Episode 23 Roar

Today on Roar, Dihi the gorilla is about to have a baby.

But, sadly, the last two she had didn't survive the birth.

So, what will happen this time?

Hello and welcome to Roar. I'm Johny.

And I'm Rani.

And this is one heavy Burmese python.

The largest one measured in captivity was 8.2 metres!

-Johny, how long's this one?

-I think it's got quite a way to go.

But while he's growing, why don't we get on with the rest of the show?

I think he needs to go on a diet!

Coming up today...

The baby tapir is now out and about

and we're going to see how he's getting on.

There's trouble with the cheetahs...

GROWLING

..as the boys work out who's boss.

Our Roar Ranger is facing his worst nightmare

when he has to tackle one of the biggest poo-ers in the park.

Oh!

Over the years, the parks have had great success

breeding their colonies of western lowland gorillas.

In fact, they hold the record with 109 babies raised.

Now there's another on the way.

Keeper Maria Whitehouse is keeping a close eye

on the female named Dihi.

She's pretty much due sort of any minute now, really.

Um, so yeah, we're pretty excited but also a bit apprehensive

because her previous two were stillborn.

Dihi's last two babies didn't survive their birth

but, before that, she had two perfectly healthy youngsters

so the chances for this one would seem to be 50/50.

Everyone's hoping things will go well.

Especially since this baby's father was Kijo

who recently died of a heart attack.

He was one of the very first gorillas to be born in Britain

and much loved.

He's really special and he was just such a lovely character.

It would be a really special birth

because it would be his last offspring

if she was to give birth OK.

Here on Roar, we always do our best

to bring you the most amazing footage we can.

One thing we've never managed to capture is a gorilla birth -

something that usually happens in the night.

This time, though, Maria has a plan.

We're up on the roof. This is above where they sleep.

And Dihi usually sleeps on this part of the shelf here.

So, this is the place to rig up a special camera.

John, the Roar cameraman, has brought some kit.

What we've got is a tiny camera which hopefully

is small enough that it's not going to spook Dihi.

We've got a special light here

which is infrared which means that they won't be able to see the light

but the camera will be able to see her.

This is what the camera can see.

There's Jim on sound and Gareth and Lucy the director.

And, hopefully, into the bedrooms, it will see a shot like that.

So, we're going to rig it up on that beam there, looking down.

So, I just need to tighten that up.

And the little lipstick camera

will sit above the bedding area in this clamp here.

OK, so we now have gorilla-cam.

I've had enough of this now so can I have my camera back?

If this camera captures a birth,

it'll be great cos it'll give us a good insight into, you know,

how she deals with the birth, you know.

Cos they all deal with it differently.

So now we'll just have to wait and hope

that Dihi picks this spot to give birth.

And, of course, keep our fingers crossed

that it all goes well for her and the new baby.

Capable of over 110km an hour,

the cheetah is the fastest thing on four feet.

In the wild, cheetahs hunt alone.

Sometimes they do form bachelor groups called coalitions.

So, a week ago in the park,

two males, Nescio and Fundi, were introduced to each other.

SQUAWKING AND GROWLING

The keepers knew that it would take a while for them to settle down

because, first, they've got to work out who's the boss

and how they're going to divide up the territory.

I'm with head keeper Richard Barnes

to find out how they're getting on.

They're called Nescio and Fundi - which one's this? Cos I can't tell.

OK, this one... Or this one that's just leaving us

-is Nescio...

-Nescio.

Can we walk up actually and stand next to him?

He might be trying to move away from us

-but we can move a little closer.

-We can have a little look.

-This is Nescio.

-His idea is to keep this corner here

so his back is to this side

so he can look across and keep an eye on Fundi.

You said "keep an eye on Fundi".

Does that suggest that the two aren't getting on that well?

Well, they're getting on as well as we would hope.

We weren't expecting them to run together

and go and sit next to each other

and share the same piece of food straight away.

We were expecting a little bit of fisticuffs

and them having to settle down into it,

which, you know, it's coming.

It's just taking a little time.

He's actually spray-marking there.

He's marking all over that log and he's spraying quite a lot!

This is pretty normal and they've been doing this a lot

because they need to put each other's scent around.

So, this is just what they've both been doing

at their own ends, if you like.

Nescio's predominantly been down here

and Fundi's been up there.

So, they don't hang out together, they don't sit around, growling -

saying to each other what they've seen that day and stuff?

-No?

-Well, we would hope that that would come later on,

once they're a bit more settled with each other's company.

Yeah, the idea is... There could be fisticuffs,

he's creeping up behind him. SQUAWKING AND GROWLING

So, after eight days, they're marking the territory,

having fisticuffs but managing to live in the same enclosure.

What's the future? How long are you going to keep them in here?

What's the plan?

Typically, what would happen with males in the wild

is they have a solitary life and very different to that of a female -

a female will stay on her own

and she will raise any offspring after mating.

But normally, the males will either remain solitary their whole lives

or will form what we call coalitions, so bachelor groups, if you like.

-OK.

-And, normally, these are formed from males that are born together

so they're littermates - you know, siblings.

Occasionally, there'll just be a nomadic male

and meet up with another nomadic male and they become a coalition.

Just hang out like other blokes!

This is what we wanted to try and do,

was have a coalition in here

and it's a reasonable-sized enclosure

to hope that, if they weren't always getting on,

one could have one side and one could have the other.

Well, Rich, it sounds like you've fantastic plans for these guys

and, hopefully, when we come down later in the series,

we'll get to see Nescio and Fundi hanging out on that log,

having a good old chat.

# Bonkers! #

-Why does everyone like cats?

-I don't know.

Because they're PURR-fect!

Ra-ra-ra!

What kind of bird lays electric eggs?

A battery hen. Buck-buck!

Aroooo!

-Why are frogs always happy?

-I don't know.

Because they eat everything that bugs them. Ribbit!

Boo!

Back at the gorilla house and there's news about Dihi.

She's given birth and the baby seems to be fine.

Keeper Maria is thrilled.

Baby's looking really, really strong.

Also seen suckling already, so that's good, and clinging on.

To cling on so quickly, after just being born

means that it's a really, really good, strong baby.

We're just so chuffed to bits

because it was Kijo's last baby born after his death,

so it'll be the last offspring of Kijo.

So, yeah, absolutely brilliant.

But did we manage to capture the birth with the spy camera we set up?

Right, let's see what we've got on here, then.

No. Nothing there.

This is where she usually sleeps.

No Dihi having a baby just yet.

She doesn't seem to be under the camera at all.

I think she's being camera-shy.

Well, you can't win them all.

Looks like Dihi just went somewhere else to give birth.

We'll try again another time.

To actually have it so that all the keepers can see, you know, the birth

would be brilliant, but it doesn't look like we've got it on here.

Not many people have actually seen the birth of a gorilla.

I'm quite lucky I saw one not so long ago,

but there's people been here years and years and never seen it.

Of course, the most important thing

is that Dihi and her new baby are looking so healthy.

And, to the keepers, this baby is very special

because the father was Kijo, the big silverback male who died recently.

For many years, he was the leader of the group

and now his death has caused problems.

There's a bit of tension in the group.

We haven't been able to get close to the baby yet.

Normally, the silverback will iron all the tension out.

Because he's not around,

the females are all getting a bit tense with each other.

But hopefully the group will settle down before long

and the baby can grow up in a peaceful environment.

Cos we lost a really, really important silverback,

for his last offspring to be born healthy

and, um, doing really, really well is just the best thing,

you know, we could have got out of a really sad tale, really.

We'll be back to get a better look at the new baby later in the series,

as we follow the progress of Kijo's final child.

When I was told I'd be joining deputy head keeper, Liz Morris,

for some elephant squash, I've got to admit I got a bit scared.

These guys are heavy. But then I found out it was squash

of the drinkable variety, so what's going on today, Liz?

What we've done today is a bit of an experiment.

We've put some plastic barrels

out there and we filled them with different flavours of squash,

just to see if they have a preference, taste-wise.

Have elephants got quite a sweet tooth? I like those flavours.

I think they may have a sweet tooth, but theirs is different to ours.

Whereas we might like chocolate, their preference is bread.

-They don't like chocolate?

-Don't like chocolate, no.

Bread, yeah! That's their favourite.

So we've got all these different barrels going on.

How do they drink, through their noses

or is it through the mouth or, I mean...

They use their trunk - bit like a straw.

They put their trunk into the barrel, suck up some of the squash,

then they hold it in their trunk

and throw it into their mouth to actually drink it.

Their trunk is a nose as well,

so they don't want it going up their nose.

Right, OK. Looks like we've got a little bit of interest over here.

Obviously, it's something new, so you'll get the more dominant ones

-going up first and having a little look. This is Juster.

-OK.

What she's doing is picking the barrel up

and then sort of drinking a bit. I think that was peach.

-Peach seems to be getting a lot of interest.

-Yeah, it does.

Maybe that's their favourite, I don't know!

It's strange, but you see then Tammy is coming across.

Tammy is more dominant to Juster, so she's obviously seen

there's something nice in there and she wants a bit.

OK, and orange is getting a bit of love as well.

Juster's moved off now, yeah, she's gone on to the orange now.

Have they got a good sense of smell, can they smell the flavours?

They've got a fantastic sense of smell,

so much so, they can actually smell water.

Well, a fruitless experiment there.

They've squashed our plans to find out what their favourite flavour is,

but at least they'll be having a barrel of laughs with the leftovers.

Now, how's your animal park doing?

Before you check, you might want this - rain125.

That's today's cheat code.

And if you don't know what we're talking about,

it's time you found out.

Just go to the CBBC website and look for the Roar game.

You'll be glad you did, it's great fun.

Our Roar Ranger today is 11-year-old Sam from Kent.

When I heard I was a Roar Ranger, I was so excited

cos I never thought I'd be one.

But is he really ready for the job?

Roar Rangers need to be up for anything.

I just don't like shovelling poo up.

I can get sick, just smelling it is disgusting.

I could lose my breakfast.

Hmm, poo phobia might be a problem

when it comes to looking after most animals.

And of course what's behind it.

Up to a ton-and-a-half of boisterous black rhino.

That's about the same weight as a small car.

They come from Africa,

but the species is now critically endangered,

with only about 3,500 left in the wild.

Right now, Sam has a different problem.

The one thing I know about rhinos is, they poo a lot,

and I just don't want to clean it up, but as a ranger, I'll do it.

He's right to be worried.

Each year the rhinos here produce enough poo

to cover an entire football pitch.

-Hi, I'm Sam the Roar Ranger.

-Hello, I'm Keira, I'm a rhino keeper.

So, do you know what you're going to do today?

Judging by the card, I think I'm going to be shovelling poo.

Yeah, we're going to try and fill that whole wheelbarrow full of poo.

So, if you want to take the wheelbarrow, I'll take the tools.

If you follow me, we'll go and shovel some poo.

The poo in question is in a paddock,

but so is the animal who made it - Arusha.

So first she'll have to be moved.

Arusha!

Arusha!

Come on.

-Is it a girl or boy?

-It's a girl.

Hey, girl. Arusha!

Probably wondering who you are.

Is it true that the horn's made of hair?

Yeah, it's the same thing as our nails, actually.

So it's quite soft and when it rains,

her horn gets really soft and then she rubs it on the bars like this,

that's why her horn's quite short

compared to ones you see in the wild. Their horns are really long.

-When she comes through, do you want to close that gate.

-Just pushing it?

Yeah. Push it through all the way. That's it.

So that's the easy part done, and now...

Shall we clean up her poo?

It's Sam's worst nightmare!

Is that the poo? I thought it was mud.

No, we've got to shovel all of that now.

I really don't like this job at the moment.

At least Sam can start on some easy bits.

Stuff that Arusha has managed

to kick out of her paddock onto the road.

I have to stay away from that, it's disgusting. Smells terrible.

It looks like bits of hay with mud in it.

This is cruel.

Urgh! The smell comes out when you lift it up.

It's stuck to the ground.

If we put the wheelbarrow a bit closer,

we'll get on the other side of the fence.

Careful of flies. Keep your mouth closed.

-It's not that bad, is it?

-Yes, it is!

You get used to the smell after a while.

It might be smelly, but at least rhinos are regular

about where they do their doos.

You know what this poo pile is called?

There's a name for it - midden.

Rhinos like to poo all in one area.

The elephants, they just poo wherever they walk,

which makes it really annoying to just walk around the whole paddock

and pick up little bits of poo.

Here, at least, it's all in one place. Makes our job a lot easier.

-OK, that's all the poo done.

-Thank goodness!

Thanks very much for your help.

-There we go.

-I never knew poo weighed so much.

That's it, then we'll just...

Oh, my days! See what you've done?!

I can't believe I just done that.

So with that out of the way, the rest of Sam's day should be fun.

We'll find out if it is later on.

Jamie Roberton, what are you doing up there?

You're going to fall and hurt yourself

and then you'll just come crying to me, won't you?

-Trust me.

-Trust you?!

Jamie, what are you doing?

As you can see, I've tied this bucket here onto a high branch

and if you pass me the peanuts...

-There we go.

-They're watching! They're interested.

Yes. Peanuts is one of their favourite treats.

OK, so you've tied a bucket with some bouncy cord.

Yeah, so we put some peanuts in there

and if you look at the bottom of the bucket, there's some holes.

Oh, yeah. They're quite big holes, actually.

Yeah, and then the idea is that they have to shake the dangly bits

and then the peanuts fall through the holes. That's the idea.

It's a good idea. I'm waiting to see this cos they're all at the top.

I think they're going to jump into the bucket.

That's also a strong possibility!

-You're going to pour that in. Shall I edge it over to you?

-Yeah.

-Oh, there's a few come through.

-Ooh! Loads have gone though.

-There we go.

-We'll try that.

-But how many have we got in here?

Oh, clever one gone straight to the floor

and picked the ones you dropped.

-If I come down.

-OK.

There you go, they've gone straight away to this.

Now, you said it's a toy for them, but an enrichment toy.

What do you mean by that?

Basically, it enriches their lives, so it stimulates the mind,

also stimulates the body so they have to do exercise, which keeps them fit.

Keeps them mentally active as well.

But today we're handing them their food in a bucket,

so is this supposed to represent anything in the wild?

Like... Oh!

I thought all the nuts were going to come flying at us, then!

Is this supposed to represent anything in the wild,

-the way it moves?

-Yeah.

A lot of these branches are fixed, they don't move.

-Right.

-Whereas, in the wild, a lot of the fruit would be at the end

of a branch, so they'd have to climb along the branch

and it'd be constantly moving, they'd have to balance.

-So this helps...

-Mimic?

-Duplicate that, yeah.

These guys are really noisy in here today.

Is this because they're quite excited

about having something new in their enclosure?

Yeah, Dianas are quite a vocal species, anyway.

But, yeah, whenever there's something new or exciting,

they're constantly calling to each other.

They're practically all finished now

but they still haven't yanked the string,

so what would you say, Jamie, has this been a success or not?

To a degree. They've worked out if they bounce on it, a lot comes out,

so I think - with a bit of adaptation - I can get it to work,

so I might put some mesh in the top of the bucket

so they can't actually get in,

so they'll have to bounce on the bucket or they'll have to try

and pull these to actually get the food to come out.

You never know how a monkey will use a toy,

so it's best to put it in here, see what they do and then adapt it.

Well, if nothing else, Jamie,

-they've definitely had a bucket load of fun today!

-Bucket, very good(!)

Oh, he thought it was funny!

Back with Sam the Roar Ranger, it's time to get the rhinos their lunch.

And today, keeper Keira wants to fetch it from the wild.

They really like browse, that's what they eat normally in the wild,

-so go and cut them some from up there, OK?

-OK.

-Cool.

Hope this doesn't stink.

Browse is the leafy twigs and branches of trees and bushes.

It's the natural food of black rhinos.

The park is surrounded by woodland, so there's always plenty.

I'll hold it for you and you cut.

She'll eat quite a lot, so we're going to cut quite a lot of bits.

That bit there, that's nice, cut that but there.

Cut that one.

To a rhino, different kinds of tree are like different flavours

and their favourite is actually the thorniest.

The really like hawthorn. Even though it's got lots of spikes,

they don't feel it with their lips.

Back with Arusha, Sam's in for a treat.

Because he's here with an experienced keeper,

he can get really close.

If I hold this up and she can smell it, she might open her mouth a bit.

If you want to have a good look at her teeth.

Wow! She has a massive tongue.

Arush, come here. Can you see, there's no front teeth,

it's all at the back. They're like our big molar teeth.

Rhinos use their massive back teeth to grind up coarse vegetation

and that front lip is a powerful and flexible tool.

She has a really strong lip cos it can push the whole branch in

and her tongue is just massive. Just pushing it all in.

Wow, that's amazing to see that like there.

So if they have big nostrils, can they smell things from far away?

Yeah, see how small their eyes are? Their eyesight's not very good.

They mostly rely on their nose, their sense of smell,

and their sense of hearing.

So they can smell things from really far away.

I mean, I think each of these trees will smell different to them.

Just going to get a stroke.

With a keeper here,

Sam can have a rare opportunity to stroke a fully grown rhino!

Wow!

She needs a good mud bath.

Cos it's been so warm the past couple of days,

they just have a mud bath to get rid of the dead skin on their skins

and all the parasites and fleas that are on their skin.

Have a good mud bath to wash that all off.

It's really soft. Soft on the top near her face,

but then it goes hard on the body.

That's been absolutely amazing to stroke a rhino

and I don't think I'll ever do that again.

-OK, we'll leave her to finish off her food.

-Bye, Arusha!

-Bye, Rushe!

So weighing up the pros and cons,

what did Sam make of his day as a Roar Ranger?

It was really special to go that close to a rhino

and even touch her, and I feel really privileged.

Not many people could get to do that.

Being a Roar Ranger today was just the best thing ever.

Earlier in the series we managed to capture unique footage

of an animal moments after it was born.

Not a gorilla but a Brazilian tapir.

The baby was a little boy and we were there when he first came out

with his mum Wilma and dad Tommy.

It's been a few weeks since then and the baby is growing fast.

-It's almost the end of the show.

-It really is,

but how could we leave you today when we've got a chance to tickle

this very cute baby tapir. How you doing, Shelly?

I'm fine, thanks, Rani.

More to the point, how's this little fella getting on?

He's doing really well. He's putting on so much weight so quickly.

Shelly, he's so beautiful. I can't believe how friendly he is.

-He was friendly from about a week old.

-Really?

-We were so amazed at how friendly he was.

-Why do you think that is?

His mum's quite friendly, we can scratch her and she loves a scratch,

so maybe he picked it up from her. He'd rather leave Mum in bed

and come out and play with us in the yard and have a scratch.

He loves his scratches, doesn't he?

He does. Oh, here's Mum now. Hiya, Mum!

Mum's come up to check up. How is he getting on without Mum?

Does Mum let him run around and play as much as he wants,

or is she quite protective? Hey, you, you want a tickle!

She's becoming a lot calmer now.

To start with, she used to follow him round

and he used to stick with Mum wherever she went.

But you do see him out and about on his own sometimes now.

Not for very long. He doesn't go very far without Mum,

but there's always calling going on so they know where each other is

and make sure they're OK.

Now he's eating on his own, are you giving him solids?

I see he's getting stuck into these carrots here.

He's eating Mum and Dad's food at the minute.

-We've upped it slightly, cos he's eating it.

-Oh, dear! Whoa, you!

I've got to mention this, because our hands are absolutely soaked,

because these two are wet. Have they been having a dip this morning?

They have had a dip this morning. It's quite a warm morning,

flies are bothering them already,

so they've gone in to cool off and get the flies and mud off them.

Baby's got these beautiful markings and I've noticed Dad hasn't.

-Will he lose those?

-Baby will lose them.

At six months, they start becoming darker.

-By about a year, they'll be gone totally.

-Oh, no.

-Yeah.

Shelly, I've got to say, I think I have the tapir touch

because I have got little baby tapir

nice and relaxed there on the floor and, on that note,

I think we should get out of here, cos our work is done!

Thank you so much, Shelly.

Why don't you guys check out what's on the next episode of Roar?

Will there be howls of joy from the howler monkeys

when they're let loose on the bungee tubes?

I have to break open the poo of a clouded leopard.

And we'll find out why it's all furry inside.

And we'll catch up with Tiggs, the baby meerkat, to see how much

she's grown and how difficult she's become.

You're going to savage me properly there, aren't you? Ah, ah!

All that and more next time on Roar.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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