11 Aug 2015 23:35
    BBC One Northern Ireland HD, Scotland HD, Northern Ireland & Scotland only
  • Wed 9 Nov 2016 12:10
    BBC Two Scotland
  • Wed 9 Nov 2016 16:20
    BBC Two except Scotland
  • Sun 7 Apr 2019 12:00
    BBC Two except Scotland & BBC Scotland
  • Sat 14 Sep 2019 15:45
    BBC Two except Scotland

How foxes, squirrels and seagulls use their super-sneaky skills to steal our snacks

How foxes, squirrels and seagulls use their super-sneaky skills to steal our snacks

A look at the tactics of some of nature's finest thieves

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