Episode 29 Roar

There's been a massive baby boom in the parks this year,

but with so many to choose from, which one is the cutest?

We're bringing in a top team of judges to give their verdict.

Hello, welcome to Roar. I'm Johny, and Rani's just over there.

She reckons she's not scared of anything,

but she must be scared of one of these.

-Rani, could you come over here, please?

-Sure thing, Johny.

-What's up with you today?

-Just wanted to show you something.

-Go on, then.

-This. Aargh!

It's a Madagascan cockroach!

You probably know it by its nickname, the hissing cockroach,

because of its ability to push air through its abdomen.

That one isn't fully grown. They grow up to eight centimetres.

If it was with its pals, you'd call it a colony. Awww!

So you're not afraid of it?

-Oh, Johny, you'll have to do more than that to scare me!

-Oh.

Oh, I think I got away with it!

Here's what's on today's show. We meet up with a disabled lioness

and find out why she had swimming lessons when she was a cub.

She was given little armbands or lifejacket, and she went swimming.

This went on for a few months until she got too big

and the owners of the dogs at the local pool didn't want to take

their dogs there any more if there was a lion going.

And the lion tailed macaques are in for a treat.

But what's our Roar Ranger going to feed them?

-Are them worms alive?

-Yeah!

-Yuk!

You're going to be putting your hand in to scatter them around in a bit.

You go in first, then, Mr Monkey Expert.

Monkey Man!

But first, the Cutest Baby Award.

We've seen all sorts of little ones born this year,

from mini monkeys to gorgeous gorillas

and from tiny tapirs to cute cats.

We've even had a rare moloch gibbon birth captured on film

for the first time ever in Europe.

But the time has come to make the toughest decision of the year,

which baby is the cutest of them all?

Two years ago, the gorgeous baby gorillas scooped the prize.

Since then, they've, amazingly, been returned to the wild in Africa,

leaving this year's competition wide open.

So we asked the keepers to nominate their favourite four.

First up is a delightful De Brazza baby,

sponsored by Simon.

That's a cute baby! Nothing else is as cute as that.

Next comes the baby tapir,

who Barry wants to win.

This chap is just number one.

Our third contestant is Etana,

who's been entered by Liz.

Tapirs, and other things like that,

can't compare, really, to a baby elephant.

I mean, what more could you ask for?

And last, but by no means least,

Jess with Tiggs the meerkat.

That gives us a shortlist of four bouncing babies

up for the grand prize.

BELL CLANGS

So let's get to know all the contestants a bit better

before the all-important vote, starting with a teeny-weeny version

of the largest land animal on the planet.

Etana is the most cutest animal in the park, because she's so playful,

so cheeky, she's just adorable. Obviously, because she's a big baby

because she's an elephant, there's more of her to be cute, I suppose.

Etana's enormous daddy, Jums, weighs over five tonnes.

She only weighs a fraction of that, so she's very much his little girl.

The cutest bit of Etana?

I'd have to say her pretty face and her eyes.

When they're first born they have no control over their trunk

and it's just sort of hitting themselves in the face, and that,

whereas now obviously she's growing up. She's six months now,

so she's learnt how to use it a bit more.

There are fourteen ellies in the herd here,

and Etana's granny, Massa, is the matriarch or head female.

So Etana's a kind of royal princess, and she certainly behaves like one.

She's always copying the others, playing with them,

trying to bully them! I think she thinks she's bigger than she is,

and if there's an elephant laying down, she'll be the cheeky one

and crawling all over them and acting the fool.

I think baby elephants have to be the cutest animals in the whole world,

I definitely do.

So a big plug for Etana from Liz there,

but I can't see Barry the tapir keeper agreeing.

Well, I don't think there's any comparison at all.

He's in a different league.

Elephants, well, they're lovely, but this chap is just number one.

He's got stripes, he's got spots, he's got a great personality.

He's into everything.

He lets you give him a nice little scratch,

and he is the cutest in the park.

When they grow up,

Brazilian tapirs lose their markings and can be heavier than a lion.

They have to eat loads to achieve that size,

and, within minutes of being born,

this little chap had found his mother's milk and got on with it.

When he was born, he was probably no bigger than about that,

so look at how big he's grown now.

And this is just in five weeks.

He's putting on quite a bit of weight. Aren't you, Mr Chunky?

So that's two of the finalists for Cutest Baby of the Year,

and later on we'll meet two more.

This competition is really hotting up.

Today's Roar Ranger is 11-year-old Jake from Barnsley.

He's got a pet dog called Maggie.

And he's already helped out with the tapirs here.

Hey, there's Wilma.

Flippin' heck, they're big!

Jake has a black belt in Tae Kwon-Do,

so he's not really scared of anything.

But what creatures will he be taking on today?

Cue Jake's best monkey impression.

Oh-oh-oh-oh-oh!

Brilliant. Time to feed the monkeys.

The kind of monkeys Jake will be dealing with

are the lion tailed macaques.

Now, although they have a lion-like mane on their heads,

it's the tuft on their tails which gives them their name.

Originally from southwest India, they are endangered in the wild,

where only a few thousand survive at the most.

It's a lot of work keeping the macaques fit and healthy,

so our Roar Ranger's going to give head primate keeper, Matt, a hand.

-Hi, I'm Jake.

-Hi, I'm Matt.

Do you know why you're here today?

-To feed monkeys.

-That's correct.

We've got some special toys to throw in with the macaques,

so if you want to follow me, we'll sort them out and get them in there.

Sounds good.

But the monkeys can't eat the toys, can they?

Jake's about to find out.

OK, so, what are we going to do with all this?

-These are dog toys that we're going to use...

-Dog toys?

-Oh, yeah.

Dog toys? For monkeys?

All we're going to do is stuff lots of bits and bobs.

-So if you want to squeeze them into the ball...

-I'll try.

Macaques go nuts about nuts, so Jake's job is to push in walnuts,

seeds and their favourite, peanuts.

Is this the way that they normally get fed?

Er, not every day, no. This is sort of like treats that we do for them

just to keep them busy during the day, and these ones work the best.

-They like their nuts.

-They do like their nuts.

But Matt plans to give the macaques a surprise treat, as well.

So what are you doing there?

All this is is just baby food.

The macaques love it. So it's going to be a bit messy, but there you go.

Do you want to smear it onto that ball?

I'll use a spoon, saves a bit of mess.

Come on, Jake, get mucky!

I tell you what, the best way...

Just dip it in!

If you want to do that, and I'll just get you some seeds.

Roll it around in that and see what happens.

Ah, this looks much more promising!

Look at that.

Sticky fingers. That's more like it.

I think you got more on you than on the ball.

So is Jake's gooey gobstopper mucky enough for Matt?

Doesn't look pretty, but I think what Jake's done

is going to enrich the macaques slightly.

We'll be back shortly to see whether our Roar Ranger

or the monkeys end up in more of a mess.

What do you get when you cross an elephant with a goldfish?

I don't know.

Swimming trunks.

ROARING

Why do elephants have trunks?

I don't know.

Because they'll look silly carrying suitcases.

ROARING

What do bees chew?

I don't know.

Bumble-gum!

LAUGHTER

There have been 34 lions born here over the years,

and they have 11 at present.

But one of the most popular with both keepers and visitors is Samira,

who's a disabled lioness,

and I've come to see her with keeper Rich Barnes.

Four days after she was born, she was found with a dodgy sort of leg,

and we thought she'd been injured, so we pulled her out for hand raising,

and at that point we didn't actually know what was wrong with her.

We just assumed it was the obvious sort of scarring on the leg.

Later on, when she was having various scans, it actually picked up

a spinal injury between her shoulder blades, a bit of a kink in the spine,

so that obviously puts pressure on the nerve and all of the stuff

around the spine, and this causes her to walk funny.

So it was actually nothing to do with the foreleg injury which

we thought it was initially, and that was just superficial, really.

She's so beautiful, watching her come down the hill, limping away.

And she had rehabilitation, didn't she, when she was younger,

but there's nothing you can really do to help her walking or anything?

-Not really.

-She went to a hydro pool?

-Yeah, she had swimming lessons.

She was given little armbands or lifejacket, and she went swimming.

This went on for a few months until she got too big

and the owners of the dogs at the local pool didn't want

to take their dogs there any more if there was a lion going.

And then we had to stop her going.

But that was obviously for the initial injury,

and it was found later than that, the actual spinal injury.

There's not really anything we can do for it except

make her comfortable if she's in any discomfort.

We spend time with her, give her a little bit more fuss

than maybe we'd do with the others, give her little bits to do,

don't make her life too difficult, don't give her things that are hard,

like hide her food too much and stuff like that.

She's happy enough, not in any pain. And a real hit with the visitors.

Richard, it is an amazing enclosure, but really big for one lovely lion.

Is there any chance you could put her with any other lions in here?

Not in this enclosure. This is only for Samira, really.

We couldn't put any other lions in,

because the fence is lower than normal.

As for putting her in with other lions,

we've tried her with several other males, and basically she just

feels threatened all the time when she's in with other lions.

She's aware that she's disabled and constantly worried that

they're going to have a go at her. Since being on her own,

she's been much happier. We spend a little bit more time with her,

but she's all good about that, because she was hand raised.

And so we think she's acted more like a lion in the last year or so

than she ever has, she's actually started really talking,

roaring like a lion, actually being a proper lion.

So she wasn't roaring before?

Is that because she was unhappy, just didn't know how to,

or have you been doing a lot of roaring with her?

It's not really roaring as such, it's that deep bellowing they do.

She does that and talks to the guys next door, and they talk back.

-Oh, lovely.

-She just never did that before so much, so it's nice.

Rich, thank you so much for letting us pop down here today.

She is looking great and it's always a pleasure to see her.

Thank you so much.

Now back to the hunt for this year's cutest baby.

The little elephant and tiny tapir from earlier on

are the front runners so far, but we still have two more to meet.

This is Tiggs,

our four-month-old baby meerkat. She was hand reared with us,

and I definitely think she's one of the park's cutest animals.

You can see that Tiggs is really feisty, but when she was little,

she was always kind of really sweet and just kind of slept all the time

and only woke up to be fed, and now she's constantly awake

and constantly wants to bite people. Don't you? Don't you? Yes!

But the little nipper wasn't always so feisty.

Just look at her three months ago, when we first met her.

Here she is. OK, this is Tiggs,

the little baby meerkat.

Three weeks old today, aren't you? Eh?

Baby meerkats usually live

in underground burrows with Mum and Dad,

but Tiggs got very ill after birth.

She had to be removed from her family and hand raised

by Rich Barnes, who, as we've seen, normally looks after the big cats.

You think it's getting better?

TIGGS SQUAWKS

Yes!

She's quite cute. Aren't you?

So Tiggs must be in with a chance of winning the competition,

but not if Simon Jeffery has anything to do with it.

He's raised a tiny tot, too, called, believe it or not, Monkey.

And what could be cuter than a four-month-old De Brazza baby?

Baby monkeys are fantastic, and she's a very, very cute little monkey,

especially because she's got a little beard as well.

BLOWS RASPBERRY

There was an emergency when the little De Brazza was born.

Her mum, Bamboo, needed an operation to get baby out

and was too ill to look after her.

So Simon raised Monkey in his own home,

with a little help from his Basset Hounds.

Having a little monkey around the house means fun, fun and more fun.

This monkey likes doing everything.

She plays with you, she jumps on you, she tickles. Look. Tickle!

Hopefully, Monkey will be able to go back with her own family soon.

But in the meantime, her favourite plaything is Simon

and the Roar camera crew.

On a scale of one to ten, she's an eleven. Simple as that!

Well, you can't argue with that,

but is she cute enough to win this competition?

If you look down at that face

there's only one word for her, "cute".

She is just the cutest animal in the world.

So here are the Cutest Baby of the Year finalists.

But who's going to win it? The keepers can't agree,

and Rani and I certainly can't,

so we'll be asking some Roar volunteers

from Ask the Keeper to vote on it.

I think the baby tapir's the cutest.

I think the baby elephant's the cutest.

I think the cutest baby is the baby De Brazza.

I can't really decide.

We'll bring you the results of the all-important vote

in just a few minutes time.

How's your own wildlife park doing on the Roar online game?

Type in today's cheat code, which is snow899,

and that'll unlock food, treats or even new animals

to attract even more visitors.

And that's how you move up the leader board.

Back at the macaque enclosure, the monkeys are in for a treat.

But our Roar Ranger, Jake, may not see it that way.

-Are them worms alive?

-Yeah.

-Yuk!

You're going to be putting your hand in to scatter them around in a bit.

RETCHING

You can tell Jake's looking forward to this(!)

You go in first, then, Mr Monkey Expert.

Monkey Man!

Weighing on average the same as 14 tins of beans,

the lion taileds are the smallest of the 15 species of macaque.

But with front teeth sharp enough to slice through nuts,

you don't want a nasty nip off these fellas,

so the first job is to clear the enclosure.

Right, if you want to start shaking them about.

The moment they hear the rattle of peanuts, these monkeys come running.

Here they come. We've got to wait till all 14 are in,

so I hope you're counting them.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten...

No, I haven't counted them all! Anyway, there's none outside.

They should all be in. They work as a group and come in together.

They'll follow the dominant male, which is this one here.

Macaques always play follow-my-leader,

and the alpha male here, the boss man, is eight-year-old Spock.

Jake's safe because he's here with an experienced keeper,

but he isn't taking any chances.

-So when we're in there, they can't get out.

-Hopefully not.

We've shut the slides and we'll put the padlock on, because that's

always a safe thing to do to make sure that they can't get back out.

Right. If you want to grab some food...

OK, yeah. Plonk it...

Whoops.

Ah, a touch of the peanut-butterfingers there.

I'll deal with that later!

Jake's next job is to spread the nutty toys around.

Put this here.

With them all spaced out, even the little one should get a look-in.

Right! Done.

Except, of course, for the gooey gobstopper.

It being a warm day, Matt's also brought the macaques

some giant ice lollies to lick or, more likely, tear apart.

So these monkey are right vicious?

We've never had much contact with them. They're very wild

and work as a group so if one of them has a problem with you

-they all will and will all attack you.

-Trying to eat you.

Macaques are omnivorous, which means they'll eat anything,

so it's a good thing they're still safely locked away.

But it's time for our Roar Ranger to get to grips

with those very wriggly mealworms.

If you want to take a handful...

They won't bite. Hard.

What do you mean, "They won't bite hard"?

No, they don't bite at all. You're fine.

So how's our Roar Ranger approaching this job?

I'm just trying to get it done as quick as possible.

There are loads of treats in place now, so it's time to leave.

And for all his hard work,

Jake's rewarded with an extra special honour,

giving the order on Matt's keeper radio.

Ruth, let the macaques out.

Him on table's big. He is big.

Well, they seem to be enjoying it.

That sticky ball isn't going to last, is it?

Because monkeys are eating it.

-Worked quite well.

-It does look like they're enjoying it.

So has Jake enjoyed his day?

I think I've done exceptionally well.

LAUGHTER

Jake's proved that being a good keeper, he can get dirty

like the rest of us, he can understand about being around

dangerous animals and things like that.

I feel good about going in somewhere where no-one else has been.

But I can see why no-one else has been there for two reasons.

One, because they can't get in, and two, because they're

dangerous monkeys.

So does our Roar Ranger have any regrets?

Yeah, I did enjoy it.

I just wish I could've stayed and climbed a bit!

Never mind, Jake,

I'm sure the macaques would have you back any time.

Now, if I were to say the word "breakfast", you'd probably think of

cereal, toast, eggs, a bit of orange juice as well.

But I bet you'd never think of herbs.

Well, that's exactly what's on today's menu for these guys,

the bongos. I'm here with hoofstock keeper, Helen Rhodes, who's got

their more traditional breakfast. But what's the purpose of this?

We've got coriander, thyme and basil, which they'd find in the wild,

-so we're giving it a go.

-Shall we start feeding them?

Yeah, spread it around a bit so they all get some if they want it.

-OK. Let's see if they like them.

-Do you want to chuck it all out?

-All out, then?

-Yeah.

-OK. OK.

See if they're more likely to give it a go, then.

Oh, look, they're eating.

Where would you usually find bongos, Helen?

These are eastern bongos, so they're found in eastern and central Africa.

Who've we got here, then?

We've got a couple of little ones. They look like a nice little family.

Yep, this is Shani, here,

who the baby's trying to suckle from even though it's not her mum.

We've got Enna at the back, which is the mum to Nampula,

the male over here.

And Saffy, this little one here, and then Rowena's in here somewhere,

but I can't see her, and that's this one's mum.

In the wild, have they got many predators?

Yeah, big cats. They've got to be very careful.

-And obviously, humans, of course.

-Let me throw a few more herbs out.

How will they know that they're here?

-Have they got a good sense of smell?

-Yeah, they have but hopefully

they'll have seen us throw them out and they might just come back and

-have a little taste.

-Yes, it's a waiting game. Let's find out.

Are they quite protective over their babies?

Yeah. They're used to us. They know that we're fine with them.

Now, Helen, what's this big fella behind the fence?

-That's Raf. He's our male.

-OK.

He's separate at the moment. He can always see them through the fence.

Would he attack some of the others if he was in there with them?

No, but he does get a little bit grumpy which is why we separate him.

-He likes his bachelor time.

-He likes to chill out by himself for a bit.

I've noticed the smaller ones don't have horns. Raf has massive horns.

So at what age do they start growing their horns?

Nampula here is about a year and a half now, so they do start

growing straightaway, but they're just a bit stumpy to begin with.

-Nampula's looking like he's enjoying these herbs.

-Yeah.

I think the others are a bit shy, so I reckon we should leave them to it.

This talk of breakfast has made me hungry. Do you fancy a full English?

-Yeah!

-My treat. I'll leave them to get on with it.

The moment has come to decide on this year's cutest baby.

Forget the Oscars, this is the ultimate award to win.

You at home probably have your own favourite,

and Johny and I could argue for weeks over this.

It's a massive decision,

so we've invited 24 of our Ask the Keeper children to make it.

This is a selection of who they want to win.

I think the cutest one is the meerkat.

The baby elephant.

The De Brazza.

The baby meerkat.

I think the baby meerkat's the cutest.

The baby De Brazza.

I think the baby tapir's the cutest.

The cutest baby animal is the elephant.

So the votes have all been counted, and this is the big moment.

With just one vote? I can't believe it!

The sweet baby tapir is in fourth place.

The beautiful baby De Brazza has come third with three votes.

So who is the cute champion?

In second place with seven votes

is the funny little elly, Etana.

But with a terrific score of 13,

the outright winner and official cutest baby of the year is ...

Tiggs the meerkat!

Rich Barnes, who we saw earlier on with Samira the lioness,

has brought Tiggs out to collect her prize.

-Hiya, Tiggs!

-So cute!

-She's coming over to say hello.

She's getting a bit excited.

You've got to be pleased because you and Tiggs have got a special bond?

I kind of hand raised her from when she was a baby,

her and her little sister, who we lost after the first few days.

But fortunately, this one's a little fighter, and she jogged on, and yeah,

she's obviously got to her size she is now, so really happy.

So it's an extra-special event, then, for you, isn't it?

-How is she getting on now?

-She's doing really well.

She's quite feisty, quite strong! Hopefully soon we'll be able

to introduce some other meerkats to her, get her a boyfriend

that she'll be able to make a group with and then will probably become

the dominant female because she's quite a feisty little character.

-We can see that!

-Speaking of feisty, are meerkats quite dangerous?

-She's got quite big claws and stuff.

-They're not really dangerous,

but they'll give you a little nip, and she's got some nice little

needle-like teeth which could do some damage to your fingers!

You know what, Rich? Before she nips you, I'd like to present her

with her Cutest Baby prize,

-some mealworms!

-Yay!

Looks delicious!(?)

Tiggs, these are for you, don't eat them all at once.

Tiggs can enjoy her snacks and you guys can check out

-what's on the next episode of Roar.

-She's loving them!

The keepers are in training,

and they'll need all the help they can get,

because they need to catch the wildest horses in the world.

How do you cool down a hot tiger?

With an ice lolly, of course!

And we try to mimic a monkey, but it doesn't quite work.

That's all in the next Roar.

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