Episode 9 Roar

The keepers say that Melindy is the best high jumper in the parks.

She can even catch low-flying birds.

But we've never seen her jump really high on Roar,

so will she do it for us today?

Hello, welcome to Roar. I'm Johny.

And I'm Rani. And these cute and cuddly guys are the moloch gibbons.

They've got long arms that they use to swing through the forest,

swapping from hand to hand, which is called brachiating.

SQUEAKS

Now normally it's the women making the noise, but now and again

-the men butt in to ward off danger.

-Rani, I wouldn't dare...

Now, before he starts talking again, let's get on with the show.

Sorry, Johny.

The wild dogs have some puppies,

but where on earth have they hidden them?

Monkey medicine. Do the capuchins use herbs to make them better,

or do they just like the taste?

And slithering snakes - we'll meet all the latest arrivals

in the creepy-crawly world of the Discovery Zone.

There are some very clever primates in the parks,

but with so many different species,

it's hard to decide which are the cleverest of all.

Keeper Mel, though, is convinced it's the capuchins, and she thinks

they may know how different herbs can be good for their health.

Nice, smelly chives.

-I like chives in a salad.

-Chives are good. Good on potato salads.

Good for digestion.

Some rosemary. Good for memory.

We all know how intelligent the cappies are.

-Oh look, they're straight in there.

-You might want this instead.

There you go. Some rosemary for memory.

What else have we got?

-Mint.

-Great for my bad breath.

-Yes.

You're meant to say I haven't got bad breath!

Good for their bad breath. If we take a little step back,

we'll just keep an eye on them.

-Here comes Brian.

-I just love Brian.

Here comes the big man.

Brian, go for rosemary!

He had a little smell then. You know scent marking?

-Yes.

-We always talk about scent marking, but when we do,

we always talk about when the animals, like, pee in places.

But how come they start rubbing stuff on them?

Isn't it like deodorant and perfume?

These guys scent mark by weeing on their hands

and rubbing it over their fur and on their territory.

That marks their territory.

That lets other capuchins in the area know, this is my territory.

This is the start, this is the end, keep out.

With all these guys in here, do they have their own territory?

You've got a few of them.

Brian's the dominant male, then there's a hierarchy going down

to the lowest ranking males.

They've got their own structure - boss down to lowest ranking.

We make sure that everyone gets food, no-one gets left out,

picked on too much.

But do you have certain areas where only some of them can go?

No, they can get anywhere in here as they choose to.

But they do mark their territory and all that sort of stuff.

If you touch any branches, they will have wee-ed on it.

-Thanks, Mel.

-He's got a handful of chives there, look.

So far, chive has been the most popular.

-Yes. It has.

-Are any of these...

Oh, someone's just peed on me!

I've been scent-marked by the capuchin!

You're part of their territory now.

It doesn't kind of smell. I'll just rub some mint on that.

Oh look, he just stole a pile of dill.

Oh, good man!

-But he hasn't tried it.

-He's got it in his tail.

-Isn't that clever?

-They've got prehensile tails.

They carry things in their tails - often whole lettuces and things.

He can walk on all his hands and feet

while he's got that safely tucked in his tail.

-Who's this little fellow?

-This is Moose.

He's actually going to eat it!

He's actually bit it in half and is getting the smell.

Yeah, he's getting all the juice out of it there. As much as he can.

Like with a dock leaf.

If you stung yourself, you'd get all the juice out of it.

He's getting as much of the flavour as he can.

What I don't understand is, if he is rubbing the chives on himself,

what is that saying to the chives?

I am going to eat you?

How does that work? You have to explain it a bit more to me.

This sort of thing keeps the bugs and all that sort of things away.

Weeing on their hands is more territorial,

They pick strong-smelling things,

rub it on themselves to ward off the bugs.

I think Brian has just run off there with the last of the chives.

-It's all gone now.

-But we've got a few herbs there.

Do you think they'll go, "Ooh, I'll have a bit of basil?"

Hopefully, they will. Otherwise, they will leave it

and I'll be clearing it up later.

High five. I'll go before you do that.

-Thank you very much, Mel.

-No problem.

-It was great popping down.

-Let's go.

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

So excited when I found that I was a Roar Ranger.

I'm a Roar Ranger! Yeah! Yeah!

It was like a dream. My brain told me it wasn't real.

This budding gymnast has a pet hamster called Gingernut.

-But is she a big animal fan?

-I love animals so much.

On a scale of one to ten, it would be a million.

But is she 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 bigger animals.

With hundreds of different animals in the parks,

our Roar Ranger could be looking after any of them.

But which one will it be?

Lucy, today you're a dhole keeper.

Keep those eyes peeled, you're surrounded.

I don't have a clue what they are,

and I don't know what they look like.

I don't know what they eat, I don't know what they do.

So I'd better go and find out.

"Der-hole" is a good try,

but the right way to pronounce the name is "dole".

These wild hunting dogs are from India

and are looked after by head keeper Jim Vassey.

Hello. I'm Lucy. I'm going to help you out today.

I'm Jim. Pleased to meet you.

-So, you know we're doing the dholes, yeah?

-Yeah.

OK. Have you ever seen them before?

I think so.

I think our Roar Ranger is trying to bluff, Jim!

You think so?

-Yeah.

-Let's go and have a look, then.

You can tell me if it is what you think they were.

There's one there, look.

Oh, they're like a fox.

Yeah.

They look like a fox, but obviously they're a true dog.

They're not part of the fox family.

These dogs live and hunt in packs of between five and 12 adults

in the wild and even leopards and tigers

are said to be afraid of them.

-Are you squeamish?

-Not really.

Are you a vegetarian?

-No.

-No? Good.

Cos the dogs aren't.

What we need to do first is

go and pick up the bones from their last feed. Yeah?

That's why you've got the gloves.

They eat an astonishing amount of meat,

and they are fed here every other day.

Once they've gulped down every last bit of meat,

they drop the bones and someone's got to pick them up.

Right. If you'd like to step inside.

Hold on a minute, the dholes are still in there!

I'm excited.

Our Roar Ranger doesn't need to feel frightened at all.

Jim is a very experienced keeper, and he'll keep her safe.

Right. So now we're actually inside their hunting ground, as it were.

-They're looking at us.

-Yeah, there are plenty of eyes on us.

You can see there's one over there, watching us.

They need to have plenty of eyes on us when they're hunting.

They might eat us.

Well, you maybe. Not me.

I'm all tough.

We need to pick up these rib bones now.

That's what your ribcage looks like.

Even bloodstained bones don't worry Lucy.

She's nearly as good at this as Jim!

What we're going to do is take a walk round the edge.

-Keep your eyes peeled for bones, yeah?

-Yeah.

-Are you seeing much?

-Yeah.

So, with 24 hungry eyes on her, how is our Roar Ranger feeling?

I'm a bit scared.

They'll keep an eye on you, but they're not particularly dangerous.

As you can see, they tend to run away from you.

-A bit of a scaredy cat.

-Yeah.

There's a bone. Grab that one. Thank you.

This is a bit heavy so I'll get that one.

That's a huge bone.

-Another little one there, if you could get that one.

-So squidgy!

Yes, that's why you've got gloves.

This is a big bone here.

-His skin's all soft.

-Yeah. But we leave the skin on to help clean

-their teeth.

-How does it clean their teeth?

-It's like a toothbrush.

It's quite coarse. So when they bite into it and tear bits off,

it actually acts like a toothbrush.

That's all the bones. So the last job

is to put the bones on the back of the truck. Well done.

Lucy's worked so hard that Jim's going to give her a reward.

The surprise is, we've got some pups.

But we need to go and check on them.

So if you want, as a treat, I will take you round there

-and we'll have a look.

-Now, that looks like a very happy Roar Ranger.

I'm really excited to see babies.

But the dholes have hidden the pups well, so we'll come back later,

when Jim and Lucy have found them.

What did the cat say when he lost all of his money?

I'm paw.

I'm paw!

Cat paw - money poor!

SHE CLUCKS

What's a frog's favourite game?

CROAK-et. Ribbit!

HE NEIGHS

What goes 99 conk, 99 conk, 99 conk?

A centipede with a wooden leg.

Ta-da!

Servals are very agile cats from Central and Southern Africa.

Scientists say that, in the wild, they can leap as high

as three metres off the ground to catch a bird in flight.

We filmed the keeper's encouraging that natural behaviour with Melindy

several times in the past.

Last year, she succeeded in bringing down a rubber snake,

but keeper Ben Warren's

come up with a different lure to exercise her this time.

OK, so what is the big idea? Tell me all about it.

Basically, what we are going to do is attach this to that,

so you're going to have this object

-hanging down for her to jump at.

-You say "this object." What is this?

This is an animal skin with fur with a bit of animal scent on it.

So it should entice her a little bit.

And what type of animal does this represent in the wild?

Basically, in the wild, they go for birds quite a lot. There she is.

Snakes, reptiles, rodents.

Basically, anything that moves, really.

Right, OK. Here she is.

She's interested.

I think we might be onto a winner here. Shall we get going?

-I think we should.

-OK, let's do it.

OK.

Then we will lift this post.

And place it in the ground.

OK.

Melindy.

Melindy.

What kind of noise will entice her?

Just call her over, normally.

How is she different from a regular cat?

Well, basically she has extremely long legs

that are used for going through long grass.

She's got those huge ears on the top of her head, which you can see.

-She must have good hearing, then.

-Very good.

It looks like you're having more fun than her.

Yo, Melindy.

'So, the lure is ready and the cat's ready,

'but we seem to have failed again.'

Ben, she doesn't look interested at all.

I think she's spotted a squirrel over there.

Shall we take this over to her?

She was interested when I had it in my hand.

Here we go.

Right, OK.

Where has she gone?

-There she is.

-She's hiding.

-Come on, then, Melindy. Shall I try and throw it?

-You can do.

OK.

Oh, she's going for it!

If she were to catch something, what would she do now?

Would she eat it or play around with it?

Normally, they will grab it by the back of the neck,

which is the killer blow for most cats.

Right, OK. And I've noticed she's got these odd markings on her.

-Why has she got those markings?

-It's for camouflage.

When she comes from is very long, dry grass,

So, basically, she would blend into that background.

Has she got many predators in the wild?

She would have to stay away from leopards and lions.

She has to be a little bit careful.

She's nicked our lure and I don't know what she's doing with it now.

We do activities like this sometimes with these wildcats.

Why is it good to do these kind of activities?

It gives them something to think about.

It's good that wildlife fly in here.

That keeps her entertained, and we try and do our bit as well.

Ben, despite another valiant attempt,

-I think we've been foiled by the wily Melindy.

-I think so.

Back to square one?

Bring it on.

Back at the dhole enclosure, our Roar Ranger Lucy

has picked up all the bones, and as a reward,

Jim Vassey is taking her to see the pups.

IF he can find them!

The last time I checked them, they were in here.

Empty.

Let me just check the other shed.

Nope, not in there. Two down, one to go.

Dhole mothers constantly move their cubs around to keep them safe

from predators. They use their lips

rather than their sharp teeth, just like many other animals in the park.

The babies are carefully carried around until they are old enough

to look after themselves.

And isn't it just their mum who looks out for them.

The whole pack has arrived to see what's going on.

They're looking at us, those dogs.

They're following us because they know

-we're looking for the pups.

-Yeah.

They've come to make sure we don't pinch any.

There's only one shed left. Will our Roar Ranger get to see any pups?

There they are.

They're so cute.

They're all sitting there happily. They're not scared.

That's really nice because I've never seen a baby dog before.

-They smell a bit, don't they?

-Yeah.

They're amazing.

-Beautiful things, aren't they?

-Yeah.

I'm really happy I've been here and seen them really close.

Other than the keepers,

you're the only other person to have seen them. The pups.

It's amazing that I'm one of the only people to have seen them.

After a truly unique treat, it's time to say goodbye to the pups.

What does Jim think of our Roar Ranger?

Quite surprised. You never know how people are going to react

to picking up bones. I think Lucy did a very good job.

She wasn't squirmish or anything like that.

She did very well today.

What did our Roar Ranger make of her day with the dholes?

I liked looking after the dholes today, especially the baby ones.

It's just been a really, really good day today.

I didn't know at the start what dholes were,

but I think they're absolutely brilliant now.

The Discovery Zone is already full of animals we're terrified of.

Some of the weirdest, creepiest,

crawliest creatures you could possibly imagine.

But there are even more coming now and every box

contains something strange or scary.

These creatures are not on display to the public yet,

but we got a chance to meet them.

Keeper Rob Gordon is going to take us on a journey

that starts with a snake from the West Coast of America.

First off, we're off to California,

and this is a coastal Californian king snake.

California is famous for its beaches

and this snake enjoys the seaside just as much as we do.

They would like to sunbathe

because snakes do sunbathe to warm up

because they need the environment to control their temperature.

As you would expect from California,

a very fashionable-looking snake and they have these bands here.

In the undergrowth, it will break up their outline

because, although they are predators themselves,

they do have to keep safe.

There are lots of other things that would eat them,

big snakes, birds of prey.

The key question is, what sort of pets would they make?

The Californian king snakes are nice, easy snakes to handle

and very good for meeting people if they are worried about snakes.

They're a great one to handle

because they're nice and friendly and relaxed

and have nice stripes so they're quite pretty to look at as well.

Rob also has another new snake

to show us from Florida, on the other side of America,

where you may have even been on holiday, if you're lucky.

We're going east side now and this is an eastern indigo snake.

This one is much bigger.

I wouldn't want to meet one of these on holiday.

These guys, actually the biggest non-venomous snake in North America.

He is very friendly despite the way he looks.

That's his full size there.

They are not dangerous to us at alll.

They are constrictors so they've got no venom and although they can bite,

it's generally not that serious.

The indigo snakes look quite black, but they are called indigo

because their scales shine blue under quite intense sunlight.

The underneath is paler and the scales are a bit softer

and a different shape so that they can glide on the floor more easily.

So we've seen two snakes, let's see what other new creatures

Rob has lined up for us.

This tank contains vanzolini dart frogs

which have poisonous skin so you can't touch them

and they come from the rainforests of South America.

They're easy to miss, though.

These guys aren't very big at all. They're actually very, very small.

I've got a penny here, just going to put that in.

You can just see.

No bigger than a 1p piece,

they have to be some of the smallest creatures we've ever had on Roar.

There are four in here.

They like to climb as well, so they could be literally anywhere.

They're a bit difficult to keep, we have to make sure

they aren't near doors

because they could jump out and we'd never find them.

We make sure they're getting enough food,

make sure it's the right food, small enough for them.

They only like live food so it has to be very, very small crickets

so they don't chew on the frogs.

Making sure they're all right because they're so small,

they disappear into all the gaps.

It does take a bit longer, even though they're a lot smaller.

They're so small,

that it's surprising they were ever discovered.

In the wild, they would be very, very hard to see.

Obviously, being so small,

and these particular ones like to live up quite high as well.

So without looking very carefully, you probably would never notice them.

So we've met the smallest frog here.

Keep watching for one of the hungriest.

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

We've got loads of new stuff this year, including

a brand new enclosure called Ice World,

where you can look after penguins and seals.

Log on to it today, checking the latest cheat code,

"wind5", and see what you get.

I love the element of surprise,

especially when you find something's had babies overnight.

Good luck.

The parks are full of wild animals that could kill you

if you were silly enough to go near them without a keeper.

But some of the most dangerous

are in the Discovery Zone at Port Lympne,

and we've already met some new arrivals.

A stripy snake, a massive snake and an absolutely tiny frog.

Now, it's time to meet a really disgusting one.

OK, this fellow is a painted bull frog from Southeast Asia.

They're quite large. They like very humid environments

like most amphibians.

They aren't found very high,

they live on the floor.

You can see that by the shape of them, short and dumpy,

not very good in the trees.

They've got a great big mouth, a tongue a bit like

a chameleon's tongue, very short. They can dart that out very quickly.

Grab hold of it, go straight in the mouth

and that's a big open pit to their stomach.

That sounds pretty disgusting.

Any chance of seeing them do it?

I've got a cricket here, I'll just see if he wants to eat something.

Well, because the cricket is sitting still,

he can't see it brilliantly.

It needs to move a little bit and then he'll know where to go.

He should know where to go.

-There it goes.

-That was like lightning!

Let's see it again in slow motion.

Nice one. And you wouldn't know he moved at all.

They aren't particularly pretty, they don't have

any striking colours on them. I do quite like them.

I like the way they sit still

and eat anything in front of them.

I think that's a nice way of life.

That's actually quite scary.

But not half as scary as stumbling across this.

It was found by someone in their garden.

They obviously called the police.

The police called us to see if we could take it, and give it a home.

It's escaped from wherever it's come from.

Snakes are quite good at escaping from things.

So it's clearly a slippery customer.

But what kind is it?

It's quite different from the snakes in this country.

This is a Taiwanese beauty snake

so it comes from Asia.

And in case you're wondering,

it could bite you, but it's not venomous.

He's a lot bigger than the snakes we get in this country.

The most common snakes we have are grass snakes and adders.

Both of those species hibernate over winter, so they don't do anything.

They don't eat or move and they only come out again when it's warmer.

Where this species comes from is hot so they're out and about,

growing and feeding all year.

It'll take a while for the new creatures

to settle in before they go on show to the public. In the meantime,

the keepers can have all the fun of getting to know them.

No, really! They love it.

We like to get new species in to work with all the time. It's good for us.

We like to learn about and see new ones.

Handle them, see what they're like.

It's quite exciting for us to see these two.

So lots of new creepy-crawlies there. We'll come back

later in the series to see even more of them.

'So we've seen gibbons, capuchins, the dholes and their puppies,

'Melindy, the serval,

'who wouldn't jump, and all those scary creatures.'

That just leaves time for us to catch up with Maria Whitehouse

-down at the gorilla house.

-Who's this fellow here?

-This is Kifu, the silverback in this group.

-Hi, Kifu.

What are you giving him there?

It's a sugar-free juice drink, basically.

It's just a little treat for him.

-So what flavour is this?

-Lemon.

And is lemon one of his favourite flavours?

Any flavour is his favourite. He loves it.

So, Maria, can we ask why are you giving him the juice?

Doesn't he have a watering bowl?

With hands like that, can't he hold these jugs himself?

He could if he could get his hands through,

but there's drinkers all around.

It allows us to get close to him so we can make sure they're OK.

We give them all drinks in the morning,

so we can check over and make sure there's no injuries.

-OK.

-We can also put medication in their drinks.

It's something that we try and give them.

And he's so chilled out, he's a good lad.

He's amazing for the size of him, it's peaceful being next to him.

How much does he weigh?

He weighs about 220 kilos.

-That's a lot of bags of sugar!

-Yeah, I'm like about 73 kilos.

I don't want to say what I weigh!

He's demanding more.

Is there anything that makes him really angry?

I'd never want to do that.

If you took his food away.

THEY LAUGH

-He'd be very angry.

-OK!

It's amazing to get so close to this silverback,

thank you for letting us join you.

And from one impressive sight, to the next.

What's coming up on the next Roar?

I used to think that all pandas are black and white,

but they come in red as well.

Malayan tapirs might go red too

if they weren't protected with suncream.

And we meet a cat that's so good at hiding, it's very rarely seen.

So make sure you're watching.

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