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Deserted village

Bill Oddie visits an abandoned village. In Ireland the forests were cleared for farming and for industry, so how come the countryside is so relatively unpopulated now? Well, it's the continuing legacy of the great potato famine of the mid-1840s. Potatos were the principal diet of the population but for two years the crop was ravaged by blight and the result was a human tragedy on a quite extraordinary scale. Something like 1 in 9 people died and vast numbers left Ireland and moved to other countries. Here was, obviously what was presumably just one of several former gardens - the evidence still blossoming magnificently. Bill is just about to sniff a lily and discovers that there's somebody in there before him. It is a crab spider. He's adapted himself to living in a lily by turning white, a superb little ghost.

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2 minutes

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