Episode 5 Roar

Today on Roar...

What will the tiger cubs do when

they find out the Roar Ranger has thrown all their toys in the pond?

Hello and welcome to another cute edition of Roar, I'm Rani.

I'm Johny and we're joined by one of the newest members of the park's

ever-expanding family, the little baby De Brazza monkey.

She's so cute! De Brazzas in the wild are really independent.

They become less and less reliant on their mum after only two weeks.

Only after a few days of giving birth, their colouring develops

and they also get teeth.

So, Johny, we'd better enjoy her for as long as possible,

-cos she won't need us soon.

-Yes, I agree.

She finishing her food but we're starting, so let's get on with it!

Coming up today...

I'll find out how the gorillas eat nettles without getting stung.

We'll be setting the meerkats a challenge to see how smart they are.

And will Liam the new keeper pass his test?

Or will the primates make a monkey out of him?

When it comes to food,

I can do sweet and sour and even hot and spicy.

But I have never tried stingy and I'm hoping not to today, either.

Sharon is serving up stingy to the gorillas

and I can see here a whole tub of nettles.

Sharon, are you crazy?!

Well, I probably wouldn't eat them but the gorillas like them.

-We've got gorillas here, who've we got?

-We've got Djumbah and Mpoumbou.

-Two males?

-Yes.

I need dock leaves, don't I? To hand out the nettles.

I didn't think of that. I should've brought some.

-You might need rubber gloves though.

-Yeah, that'll be safe for me.

He's watching me. Am I all right being this close to the gate?

Yep, you're OK there.

RATTLES CAGE Don't go too close.

I'll just keep my distance cos he's a BIG fella!

How shall we give the nettles?

Probably best to just post them through like this...and see...

-I'll let Sharon go first. She's the expert.

-Ha, ha!

OK. Come on, Djumbah, we've got you some lovely nettles.

-RATTLES CAGE

-I got nervous there.

He's a big old thing. He's got the nettles in his hand.

-And another one!

-THEY LAUGH

Obviously loves them, cos he's taken the lot. He's gone back there.

How are we expecting him to eat them, Sharon?

If you watch him, he'll pull his hand from the bottom to the top,

then roll them up and pop them in his mouth. That's exactly what he's done.

-Exactly.

-I think it flattens the little stingy bits.

-Right, that means he won't get his hands stung?

-Probably not as much.

I'd imagine they must get stung slightly.

Although they've got really thick leathery skin so...

Let's look, he's going to do it again.

They're so gentle, those big fellas! He's rolled it up.

Oh, look at those teeth as well!

Seems to be enjoying them.

What about his tongue and the top of his mouth?

I know! I don't know if they've thicker skin on the inside as well.

-Possibly!

-Can I put more through?

-Yeah, sure.

-See if he'll come back.

-RATTLES CAGE

-Woo!

They're so loud, it's nerve-racking.

They're showing off.

Look at me with my protective gloves and they just grab them!

-Mpoumbou's come down for some.

-They don't seem to be in any distress.

-They don't, not at all.

-We're not harming them.

-No.

Here you go, Mpoumbou.

Oh my goodness! Oh my goodness!

Is he going to take it?

-It's probably easier if you put the stalk end in first.

-OK.

I'm not a professional, obviously!

He was so light with it!

Yeah, they can be very gentle when they want to be.

Sharon, it's been great for many reasons. One, to see them eat

a crazy thing like nettles and also being this close.

A great experience for me.

I'm thinking it's only fair, I've come down to the gorilla enclosure,

-what do you think?

-You can have a go.

-Yeah, so I just strip it.

-That's it.

Which isn't easy.

-Roll them up.

-Roll them.

'Now, kids, don't try this at home!

'I'm just trying to fool Sharon.'

Now all I have to do is pop it in,

-and enjoy this tasty snack.

-Indeed.

After you!

I was going to say exactly the same.

You're having a laugh, aren't you?! Thank you very much, Sharon.

-Go on, have a go!

-No thanks. THEY LAUGH

You first!

In the park's primate section, there are 138 amazing animals.

30 enclosures.

11 endangered species.

And now one new recruit - meet Liam.

He's come from another animal park

and has been passionate about primates all his life.

I've only been here for four months so I am learning very quickly.

Everything's new, so, new things are happening each day.

You know, I like looking after the animals, just being close to them,

and making them as happy as possible, really.

That's the biggest reward for me.

To see if he's learned what he needs to know,

we've got together with Matt, the head of primates,

to set him a challenge.

In one week's time, Liam is going to be tested.

This is definitely going to be a tough challenge for Liam.

We've got very different species, langurs, gibbons, macaques.

It's going to be very difficult for him

to learn everything straightaway, but that's what's good.

He'll have to use his mind.

So far, the hardest bit of my job is learning all the animals.

Each one has different characters and features,

and looks completely different.

That is definitely my hardest task.

Let's see where he's at now.

There are 12 ring-tailed lemurs in here, Liam, which one is which?

Oh, oh...

I was hoping you weren't going to ask that,

because that is going to make me look stupid.

So, that's zero out of 12.

If Liam's going to pass,

he needs to start swotting up right now.

Right, I've come to the Javan langur enclosure...

..with my photo ID sheets, to do a little bit of homework.

The park takes photo mug shots of ever primate,

especially to help new keepers recognise each one.

Javan langurs are either apricot colour or black,

that's the first way I can tell them apart.

They have features on their faces, lots of freckles,

each animal has different marks.

For example, we've got Mangrove,

the oldest male in the group, the dominant male.

The photo highlights the freckles on his face.

Mangrove's just up there, to the top-right of the enclosure.

Really, sort of, mature face, and, obviously, he's a lot bigger,

so he's the first and easiest for me to tell apart.

This is Nipper here,

he's a little bit of a character.

He seems to be playing up to the camera a bit, I think.

Whoever's taken this photo caught him in his glory.

He's just on the bench over there.

That's why it's been taken like that, he does that all the time.

It's important I know the differences,

because often we're involved in medication, and that's important,

you don't want to medicate the wrong animal.

There are 17 Javan langurs in here,

so Liam's got a lot of work to do.

I'm feeling pretty nervous.

If I mess this up, I was only in a few weeks ago,

I could be out the door within a couple of weeks.

We'll be back later to see if Liam will be top of the class,

or if the test will make a monkey out of him.

What did the python say when the adder asked him the time?

"Don't asssk me!" A-ha-ha!

Eh-eh-eh, woof, woof, woof, woof!

Eh-eh-eh-eh!

If you had 15 cows and 5 goats, what would you have?

Plenty of milk! Moo!

That sounded stupid! Ha-ha!

Mooo!

Mooo!

What type of cats like to go bowling?

Alley cats. Miaow.

THEY ALL LAUGH

Now, I am very excited,

because I'm about to meet a superstar of the animal kingdom.

You see them loads on TV,

but I've never actually met one up close and personal for real.

I'm here with keeper Jess Ottoway,

who's about to give me a formal introduction

to the marvellous meerkat.

Jess, where are they?

They are in here somewhere, they're just kind of hanging back a bit.

Cos we're here they're a little bit more nervous,

-But I'm sure they'll come over eventually.

-What have you got here?

We have some tubs that are filled with mealworms and crickets.

Can I give some food out, please?

Yes, see what they make of it.

A lot smaller than I imagined, Jess.

Yeah, they are quite small.

Do you ever get a chance to pet one? Can I stroke it if it comes over?

It's not a great idea, they do have very, very sharp teeth,

-and you may lose part of a finger if you did.

-Oh, gosh, OK.

-So they're a bit more vicious than they look?

-Definitely.

Oh, look at this, they're running off, but he's not doing anything.

So, who have we got here, then?

This is little Trevor.

They all have names beginning with T in here, there's only three of them.

Are they all a family?

Yep, they're a mother, a father, and one youngster.

Is there a hierarchy?

Will one come up first, and then the rest afterwards?

The two males are a lot more confident than the female...

Right, right.

..so these two will hopefully come over at some point.

I've noticed these front claws, are they quite sharp?

What do they use them for?

These will be for digging.

They live in burrows, so use them to burrow,

and also to dig up their food.

They dig up beetle grubs and things like that.

That seems like quite easy pickings, do they ever hunt anything bigger?

They can. It has been known for them to take small birds,

reptiles, lizards, different things like that.

But the main source of food...

They have to eat every day because they don't have any fat reserves,

so they have to eat constantly, every day.

That's why they find a good spot with loads of beetle grubs in it,

and they'll literally eat off that all day.

The others have come now.

Yeah. Even the female's out, which is lucky.

Jess, apart from these amazing claws they use to burrow,

have they got any other special adaptations they use in the wild?

They've got black rings round their eyes,

that helps them when they're on sentry duty.

It reflects the sun, basically like sunglasses.

Cos the traditional look of a meerkat is like this.

Up to the sun, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-Out on the lookout, and that's for predators.

Jess, thank you so much for letting me get so close to these meerkats,

I've wanted to meet them for so long,

and now I have done, and I think they went potty for your pots, Jess.

Amazing.

Raaarh!

Today's Roar Ranger is nine-year-old Lucy from Essex.

I was so excited when I heard I was a Roar Ranger.

# I'm a Roar Ranger, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! #

It was like a dream, my brain was telling me it's not real.

This budding gymnast has a pet named Gingernut at home,

but, hamsters, they're easy to look after,

compared to all the animals here.

So, Lucy needs to be up for some hard work.

I'm up for it, all right.

I don't care if I have to clean out poo or anything,

it's just like my hamster, she's got small poo.

It's just bigger poo for a bigger animal.

Raaarh!

Yay, yay! I like the tigers.

I think the tigers are great, because they've got so much power.

I might have to clear their poo up.

It might be a bit disgusting, but I'm up for it, and I'm really excited.

The Siberian tigers Lucy'll be helping to look after

come from eastern Russia and China.

They're the largest and most powerful of all cats.

They can run as fast as a car...

..and they've got teeth as sharp as knives.

Lucy will be working with the deputy head of carnivores, Ben Warren.

What we're going to do is clean out the Siberian tigers,

but first we'll go and say hello to them.

I've got some meat for them, just see what we're dealing with.

Because these are dangerous, keep your fingers away from the fence.

They are very good, but you just have to be a little bit careful.

This is Malchek, he's Dad.

Lucy is only allowed to get this close to the fence

because she is with Ben, a very experienced big cat keeper.

And that's a cub, just there.

-They're big.

-They're only ten months old.

When they were born, the cubs weighed less than two kilos each.

But now, they've grown 15 times bigger,

and together, weigh the same as about six Lucys.

They like their food.

Can you stand up?

That's it.

-He's taller than me.

-There you go.

Ooh!

It's funny how they keep plonking each other.

I'm not scared of them at all.

I've never been this close before.

Anyone who gets this close to a tiger

needs to know the proper way to say hello.

When they greet you,

we call it chuffing, and they go "ff-ff-ff",

and that's a hello in Tiger.

They also bang heads together,

which is a greeting as they walk past each other.

Could you do chuffing, go "ff-ff-ff"?

-Ff-ff-ff.

-Ff-ff-ff.

-Ff-ff.

-Nearly there.

-He's looking at you.

-Ha-ha!

For most people, it takes practice to chuff right.

-Ff-ff-ff.

-TIGER CHUFFS

But Lucy's got an answer already.

-Ff-ff-ff.

-TIGER CHUFFS

We'll go and clean the main enclosure out now.

The tiger family are safely locked in the small paddock...

..while Ben and Lucy get to work in their main enclosure.

I've got you a stumpy rake.

Right, now we're going to wander round and pick up poo.

Oh, there's a bit.

-It's all squelchy!

-That's probably one of the little cub ones.

The tigers eat nothing but meat.

There's a bigger one.

And that makes their poo dense, sticky, and very smelly.

And there's a big poo!

Oh!

Call in the expert!

That's the easy way to do it!

To keep the cubs busy, they've been given things to play with.

There's one of the tiger toys.

Look at all the holes in it.

So, is that where you've put meat or something?

No, I've just left it in here for the cubs to play with.

-They've got big teeth.

-Proves how sharp they are.

-And it's really strong.

-Yeah, you couldn't break it, could you?

No, you couldn't even chop it up.

They're throwing the toys in the pool

so the cubs can enjoy the challenge of fishing them out.

That's all the hard work done.

The next part is the fun bit, and we'll be back for that shortly.

Back in the primate section,

new keeper Liam is getting ready for a test,

to see if he's learned everything he needs to know about his new job.

Today he's trying to get his head round the complicated business

of feeding the park's 138 monkeys.

You definitely won't find these in your lunchbox, these are rambutans.

These ones are really good for langurs and leaf monkeys,

which form the majority of the species we have.

Take some tamarind pods, they're always a favourite.

Apricots, haven't had these for a while,

so I think he'll pick these, cos it's all about varying their diets.

And, when he's got the breakfast ready,

Liam sets off to feed all those monkeys.

It's going to be a two-mile round trip.

First up are the banded leaf monkeys,

an endangered species from the tropical forests of south-east Asia.

'It's really satisfying, seeing them eat all the stuff we've prepared.'

It certainly takes them a lot less time than it does us to prepare it!

Next on the round are the Heck's macaques, who come from Indonesia.

They have specially adapted cheek pouches.

They can fit so much more food than we can into our cheeks.

It's also useful if they come across a predator and they're feeding,

they can gather food up and run away, and not have to leave their meal.

Liam's learned some amazing facts, but how will he do in his big test?

We'll find out later on.

Back with the Siberian tigers,

Lucy the Roar Ranger is helping to put out their food.

Oh, that's a big one.

Right, do you want to take that?

The tigers eat twice a week...

Yeah, that'll be all right.

..gorging on huge chunks of meat.

It's really heavy.

-Uhh!

-Go on, put your back into it.

Right, that's us done in here. We'll go and let the beasts out.

It'll run through. Come on, then, big fella.

They're literally just grabbing it.

Got some happy cubs. See, the smaller bits they can run off with.

Oh, look. It's taken a bit off it.

What, so they just lick it first?

Yeah, they'll lick it, get all the fur and stuff off,

then they'll eat the meat down.

The bit the little cub's got there, on that platform,

that's just too big for him to take off.

-Oh, he's found a clever way to get it off.

-Yeah!

They look really happy.

-It's really good to just feed them, and give all their food.

-Right,

well, that's our job done. You happy with that?

Yeah, I'm really happy.

We'll leave them alone, then. Let them eat in peace.

Which means that Lucy has finished her work as a Roar Ranger.

Lucy did very well, she got stuck in,

and really wasn't worried about getting her hands dirty.

She was good. Got stuck right in.

I've really enjoyed it today, it was just amazing.

I think it was quite brave that I went in there,

and not being scared.

It was the best thing I've ever done in my whole entire life.

The hoofstock team have told me thing have got pretty heated

between one of their section and the black rhino,

so I thought, "There is only one way to settle this."

In the grey corner, weighing in at a hefty 1.3 tons,

is Manyara.

BOXING BELL RINGS

APPLAUSE

And in the green corner,

weighing in at a significantly less 80 kilograms, is,

king Bob Savill!

CHEERING

Contenders, are you ready?

-Hi, thank you, Rani, but, erm, you can have these back.

-Eh?

When we talk about boxing, we're talking about boxing the ostrich in,

and the rhinos out.

Hang on a minute, Bob. Excuse me.

Thank you very much, we don't need them.

-So there's no fisticuffs, can I cross over?

-Yes, please do.

-Right, I can see the ostrich behind...

-Yep.

..is it safe to be on this side of the rocks?

I hope so. Yes, the ostrich will be fine.

So, what's going on, then?

I thought we were up for a bit of fisticuffs.

That's what it's coming to now, unfortunately.

The two rhino out here decide this is the place

-to come and spend a lot of time.

-Right.

They come here, they play with the ostrich,

the ostrich run away and the eggs they're sitting on get cold.

So the ostrich are guarding their eggs at the moment?

They do their best, but against black rhino they don't stand much chance.

Now, talking about two black rhinos, and I mentioned there -

-rhino, Manyara, 1.3 tons?

-Yeah.

You're having a laugh!

Are these rocks really going to stop him getting in?

-The idea is, they step over the big boulders...

-Right.

-..then they put their feet on the bricks...

-Yeah.

That's uncomfortable, they don't try to come in.

-You've thought about this!

-We're trying to.

Trouble is, we're trying to stop those coming in,

but the ostrich have got to be able to get out.

So, Bob, is this fort finished now?

-No. All we're doing, Rani, is we're turning these up...

-Right.

We want to make it uncomfortable,

but we can't hurt the ostrich or the rhino.

It's just to stop them coming over -

"All this ground to sleep on, we'll go and sleep somewhere else."

I'll turn some of these bricks over for you.

You talked about the rhino coming to sleep where the ostrich like to be.

Is that because they particularly like the sand?

Sometimes they sleep on the sand, and it could be because it's warmer,

but, you know, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

Sometimes they're just being a pain.

You've got two females, obviously she's really protecting the eggs.

Do they have to stay on the eggs ALL the time?

Not ALL the time, Rani, I mean,

the females normally sit on the eggs during the day,

-the males sit on them at night.

-That's good.

During the night there's more predators about,

so the males sit there.

The girls have to go and drink and feed and everything else.

At the moment I think we've got seven eggs under there.

We've both turned our bricks, it's looking good,

so fingers crossed that the rhinos don't like to walk on bricks.

Well, that's all we can try.

Right, Bob, thank you very much for letting us pop down,

hopefully we'll have seven new chicks later on in the series.

You do know that you can have

your very own animal park, don't you?

All you have to do is find the Roar game on the CBBC website,

and get stuck in.

On every show, we give out a cheat code.

Today, it's drought411.

Type that in for new treats, new animals or extra features.

So if you haven't tried it yet,

you should! Good luck and happy gaming.

It's the big day for new keeper, Liam.

He's got to face Matt, the boss,

and take a test to see if he's got

what it takes to be a true monkey man.

It's the big test today, so I'm feeling pretty nervous.

If I mess this up, I was only in a few weeks ago,

I could be out the door in a couple of weeks.

I better get this right or I'm in trouble.

Liam, I've got a few questions for you. Are you ready?

Yeah. Fire away.

First question - how many primates do we have in the park, in total?

Ooh, I reckon it must be now... 138 animals?

-Yeah, that's correct, well done.

-Yes!

Second question - how many species do we hold currently in the park?

-13.

-Confident?

-Definitely confident on that one.

Yeah, that's correct.

What's the biggest individual we have in the park at the moment?

That's got to be...big male gelada baboon, Agolo, definitely.

Correct - he weighs over 20 kilos!

What is the smallest species of primate we have?

-It's got to be... red bearded tamarins.

-Yeah.

Top marks so far, but the toughest question is still to come.

Right, Liam, final test - who are these two lemurs?

The park has 12 lemurs, and they all look pretty similar.

Oh, I reckon I can tell you...

This one is... dominant female, Grunge?

-Is that right?

-I won't tell you till the end.

-Ohh!

And we've also got one of our males...

-I think that's Ren. I'm pretty confident.

-100% correct. Well done.

So come on, then, boss. How did I do?

Well, you've passed with flying colours. Welcome to the team.

Yes!

Oh, I feel great!

It's great news. I'm a fully-fledged member of the primate team.

Yeah, fantastic!

It certainly is!

So look out for Liam, the monkey man, later in the series.

Well, unfortunately we're out of time on today's Roar,

but before we go, we've popped up to the African Experience

to meet keeper, Nick Turk,

-and his tower of giraffes! These are amazing, Nick.

-They are.

I love looking at this view across the Kent coast,

you see these yellowy kind of giraffes...

I mean, they're not really camouflaging themselves, are they?

No, they're a bit out of place in Kent.

But in Africa, it's a more burnt, orangey colour,

a straw colour everywhere because it's so dry,

so this helps them blend in with that.

If you look at the edge of the giraffe, the back,

the markings sort of break up, and that breaks up their outline

so predators find it more difficult to see them.

Nick, will they ever try and mimic the markings of this landscape?

Eventually through the years, will they ever become green?

-Like chameleons?

-Yeah!

-Well, no.

I doubt it, to be honest, Johny.

THEY LAUGH

It was a fair question though, because we do talk about

animals camouflaging themselves all the time!

All right, I think I'll have a quick word with Johny.

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

Next time on Roar, I'll find out what drives the lemurs wild.

What will the tapirs make of our fruit salad tree?

We'll be checking out the damage when a baby De Brazza monkey

comes home for a sleepover.

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