This month I hear how a wildlife park in Yorkshire is providing the perfect retirement setting for an old polar bear. I discover that social insects make trips to natures pharmacy to fight infections. And in the scientific spark, I talk to Patricia Brekke from the Zoological Society of London, who tells me about her research on the endangered new Zealand bird the Hihi, and what inspired her to become a scientist.

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Victor is Yorkshire Wildlife Park's polar bear. 

He is one of the biggest polar bears in Europe, weighing 500Kg

Quicklinks:

Yorkshire Wildlife Park's Project Polar Bear

Ants medicate to fight disease in the journal Evolution

Patricia Brekke from The Institute of Zoology at the Zoological Society of London