Episode 26 Roar

There's great excitement in the De Brazza enclosure.

While the adults enjoy a feeding frenzy,

we get to meet the extremely cute new baby!

Hello! Welcome to Roar. I'm Rani.

I'm Johny. This is the park's impressive herd of 30 wildebeests.

And it's forever growing. This year, they've had nine new additions.

They've got a long way to go. In the wild,

you can get herds of thousands!

Johny, I've "herd" we've got a great show lined up today.

Let's get on.

Coming up: there's an emergency in the carnivore section.

An elderly serval needs an operation so they have to put her to sleep.

But will she ever wake up again?

We've just got to be patient. You've got to let nature take its course.

Boris, the anoa, the smallest buffalo in the world,

has a new girlfriend, but she hasn't been treating him very well!

Thelma? What could lovely delicate Thelma do wrong?

She's far from lovely and delicate. She's bullying Boris.

And I'm very conscious of the wolf pack closing in

while we make improvements to their enclosure.

-Is it dangerous? I can see the wolves!

-It's not dangerous.

First, though, that emergency with the serval.

Head keeper Jim Vassie is on a mission to help one of the oldest

and most loved cats in the parks.

But he's not looking forward to it.

The plan today, unfortunately, is we need to knock out Saba,

our female serval.

She's got an ingrowing claw and it needs to be attended to now

rather than later before it gets too bad.

Our biggest concern is her age.

She's 19 this year, so she's getting on.

It has to be a delicate, quick operation.

So we'll knock her down, cut the nails

then bring her round straightaway.

Servals are medium-sized wild cats

that live in much of central and South Africa,

mostly on the savannah or wide-open plains.

Sharp claws are vital to all cats. They use them to climb, to scratch,

and to hold their prey.

They get used so much, they wear down naturally.

But when cats like Saba grow old and less active,

their claws can become overgrown and have to be trimmed.

A year ago, Jane the vet had to do exactly the same thing.

Thankfully, they managed to cut the overgrown claw

before it got into her pad and got infected.

But today they'll have to trim it again.

We need to do it because obviously if she gets an infection

she won't fight the infection as she did when younger.

So it's a constant battle.

Although she's an old lady now, she can still be fierce.

But the keepers are very fond of her.

She was actually hand-raised.

So she's got a...

She'll always be a fond, happy cat to us

and to everyone else that knows her.

So yes, it is a worry.

The first step is for Jane the vet to inject Saba

with a tranquillising dart.

Using a blowpipe is the quietest and least stressful way to do it.

We'll get Melindy out of the shut-off.

Saba's just there, look.

So if you want to go for it, Jane.

This is the critical moment.

-Did it go off?

-It went off, but I'm not convinced it all went in.

Despite Jane's skill, the dart may have glanced off a bone

and not delivered enough tranquilliser to put Saba to sleep.

It hit her,

and bounced out. It's gone off,

but we're not sure whether the drug's gone in her.

So Jane's making another dart up.

We'll give her five minutes and if she gets quiet,

then obviously it went off.

But as a back-up, we're getting another dart ready.

A few minutes later, it becomes clear they will need another dart.

Saba's just got up and walked off.

It's a bit more stress added to it now

because now we have to go in and dart her at close range.

There's no choice.

Jane must trim her claws to prevent them getting infected,

so we'll come back later to see what happens.

Head keeper Simon Jeffrey runs the gibbon gauntlet on Ask the Keeper.

These brainboxes want to know everything there is to know

about these gibbons. So, Simon,

-are you terrified?

-No!

He doesn't think you can catch him out. Please prove him wrong!

Who wants to ask him a question?

-Me!

-Go on, then, Evan.

How long do their arms get?

How long do their arms get? They get to about two-and-a-half feet.

Their arms are almost another third longer than their actual body.

Is that because they stretch them as they dangle down from branches?

No, it's not!

-I didn't think so!

-Simon,

would the gibbons, if they bit you,

would it cause a very serious injury?

Yes, it would. The gibbons have got very big teeth.

Canines have big canines for the size of animal they are.

These have canines over a centimetre long, which is quite big.

They can do quite a lot of damage. They're very quick.

Have you been bitten by a gibbon?

I've been bitten once in the finger. That was it. Nothing too serious!

I bet he cried! I bet Simon cried!

Simon, do you understand what they say?

We don't understand 100% what they say,

but we know what the sounds mean.

It's more meaning. We know the territorial calls,

we know when they do hooting noises, they're saying, "Stay away."

We know they have curiosity noises and stuff,

so we don't know exactly what they mean, but we know the emotions

-behind it.

-That's a good question, Anna.

How high can they climb?

Gibbons in the wild live at the top of the canopy, so we're talking

200 or 300 foot up. The forests they come from are really high,

so at least 200 to 300 feet they can go.

Do you know what size shoe they wear?

If they wore shoes, which is entirely unnecessary,

cos they have grasping feet so they need to have their feet free,

but they're quite small feet, so about that big,

size two, three?

Something like that.

Does that satisfy your curiosity, Anna, what size shoes they wear?

Would you like to know styles or anything else?

Do they wear a stiletto or a pump?

No? OK, we'll move on from that.

Any more questions, or is it the killer question?

OK, Simon,

you're doing really well so far.

But we've got a killer question.

We need to decide which one we're going to ask.

So you wait there and we're going to huddle.

No peeping!

QUIET DISCUSSION

Got it? OK! Simon Jeffrey, we have a killer question for you.

It's a tough one.

And we will need evidence as well of the answer.

So, Simon Jeffrey, head of primates,

can you do The Funky Gibbon for us?

I don't know what The Funky Gibbon is!

You're dead old - you know what it is!

-I can do the Dancing Diana!

-Well, go on, then!

More! More!

More, I tell you! He should stick to being head of primates!

OK, thumbs up or thumbs down for that dancing?

I thought it was good. He was dancing like my dad!

And for the questions, thumbs up or thumbs down?

Simon Jeffrey, king of swing!

Back in the carnivore section, Saba the serval

who needs her claws clipped to prevent infection, is a bit dopey,

but she hasn't gone to sleep because the tranquilliser dart bounced out.

It depends on how they're sitting.

You don't know where the bone of the leg is

or if it hits a hard skin area or the bone, it just drops out.

Which is bad news. It means Jim and Jane's job is now much harder

and more dangerous for Saba.

She didn't get enough tranquilliser, so they'll have to dart her again.

But it's a bit tricky to judge how much more to give her.

We have to make sure the drug is the right amount for her weight

and once we've done the job we can reverse it.

So we need to know how much drug she's had

to be able to give her the right amount of drug to reverse her.

But now Saba has moved, so Jim and Jane will have to go

inside her enclosure.

We don't want the old lady getting too stressed,

so our crew stay back as they give her another small dose.

Spot on! That should work.

Just darted her. It went in, stayed in, the drug went off,

so in a couple of minutes she'll be fast asleep and we can do the job.

The moment Saba does nod off, Jane and Jim will move in fast.

They need to clip her nails and wake her up again

as soon as possible.

Things can go wrong when animals are tranquillised

and Saba has had two shots.

We'll come back later to check she's all right.

-Why is an elephant braver than a hen?

-I don't know.

Because the elephant isn't a chicken!

-How do elephants talk to each other?

-I don't know!

By elephone!

-What do fish play on the piano?

-I don't know.

-Scales.

-That was rubbish!

Booooo!

Now, this next introduction has definitely got the Q factor.

No, I'm not talking about primate keeper Adam May.

I'm talking about this awesome fella

the new De Brazza baby. How cute is that baby?

Is it a he or a she?

It's a boy. We haven't named it yet, but we know it's a boy.

-Is it on solids yet?

-We have seen him being interested in food,

but we haven't seen him eat solid food yet.

He suckles quite often. I have some food here we can try and give him.

-OK. Let's see.

-A bit of this should be great.

What we'll do, is if I give you a few bits,

if you move along a bit you can try and feed some of the others

and we'll all do bits at the same time.

OK. Ooh!

-There you go! Wow! OK. They're hungry.

-Yeah.

Do you find that Mum usually gets first dibs on the food?

Yes, normally the older, the parents will because they're dominant.

They'll drive them away if they don't want them around.

If we can, we'll try and give Dad a little bit.

Dad seems pretty chilled out up there.

-I thought he'd be dominant.

-When it's only one person,

he can control them. But he's a bit more wary of us.

-Come on, Pops!

-See if he comes. He's come over to me.

This is amazing.

They seem like quite a contented family.

Yeah. In the end... That's OK. It's towards Mum.

They do tend to squabble a little bit when they come to the food.

But because the oldest female is becoming mature now,

rather than seeing it as a cute kid, they see it more as a rival almost.

So what's the outlook for the little one, then?

Well, he's in a good position, really.

It seems to be that the younger children get away with a lot more.

Quite often you'll have dominance from the older children

and they tend to bully the youngsters,

but with the De Brazza's, it's the other way round.

The parents look after them better. So they get away with quite a lot!

I always feel these look really wise with their long beards.

Are they clever?

They are fairly intelligent compared to langurs and leaf-eater monkeys.

They're more opportunistic.

They tend to be more inquisitive.

They tend to use their brains a bit more.

But they do have a wise look about them.

I'll leave them to enjoy the feast.

If you need a babysitter, that baby, I'm your man!

Well, this is a first for me.

I've been invited up to the timber wolf enclosure by Rich Barnes.

-But it's to do a bit of spring cleaning. Hiya.

-Hello.

I see you've made a start already.

It looks like that, but unfortunately, you won't need these

or this. I'll hold this to look after you.

-Ah, that's what the rake's for. I thought I'd be sweeping.

-No, no.

No, no, no. There you go. Gloves for you.

What we'll do first is push this over to the front here

and start putting this stuff out.

We want to try and create a more natural environment for the wolves.

They come from North American and Canadian coniferous forest

which is covered in pine forest and stuff.

Pine cones all over the floor to make it look nice and natural.

-Do you want to get on it?

-Have I got to push? Richard, I'm concerned.

It's heavy, this. You said you'd protect me.

-Is this quite dangerous to be in here?

-It's not, no.

-I can see the wolves.

-No, we come in with a rake.

That's why I asked you to bring a rake.

The duster was just a bit of a joke.

The rake was so you could protect yourself until you got over to me.

-If you can grab hold of this. You've got that?

-Yes.

Then we'll take this over here

and just chuck a bit out here. That's it.

Just so they can stay out of the way a little bit.

So we really are taking precautions so the wolves don't come close.

They're interested in what we're doing.

They'll want to get near us to see what we're doing.

-They haven't been fed yet today. I left it...

-Oh, great(!)

..so we could distract them a bit while we do this work.

I see quite a few flashes of grey. How many are in here?

There's six brothers in here.

-Two separate litters.

-All male?

-Yes.

So we have the food out to distract them. And pine cones.

Smells just like Christmas to me. I love this smell!

They're starting to dry off. The idea is these logs from a pine tree

we can scatter on the floor. We'll bring lots more in.

Put it anywhere you like. It's rough and untidy.

The idea is it probably won't look too great

until there's a lot of stuff down here and it blends in.

There's lots of pine trees already.

So it should look quite good.

-Hopefully.

-So with the pine cones down,

it looks like it's going to be sore on their feet!

It's natural for where they'd come from.

They've got very tough pads.

They're very used to being in this kind of forest floor environment.

They'll be quite used to it.

The grey wolf is split into many, many sub-species,

the largest of which is these guys.

It's nice when we do talks to the kids

to explain they're not the big bad wolf they hear of in nursery rhymes!

But you still made us come in here with rakes!

I'm always told to make it a bit scary.

I wanted to make sure you weren't totally at ease!

Rich, we're nearly done with these pine cones. You want more in here?

This is probably one hundredth of what's coming in.

We've got our work cut out!

Grab the rake. I've got the wheelbarrow.

-Here we go.

-#

-Who's afraid of the big bad wolf

-#

-The big bad wolf, the big bad wolf?

-#

OK, online gamers. This is what you've been waiting for,

today's cheat code:

And remember, if you haven't already opened your own Roar wildlife park

in the games section on the CBBC website,

it's never too late!

Have fun!

You might call this next job somewhat tiresome

and "tyre" is definitely the operative word!

I'm with head of hoofstock, Joel Bunce.

Joel, what's the big idea?

The idea is to hang this tyre up for the bison to play with.

Why are we going to do that?

Well, Bransk, the adult male,

has a lot of pent-up energy and aggression.

He needs to release it on something other than the other bison

and the fencing, cos he does a lot of damage.

We're hoping that when he feels energetic,

he'll come to the scratching post and play with his tyre.

-Take his stress out on this.

-Yes.

Where is Bransk? I imagine he's pretty big.

He's very big. He weighs between 700 and 800 kilos. He's massive.

He's showing at the moment. We can't do this with him in here.

-Take his aggression out on us instead of the tyre!

-Right.

Shall we make a move for it and let him in?

-Absolutely.

-Let's get out of here!

-Who's the guy at the front?

-That's the main man, Bransk.

Bransk. OK. I've got to say, we've hung the tyre up quite high.

Will he be able to reach it?

Yes, without a doubt. He's taller than I am.

When his head is raised and he looks up,

he's between seven and eight feet tall.

Wow! You must be about six three or something?

I'm about six one, six two, around that.

So he'll be able to reach that without any problem at all.

These guys must be powerful animals.

Do they hunt anything, or is it just vegetation?

Just vegetation.

The only thing that really preys on European bison

are wolves and lynx.

But they'd only pick on a small one or a sick one.

But he would have no natural predators himself.

Are these guys a family in here,

or are they all men? What's the set-up?

-He's got two females and they've got a son each.

-Right.

-OK.

-So they're a nice little family unit.

OK, well he's not showing much interest in the tyre yet.

-Oh, look!

-He's just looking up now.

He's sniffing it.

You can see he's going to reach that no problem,

once he's used to it.

He's checking it out cos this is all new to him.

He just wants to make sure it's not going to be a problem.

He seems pretty chilled out now.

What makes him aggressive or angers him?

If I wanted to anger Bransk, which I don't ever want to do,

what would I have to do?

It wouldn't take much!

Probably just walk past him in the paddock.

I notice he's rubbing himself. Is that a nervous tic cos he's angry?

No, not at all. As you can see,

he's still got patches of thick fur left from his winter coat.

He needs to scratch those off

cos they do make him feel itchy.

OK. It seems he's walking away, though, from our tyre.

Why's that? Will he use it at a later date, do you think?

Yeah, definitely. He's just got to get used to it.

He likes to move and destroy things

so eventually he'll start playing with it.

I wonder why he's not attacking it now?

Must be "tyred"!

Brilliant.

Back in the cat section, Saba the elderly serval,

who urgently needs her overgrown claws clipped, is finally asleep.

Because she needed more than one dart,

they don't know quite how much tranquilliser got into her system.

So they need to work fast and wake her up as soon as possible.

This is the problem one.

Let's look.

That is growing in.

Yes. Must have been giving her some pain.

This is just like cutting fingernails.

But if that razor-sharp claw had got into her pad,

it could have got badly infected.

It was vital they got this done.

If you want me to take any more off them...

No, Jane, that's fine. It won't give her any more discomfort.

No. She's had this problem a couple of years running.

At least they're cut as far back as we can.

-It's made a little dent.

-But no infection.

-Good.

Saba's sleeping well at the moment,

but they're watching carefully in case she stops breathing.

We're just taking some blood for analysis

to make sure her kidneys are still functioning properly for her age.

And whatever else we need to check for.

Very few servals in the wild survive beyond the age of 16

because their teeth wear out and they can't eat.

Saba gets a first-class diet, though

and is still going strong at 19.

She's got a fair set of teeth for her age.

A tiny bit of plaque there.

But nothing too bad.

For a cat her age, it's pretty fantastic.

You wouldn't like to get bitten by them!

Saba probably has the same problems as an older domestic cat at home.

Because she eats bones and whole prey items,

she has pretty good teeth.

But the diseases she can be affected by are exactly the same.

So we'll do some bloods. We've examined her. She's in good shape.

Hopefully we'll wake her up in a few minutes.

It's time to start bringing her round, so Jane and Kerry

take Saba back to her shed.

The sooner they can wake her up again, the better.

-Happy?

-Yes. I'll let Kerry position her.

Certainly.

Kerry gives Saba a drug to bring her round.

But there's no knowing how long that will take.

They're watching for important signs of life.

Obviously twitching, movement, is the main one.

But also reflexes.

If I were able to touch her, which I won't,

because if she is awake she could bite me.

You can touch the reflexes in the corner of the eye

to see if she's starting to wake up a bit.

Yeah, obviously movement and things like that.

Her respiration to increase.

Those kinds of things.

But Saba isn't moving. That could be bad news,

so Kerry decides she'll have to take the risk of opening the door.

-I'll just turn her over. Do you want to come by here?

-Yeah.

I'll stimulate her a bit.

We do a lot of sedation especially with the cats and dogs in the park.

It can be a bit routine,

but you're never satisfied until they're up and about.

We've just got to be patient.

It's hard to be patient, but you've got to let nature take its course

to get rid of the drug.

Having looked after Saba for almost 20 years,

Jim's not going anywhere.

I'm testing her reflexes with the straw.

At last, Saba reacts.

That's all good signs.

After a tricky start,

Jim's relieved that the operation was a success.

When you've had a cat born here

and you've seen her progress through the years,

it's always a worry when you knock something down that they come round.

Especially when you've known them this long. So I'm happy

that we've done the job, she's coming out of the anaesthetic,

and hopefully she's going to be out playing in the long grass soon!

I'm pleased to report Saba was soon back on her feet once more,

feeling much more comfortable.

Now, an animal that we very rarely see on Roar,

and you're even less likely to see in the wild.

Anoa are the smallest kind of buffalo in the world.

They come from Sulawesi in Indonesia.

They're endangered in the wild. It's good they have a small herd here.

But now we hear that one of them's been misbehaving!

Keeper Chris, we're here. Who needs a telling off?

It's one of the anoa that needs telling off.

I can speak Anoa a little bit.

I'm guessing that it's Boris the male.

No, you're wrong. It's actually Thelma the female over there.

Thelma? What could lovely delicate Thelma do wrong?

She's far from lovely and delicate! She bullies Boris when we mix them.

-Is that why they're separated?

-Yes, they're not in together yet.

-Why doesn't she like him?

-Cos she hasn't had a male

with her for quite a long time, only her son for almost two years.

She's unused to seeing another male, especially an adult.

She immediately tries to beat him up.

Oh, I feel quite sorry for Boris.

-Can we go in and give him a bit of company?

-We can, yes.

It seems quite a shame that Boris is spending his time alone in here

and Thelma is next door. What's the plan now?

We'll keep trying to mix them, take it as slow as possible.

It hasn't worked as of yet,

but each time there's better signs from it.

So it should get better. We're trying to bulk him up a bit

to get him some muscle!

-It may be a case of opposites will attract.

-It could be, yeah.

-Fatten him up.

-That's a good point.

When I was in school and I fancied a boy,

sometimes I went, "Oh, I don't like you!"

-So that's why you do it!

-Maybe Thelma's doing that with Boris?

Maybe that's how anoas attract each other.

It could be if she was gently pushing him.

But it's more trying to savage him rather than that!

-It's physical aggression.

-Definitely far more physical than you'd be.

Tell you what, Chris. I'm on Boris's side.

I'm going to hang out with Boris.

Whilst Johny hangs out with Boris,

check out what's on the next episode of Roar.

-I'll hang out with you.

-Fair enough.

-I don't like you! I don't!

Our Ranger says he likes tapirs, but is shocked when he meets them!

Flippin' 'eck, they're big!

There are cats of every shape and size in the parks.

But which kind is best? We'll be comparing

an extremely large one with a very small cat indeed.

And Rani and I get it completely wrong

when we're told to come ready for a shower.

You got the wrong end of the stick. You look like idiots!

Make sure you're watching!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd