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We are a nation of animal lovers but it seems pets like our favourite four legged friends aren’t enough for us anymore. Steve Brown investigates the worrying trend for dangerous pets. Lions, wolves, crocodiles and venomous snakes have taken up residence in our homes. And some owners have paid the price – one man died after being bitten by his king cobra. Frighteningly, as Steve discovers, it’s all too easy to buy a dangerous wild animal as he orders two venomous violin spiders on the internet. The RSPCA wants a blanket ban on anyone owning dangerous pets and is it time to overhaul the ragged licensing system?

Paul Martin’s checking out how robots are poised to take over in the garden. From lawnmowers to self-watering plants, are these horticultural angels or green-fingered Frankensteins? They have hefty price tags at the moment but they could be a boon for those of us like the elderly and disabled who love gardening but can sometimes struggle to manage. Paul’s intrigued by the robots but can they ever replace the sheer joy of getting your hands dirty and doing things the old-fashioned way?

Keeley Donovan reveals her Top Five favourite wonders of how nature has etched out our landscape.

Margherita Taylor is at Westonbirt National Arboretum in Gloucestershire, 600 acres of 15,000 trees from all over the world. In the first of three reports, she meets experts and volunteers to discover how, as the lungs of our planet, trees are so crucial to our survival. And she unearths ground-breaking research which is enabling tree lovers all over the world to develop and protect these wonderful front-line woodland warriors.

The kingfisher, with its unmistakable bright colours, could teach us a thing or two about fishing. At Stockers Lake nature reserve in Hertfordshire, a small team from the Herts & Middlesex Wildlife Trust have devised ingenious ways to encourage more to this area, by creating their very own kingfisher ‘Grand Design’. Using traditional methods they are constructing their very own Kingfisher nesting bank. The task has been handed to Reserve officer Rob Hopkins and with the help of Sean Fletcher they’ll put the finishing touches to this by using a ‘Cobbing process’. There’s a catch though, it’s on an island, and you have to take a boat to get there.

Keeley Donovan wants to see if she’s cut out to be a warden on the tiny island of Bardsey, a dot in the Irish ocean two miles off the North Wales coast. The bliss of isolation might be tempting but with no mod cons what’s the gritty reality? Known as the island of 20,000 saints, there’s a fright in the night but helping to ring Manx Shearwater chicks are compensation for Keeley. But there are some domestic duties, including emptying a compost loo, she could happily do without.