Episode 2 Roar

On Roar today, the three tiger cubs are bigger, bolder and hungrier.

But why is their dinner getting delivered by parcel post?

Hello and welcome to more animal madness on today's Roar.

-I'm Johny.

-And I'm Rani.

And this little fella here is Noel the sifaka.

Sifakas are a type of lemur

that are best known for their amazing leaping capabilities,

and can clear over nine metres in one jump.

Wow! Johny, I think that's further than a long jumper in the Olympics.

We should sign him up for the British Olympic team, Rani.

Nice try, but he's from the island of Madagascar.

Well, the Madagascans are definitely going to win gold next time.

Speaking of gold, I think we should make some TV gold. On with the show.

Coming up today...

what will the baby monkey make of her new plaything - our film crew?

When you get up close, giraffes look huge -

especially if you've just been scoffing their breakfast.

And we'll find out what creature is so terrifying,

it can reduce a fearless presenter to quivering jelly!

Aargh!

Sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!

Simon Jeffery is a hero.

By day, he's the keeper in charge of the primates. But at night,

he's transformed into Superdad.

Recently, he took on the challenge

of looking after a little baby De Brazza monkey.

The youngster's mum got into difficulties when she gave birth.

The vet had to do a Caesarean section.

That's an emergency operation to help get the baby out.

She still doesn't have a name, but now spends most of her time

up in the De Brazza house.

Hello! Can I come into your enclosure, please?

I think that's a yes.

OK, this is one of the newest arrivals at the park,

and head keeper Simon Jeffery has said I can come in and meet her.

-How are you doing, Simon?

-I'm fine.

More to the point, how's the little lady doing?

Well, as you can see, she's all over the place! She's very well.

-She's so playful! Now, you've been hand-rearing this little one.

-Yeah.

-Remind us why.

-Well, the mum was having problems in labour,

and so we had to operate, unfortunately - a Caesarean.

Unfortunately, after the Caesarean, she didn't want to take the baby,

so we had to take the decision to hand-rear her, which is what we did,

and she's doing very well.

She is doing really well, and she's jumping all the way up here!

Very, very active. You've been hand-rearing her, and I can see

you've got some of her food here for me to see what you give her -

a little tiny toy bottle, by the looks of it! Is this what you use?

Yeah, it is. I mean, she doesn't drink that much compared to humans.

She drinks usually about 100ml,

so this is more than enough to satisfy her.

How many times a day?

Only three times a day at the moment.

-Initially, when we first had her, it was every two hours...

-Wow!

-But now we're down to three times a day.

-Already on solids, is she?

Yeah, after about a month, they're on solids.

She's got bits and pieces like lettuce and mango and apple

that she likes to bite at.

Are her teeth strong enough already to do that?

-Her digestive system can cope?

-Yes.

Monkeys' teeth come in at about three days old!

Do they have teething? Do they cry lots?

They don't cry particularly, but they do get teething, like humans.

They have to bite on stuff, with things coming through.

So it's handy to have fruit for them.

Half the time when they first do it, they're just mouthing at it, biting.

They don't actually eat any of it, but now she's happily eating loads.

Looking at her now, is she happy being on her own?

Obviously she'd prefer to be with her family, but how is she coping?

Really well. In her box she's got a surrogate mum to grip onto -

a teddy bear. she's quite happy - we see her all the time during the day.

-De Brazza's monkeys are very independent anyway.

-Really?

They're off Mum at two weeks old -

they go off into the trees while the mum goes and feeds,

then Mum comes back, but they're happy to be off Mum a lot.

And she's the same, even though she isn't with Mum - happy to be here?

Yeah, she's very happy. As you can see, she couldn't be much happier.

Well, I've got to say, she's an absolute pleasure to watch.

Unfortunately, I can't really grab her or stroke her at the moment,

because I think she just wants to play!

So Simon, I'll leave her with you.

Maybe I'll come and see you when you're a bit older?

I think they're having a moment.

We'll leave you to it!

See you later.

And now, here's a question -

what's got 10 ears, 20 legs and razor-sharp teeth?

The answer is five tiger cubs!

Last year, we saw a Siberian tiger baby boom.

For the first time in nearly a decade,

both parks celebrated the pitter-patter of tiny tiger paws.

First, twins were born at Port Lympne. Then, a few months later,

triplets came along at Howletts Wild Animal Park.

With fewer than 400 left out in the wild,

the Siberian tiger is critically endangered.

They're at serious risk of becoming extinct.

So these five cubs are a great boost towards the survival of the species.

It's been six months since we last saw the triplets,

and now Deputy Head of Cats,

Ben Warren, is going to show us how they've grown.

And here they are!

They're much bigger,

though they still look small next to their dad, Malchek. But he's huge!

They're nine months old now, and they're happy to come up to us,

which is quite nice. They take bits of meat out of your hands,

and they're really cracking.

Mum's still very nervous, and gets quite angry when you go to the fence.

And these have grown up nothing like that, which is really good.

There are two boys and a girl here,

and they're all very noisy.

That noise basically means they want food.

They've seen the bucket and they're getting excited.

So I'll jump over and give them a bit of meat.

Hello! There's a bit for Dad.

A bit for you...going to stand up?

Who's a good littl'un?

It's difficult to tell these apart at the moment, they're so alike.

We've got some names - we've got Altai, Altay and Sayan.

So nice names. They're mountain ranges in Siberia.

GROWLS Dad telling one off!

He's very gentle with them. He's very good.

Normally, a growl from him is enough to put them in their place.

They're very cheeky. The boys certainly are.

They obviously need to be brave animals.

They're solo hunters. They do everything on their own.

And, er, they need to be brave.

They need to sort of dive in and grab something.

If they don't, they don't eat.

Feeding chunks through the wire is very dangerous.

People have lost their fingers this way. Ben is OK to do it,

because he's worked with tigers for over 12 years.

When he was young, he used to play with them, too!

His dad was a keeper here.

Obviously I grew up with them in the house, when my dad hand-raised them.

My dad used to let the cubs out into our garden,

and it was a lovely childhood, having tigers around!

Not your normal, everyday pet!

The tigers here now are a lot more wild than that,

so feeding chunks of meat is as close as it's safe to get.

It's a perfect way to get them to trust us.

Obviously this is a feed day, so they're expecting food anyway.

So it's nice to give the first little bit across by hand.

There has to be a good level of trust.

We have to work with these animals.

We're not allowed in with them any more, so we have to be able

to shut them away so we can go in the other enclosure

without them in here, to clean out, to feed,

And it just makes it very easy if they're like this.

I just love it!

This is a lovely moment, obviously.

Who else does this, you know?

You've got three tiger cubs, you've got a huge male Siberian -

you can't get any better than this!

It's a cracking job.

Oh!

The chunks are just a starter. Ben's about to serve the main course.

But he's got a crafty plan to make feeding time more like a real hunt.

Later on, we'll find out if the cubs are not only cute, but also killers.

I've come down here to visit the bachelor gorillas.

Now, I've got a quick question for you.

What's pale and quivers when faced by four inquisitive young minds?

Yep, you guessed - it's Head Keeper, Phil Ridges.

-How are you?

-All right so far, Johny.

-You're quivering a bit.

-You look a bit nervous.

-Yes.

-What question have you got?

-Why do we always see gorillas like bananas?

-Gorillas DO like bananas.

-One of their favourite foods. Bananas grow where gorillas come from.

-Ah!

How many gorillas do you think there would be in the world?

These ones are Western lowland gorillas,

and there are over 100,000 left in the wild, which isn't very many.

There used to be millions of them. Only 100,000 or so left in the wild.

Why are they so endangered?

Well, several reasons - one is habitat loss.

Where they live is being destroyed.

They're actually hunted as well - people actually eat gorillas.

So these guys don't stand a chance against a rifle.

And also human diseases, as well.

So they can catch like a regular cold, or flu, from humans?

-Yeah.

-That's mad.

Why do male gorillas have silver backs?

Adult male gorillas are basically twice the size of an adult female.

They're like that because it's their job to look after the group.

Usually one adult male lives with several females and youngsters,

and their job is to look after everyone in that group.

They develop that silver back as they become fully mature adults.

It shows that they are fully grown, and able to potentially lead a group.

How much do they weigh?

These guys are getting on for 30 stone or more - about 200 kilos.

-30 stone? Wow!

-They're big guys.

That one down there is our biggest here.

Earlier, we got together and thought of some hard questions to ask.

I'm going to confer with my group and pick one killer question to ask.

Come on, then, guys.

THEY WHISPER

OK! Ha-ha!

Ha-ha-ha!

-We think we've got our killer question, Phil.

-Right, OK.

You've been working with these gorillas for a long time.

So we want you to talk gorilla for us.

So in a gorilla style, ask for dinner.

-That's easy!

-Really?

-Yep.

-OK, go on, then.

When these gorillas see their dinner and want their dinner,

it's a really low rrrr...

sort of sound.

That's also a friendly sound, as well - rrrr!

I like it!

So was that a ham and cheese sandwich you just asked for(?)

Probably not the ham, just the cheese.

-Gorillas don't eat meat, really.

-OK, well done, Phil.

What do you reckon, guys? Thumbs up or thumbs down?

-I reckon it's thumbs up.

-I see!

Thumbs up all round. Hard to please this lot!

See how they get on next time in Ask The Keeper!

Like loads of people, I get shivers when I think of insects,

like locusts and crickets, jumping all over me.

But if you're a cat, it's a dream come true...

and a delicious snack, if you can catch them.

-I've come down to meet keeper Steve Veen... Hi, Steve.

-Hi, Rani.

..to see what he's got planned for the ocelot. There's the fella!

-How is Jan?

-He's all right. He's an old lad now, but still going.

You've got a treat for him today. What is it? I'm dreading it!

-You'll be fine, Rani.

-OK.

-If I'm not scared of it...

-Warn me first - what is in the bag?

We're just going to give him some, er, locusts.

Oh-h! It's jumped... Sorry, it's jumped...

-It's on the floor. Do we need to pick that up?

-It's fine.

You're really not...

You know what? I am not that in favour with the, um, locusts.

OK, you're putting them inside the wicker basket. Why?

It's just a novel object for him to play around with, really.

So if he figures out something's in there for him, he'll knock it around.

-Eventually these little locusts will hop free.

-Oh, brilliant!

So it'll just be something fun, and the locusts will be a tasty snack?

Yep. In the wild, ocelots eat everything they come across -

small mammals, birds, reptiles. But insects as well, so...

OK. See, if they're jumping away... I am breaking out into a sweat now.

Can we get them in there?

Can we go in with Jan? What's the situation with him?

-Jan can be aggressive at times...

-Aargh! Look at my leg! Aagh!

Sorry! I'm sorry, I'm sorry!

I'm sorry! Sorry!

Just... I'm sorry!

Oh, a moment!

I'm sorry! Yes, hello!

I'm so sorry!

-Should I just give it to him?

-You know, these are all jumping out,

and they all seem to me jumping for ME!

There's not going to be any treats left, so can we get it in there?

I'm so sorry.

I would probably rather go in with Jan than with these...

which is madness, I know!

To see... The wicker basket is in place, but at the moment,

Jan isn't too interested.

Not at the minute, no.

Is that because we're here, or because it's something strange?

-I thought he would have gone for it.

-Being this close, he's beautiful,

but I'm looking at the size of his paws.

I bet in the wild, he wants to go for more than a locust.

Well, yeah, he's accustomed to taking down things which are a bit bigger.

-Like what? What does he normally go for?

-Small rodents,

up to the size of five kilograms, really. So the agouti...

-Have you seen our agouti?

-Yeah. So that's the kind of thing

-he'd go for?

-Precisely, yeah. Agouti downwards.

Have a look at Jan now. He's just lying in wait, looking at us.

Are we safe here, Steve, or should we take this moment to say,

"Bye, Jan! Enjoy your basket and we'll see you another time."

-Maybe we should leave him be.

-Right, see you later. Enjoy the locusts.

Watch out, they jump!

-What do you call it when a cat bites?

-I don't know.

Catnip!

BOTH: Miaow!

Grrr!

What do you get if you cross an elephant and a kangaroo?

Holes all over Australia!

BOING! BOING!

-What do you call a fly with no wings?

-I don't know.

A walk!

THEY GIGGLE

ALL GIGGLE

Siberian tigers grow up fast.

Since we first saw the cubs, they've more than tripled in size.

They're now nine months old,

but if you convert that to human years, they'd be about three.

They're getting independence now.

They go off and do their own things.

They're much more destructive at this age.

They've already ripped two trees out of the ground that we'd planted here!

Very destructive, yeah.

They look very cuddly at the moment. I think...

they could give you a nasty scratch or a bite - nothing life-threatening,

but it would certainly hurt.

You can see the claws there - they're a good size.

They could do a lot of damage to you.

The cubs have finished with their mum's milk,

and are now on a diet of nothing but meat.

And you know how people tell you not to play with your food?

With young tigers, it's the opposite.

Ben is getting their grub ready for a good game.

Right. It's feeding time here at the Siberian tigers.

Basically, we've got a treat for our tiger cubs. We think it's easy

for them to come in and grab their meat,

so today, we're doing a bit of enrichment.

So we've got a bag, got their lump of meat, and got some rope.

What we're going to do is make meat parcels. It's a good way of feeding.

Obviously they're quite young and playful at the moment,

so it keeps them entertained for a little while.

It's also quite good for them.

Chewing this rope is very good for their teeth.

It's like tiger dental floss!

And it just gets them thinking, really - gets them active.

It keeps them entertained. Obviously, being in captivity,

it's, er...they don't have the thrill of the hunt or anything like that,

so it's good to get them working for their food a bit.

And here's two I made earlier!

One for each cub.

Now Ben needs to move the family into the small enclosure next door

so that he can go into the main enclosure

to put their dinner out.

Lucky he's still got a lot of little chunks in his bucket to tempt them.

That's all the tigers accounted for, so we can go in the main enclosure.

Right. I'm going to put the first one here.

Obviously we keep them separate,

cos if you have three cubs jumping on one bit, all in the same place,

there's just going to be scraps.

We don't really want to promote that too much,

so if we put them in three different areas...

hopefully they'll each go for their individual bit,

and, er...hopefully, it'll work quite well.

Let's hope it doesn't lead to arguments at dinner time,

since each cub is armed with teeth and claws

that are as sharp as razors.

But then, with three cubs and three parcels,

what could possibly go wrong?

Stick around to find out.

Have you checked out the new Roar game on the CBBC website?

Well, we've got loads of new stuff this year,

including a brand-new enclosure

called Ice World, where you can look after penguins and seals.

On every programme,

we'll also be giving out new cheat codes.

The one for today is...

Type that in to unlock extra features, like food, treats,

or new animals. Happy gaming!

Now that is what I call arriving in style, and speaking of style,

I'm here with some of the park's most stylish and elegant animals -

the lovely giraffe - for a morning feed. And of course I'm not alone.

-I'm here with the lovely Keira for a chinwag.

-Hello!

-All right?

-I'm good.

So, we're feeding the giraffes this morning. What is this stuff here?

These are called browser pellets.

-It's basically browse compacted into these little pellets.

-What's browse?

Browse is all these tree branches here. You can see what they've eaten.

In the wild, they eat just browse -

just leaves and shoots off of trees.

Obviously they don't get as much here, so we get these in.

-It's compacted browse, and they eat lots of this.

-Could I eat this?

-I've tasted them - they're quite nice.

-Really?

It's a bit like chocolate, I think.

Are you ready for this?

Mmm!

-It doesn't leave a nice taste in your mouth!

-Doesn't taste of anything.

Have they got developed palates? Can they taste different flavours?

Yeah, I think they can.

They get bored with too much of the same browse, so we give a variety -

hawthorn, willow, they get different types, which keeps them entertained.

How often do you guys feed them?

We feed them a bit in the morning and their main feed is at night...

It's trying to eat the camera!

But during the day here, when we just let them out here,

we just feed them this in the morning, and they browse all day

and all night as well.

Are these guys quite tame now? They must be used to you.

They're used to us, but they're still quite...quite standoffish.

They don't really like being stroked or anything.

So they'll just stay at this distance. They don't come closer.

It's quite good - you don't really want them... They kick out, as well,

so you don't really want them too close.

It's amazing. They're right here eating in front of us. Look at that!

It's not every day that you get to see giraffes feeding.

-Could I try and feed one?

-Yeah. Just gently and carefully move forward.

Just get a bit in your hand.

-I notice they come up pretty quickly.

-Yeah.

And they've got those horns. Why do they have those? Is there a purpose?

-Those horns are for fighting each other.

-Really?

They swirl their necks around and try and bash each other with the horns.

That's why some males you see, the top of the horns will be bald,

cos of the amount of fighting they do, whereas the females' are tufty.

That's one of the ways you can tell between a male and female giraffe.

Just like the elephants, these guys are massive. Have they predators?

-Does anything hunt them in the wild?

-Not when they're fully grown,

but when there's calves around, the calves are quite small,

so you can imagine big cats would try and get in there to kill them.

I've got to say, it's not every morning you get a chance

-to get up close and personal with these guys, so thank you.

-Pleasure.

But I'm not convinced with these pellets. These guys love it,

but I'll stick to toast and cereal!

It's feeding time for the Siberian tigers.

While keeper Ben has laid out a traditional joint for Mum and Dad,

he's prepared a surprise parcel of meat for each of the three cubs.

Yep, go for it, Mark.

Now it's time to let them out, because dinner is served.

This is Dad - Malchek.

He's going to grab his big bit.

Here comes one of the cubs.

Cub number one has sniffed out a parcel.

I think he probably knows what's in it.

It's just that the next thing is to try and open it.

Cub number two likes the look of that!

But number one isn't going to share.

Cub three's got his...

..and he doesn't want to share either!

There you go - there's one of the cubs,

having a whale of a time with it.

Playing with food isn't just fun.

In the wild, it would be good practice

for a youngster learning how to take down prey.

When tigers make a kill, they'll drag it off somewhere safe.

Obviously they don't want other predators in the area

to know what's going on, so they'll drag it to a safe spot,

eat as much as they possibly can, and hide it. They've done the same here -

they grabbed their meat at the front of the cage where everyone's watching

and they've run off right to the back of the enclosure,

so they know they're safe, they're out of the way.

They can play in peace.

Two out of three aren't bad.

So, with two cubs getting stuck in,

what about the other one?

It looks like he's not going to bother with his parcel...

because he's just found where Mum's hidden her share!

He's snuck off and found the big bit.

Hopefully, she won't mind too much,

and he'll still be in one piece when we catch up with the tiger triplets.

Now, we've popped up to the African Experience just before we leave,

because hoofstock keeper Chris Lacey has told us

there is apparently a super-size bird's nest. Is it the truth?

-Hi, Chris!

-Hello.

-How are you doing?

-Hey, Chris, I can see the birds,

but I can't see the nest.

It's right there, Johny - right behind you.

Chris, you do know that's just a pile of sand the ostrich is on?

That's the most natural thing we have. In Africa,

they'd use sand like that to lay their nests on.

-So there's no twigs and twines?

-No, not the same as a normal bird.

Sand, anything soft, basically -

-anything they can lay on with the eggs underneath.

-OK.

How long before these eggs hatch?

These eggs here, we're not too sure of, if any of them will hatch,

or half of them will hatch, because they weren't laid on to start with,

so we don't know when they'll hatch.

Normally it would be about 42 days, five or six weeks.

It looks like this one is very interested in us at the moment,

so I think we should skedaddle.

Check out what's on the next episode.

We'll see what happens

when our Roar Ranger Oscar makes friends with the giraffes.

It's no tall tale!

Find out why we're building sandcastles

for the Indian desert cats.

And the Javan langurs love hard-boiled eggs...

but afterwards, you don't want to be standing downwind!

PHRRT!

So don't miss the next edition of Roar!

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