Episode 26 Roar

'12 months ago, three baby gorillas who were hand-raised in the parks

'went back to the wild in Africa.

'Now one of the keepers who looked after them as babies

'is going out there to see how they're getting on in the jungle,

'away from all the comforts they were used to.'

Hello and welcome to Roar.

Before you think you're watching two talking gorillas,

let me reassure you. It's actually your trusty animal addicts, Rani...

And Johny, and today's show is crammed full of tales, truths

-and triumphs from the animal kingdom.

-When he says crammed, he means it,

because this show is fit to burst! Enough of this monkey business,

-let's get on with the show.

-Let's do it, Rani.

-Come on, Johny, let's go.

-Er, Rani, I can't seem to get out.

-Oh. Erm...

Rani, you come back here! Rani! Rani!

'Coming up in today's show...'

'A strange prey animal has appeared in the lion enclosure.

'What will they make of it?' One of the girls has ran off with it.

We could see an argument develop.

'We meet another African animal that even lions are afraid of.

'So, is anything a match for her?'

-She's only a little thing.

-She's got a very bad reputation in Africa.

No-one messes with her.

'And, of course, we'll reveal today's cheat code for the Roar game.'

'But first, those gorillas.

'50 years ago, so many of these great apes

'had been killed by hunters in West Africa

'that they were in danger of extinction.

'To save the species, it was vital to breed them in captivity.

'And since the first baby was born in the parks 34 years ago,

'they developed the most successful breeding programme in the world.

'The staff have developed so much skill and knowledge

'that when a gorilla can't look after her baby,

'a keeper can step in as a foster mum and raise the baby

'until it's old enough to rejoin the troop.

'But the real dream was to return gorillas to the wild.

'And, amazingly, they've done it.'

Let's go and change your pants ready for work.

'One of the carers who's played a major role in the return programme

'and had many sleepless nights doing it is Donna Honey,

'who's been a gorilla keeper here for five years.

'Three years ago, she helped foster Oudiki and Kouki.

'They were born in the gorilla house, but Mum couldn't cope.

'For over two years, Donna and the team gave them round-the-clock care,

'just like any parents. And they formed a very close relationship.'

I suppose it is a bit like having kids of your own.

The little things that a mum would normally notice.

The little things like when they first can crawl off

or get off their back on their own,

if there's teeth coming through.

Just like any family, the kids had to be got up and ready for the day

'in time for the school run.

'Luckily for Donna, her job comes with a workplace nursery.

'So, while she got on with all her chores,

'Oudiki and Kouki were well looked after.

'But then, of course, at the end of the day,

'there was the whole bedtime routine to go through.'

We've had a very busy day today.

And now it's finally over, we'll do our usual routine,

go and sit in the hand-rearing cage and then the eventual aim

is that they stay in there together and I can go and eat and shower

without having to worry about these two.

I'm OK to get something to eat because they can come with me,

but I can't take them in the bath with me

and I can't leave them to run around the house. Come on, then, you.

I usually feed them both together.

That way, there's no jealousy or anything.

'Just like human babies after a busy day, they're very tired.'

Are you coming over here? It's not far.

Kouki will be finished hers in a minute.

SHE LAUGHS

You're being very silly, aren't you?

You want to have it over there?

OK.

Oh, dear.

This is their last bottle. They drink it in the cage

and as soon as they've drunk it, they collapse and fall asleep

and that's usually them for the night.

'But Donna's well-earned rest didn't last long.

'When Oudiki and Kouki were two years old,

'baby Tiya also came into Donna's care after being abandoned

'by her mother.

'Tiya was lucky that Donna had learned so much from her experience

'of raising the other two.'

Gorilla babies do need quite a lot of care and attention.

Compared to other animals, they were quite vulnerable.

When they're born, they can't focus,

so they can't really see what's going on.

Their only real instinct is to grip on

and cry when hungry or uncomfortable, really.

When we're with Tiya, we act like a gorilla

so that she hopefully doesn't become confused when she's older.

Luckily for her, she's got Oudiki and Kouki to socialise with all day

and hopefully she'll end up with them.

'In time, Tiya did join up with Oudiki and Kouki.

'But despite their strong bond with Donna,

'the three gorillas couldn't stay with her forever.

'They had a much more exciting future ahead of them, out in Africa.

'So they left the park forever to start a new life in the wild.

'For Donna, life just wasn't the same without them.'

I've missed them lots the past year.

More than anything, I wish that I could see what they're doing,

cos they were in my life for a couple of years.

'But now, her dream of seeing Oudiki, Kouki and Tiya again

'is about to come true,

'as she's travelled across the globe to Africa.

'But it's been over a year since they last saw Donna.

'So will the babies even remember her?'

In their spare time, some people like to play sports,

some people like to read, others like to sit down in front of the TV

and watch a good movie. I'm here with Mark from the education department

who, in his spare time, loves to build large pretend animals.

-Yeah. Everyone needs a hobby.

-Yeah. So what have we got here?

This is our large hessian mache bison, wildebeest, whatever.

There are some lions behind me. They're looking very scary.

-I presume this is for them.

-Yes. We'll give them a run with this.

We've not given them anything quite this big before,

so it'll be nice to see what the family group makes of it.

I can't wait to see what they make of it. We've also got keeper Chris.

-What have you got there?

-Ah, this is the secret ingredient, OK?

This is to turn this papier-mache bison

into what would look, hopefully, like a real bison.

-Maybe.

-Why bison fur?

To tell you the truth, they wouldn't actually naturally hunt bison,

but we've got bison a couple of fields away from here,

so this was just to hand and it'll make this a bit more realistic.

Mark, I know you've put a lot of effort into constructing this,

but it seems like they're not going to have any pay-off, no food.

Seems a little bit cruel. Why bother?

Well, these guys get fed twice a week or so,

so in between times, we want to give them things to get their teeth into.

So they'll get a lot of excitement and play

and they might do a few hunting behaviours from this.

So it's a good way of stimulating that without food.

We've not got any food. What makes you think they'll come over to it?

-I'm sure you've heard the saying, "Curiosity killed the cat."

-Yeah.

It means cats are curious, and it's exactly the same with the big cats.

Anything that's new in their territory, they want to try it out.

Right, OK. I can't wait to see what happens.

I'm feeling a little bit unsure about being in here,

so can we get out of here and let the lions in

-and see what they make of our poor bison?

-Sounds good.

Join us later in the show to see what happens. Let's put an afro on him.

-What's a cat's second favourite food?

-I don't know.

-Spa-cat-ti.

-THEY LAUGH

SHE ROARS

-What do elephants do in the evening?

-I don't know.

-Watch ele-vision.

-THEY LAUGH

THEY ROAR

What did the Cinderella fish wear to the ball?

Glass flippers. Ta-da!

THEY LAUGH

Right then, it's Ask The Keeper time.

We've popped down to the red-bellied tamarin enclosure

for a bit of feeding time with keeper Ruth Shave.

Ruth, you're in the hotspot today, and hopefully you won't be left

red-faced when these guys ask the questions.

So, who wants to go first? Go on then, Harvey.

How long do they live?

These guys can live about 13 years. That's a good age for a tamarin.

-And how old are the ones you've got in here?

-The oldest one is ten.

-And the youngest was born two years ago.

-Lots of generations, then.

-Why do they have long tails?

-The long tail would help for balance.

These guys would be up mid-canopy,

they would rarely come down to the ground, so a good sense of balance

is pretty important at those kind of heights, so that would help.

-Go on, Owen.

-They're very small, but how are they so powerful?

They're reasonably powerful, but they're very agile.

These guys would be able to balance on very thin branches

that other primates couldn't get to, allowing them to get to fruit

which was inaccessible to other animals,

so it's quite good in that way.

So they're very good at leaping, jumping,

they're perfectly adapted to life at a height.

OK. Anyone else got a question?

Did you rear them here because their habitats were under threat?

Deforestation in America is happening at an alarming rate.

I think 90 percent of their home has been chopped down,

so yeah, their numbers are declining quite fast,

so it's important that collections like these keep up the breeding.

What is their natural predator?

Erm, in South America, they'd have a variety of natural predators.

The raptor, large snakes, large cats,

things like that would all be a threat

-to something as small as a tamarin.

-Ruth, you've done really well.

So far. Because we have got a killer question for you.

But you have to give us a moment. So just entertain yourself. Come on.

-Is she going to get that?

-Maybe not.

Ohhh! All right, then.

I shall ask the question. Ruth Shave, the killer question for you

about the red-bellied tamarins.

-How many teeth do they have?

-Oh!

Erm... I'm not actually sure.

I would hazard a guess at, erm, 28.

28. Ruth, you're wrong. It's actually 32 teeth, just like us.

So, apart from that, but you were close,

how did Ruth do? Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Thumbs up. Thumbs up. Ohh!

Mackenzie's being harsh.

I'll make up for Mackenzie and give you two thumbs up.

-Ruth, it's been a pleasure. Thank you so much.

-ALL: Thanks, Ruth!

'Now we're heading out to Africa for more Back To The Wild.

'The three baby gorillas who were hand-raised back in the parks

'were flown out to a country called The Gabon last year.

'They're now in a sort of gorilla nursery in a national park,

'over 2,000 square kilometres of forest

'protected from logging and hunting by a dedicated team of wardens.

'It's a unique project set up and paid for by the parks

'to put some of their own gorillas back into the wild.

'It's been so successful that two groups of gorillas from Kent

'are now already living free in the jungle.

'The little gorillas spend about two years here

'growing up under the watchful eye of carers

'until they're ready to live on their own.

'That's the whole point of the project and the chance to see babies

who were hand-raised in England thriving in their natural habitat

'is a rich reward for Donna Honey, who came out with them last year.

'Now she's coming back. She's flown on three different planes,

'spent five hours driving off-road in a very bumpy 4x4,

'and now has a two-hour trip up the crocodile-infested Mpassa River

'to the place where her gorillas now live.

'She's been met by Liz Pearson, who's been looking after the gorillas

'in the jungle for the last ten years.

'And, after a three-day journey, Donna finally arrives.'

-Here we are, back at camp.

-Cool.

-We made it.

-How does it feel to be back after a year?

-It's great to be back.

-Glad we finally made it.

-I can't wait for the gorillas to see you.

I'm glad to have you back, too.

-I'm sure they can't wait to see you.

-I hope so.

'The main thing, of course, is to make sure the little gorillas

'have settled in well.'

Crazy to think that they're not far away now

and I know that and I'm here,

but they've got no idea, they're just in the forest right now

doing their own thing, probably eating and playing

and they've got no idea that here I am

and I'm nearly going to be with them.

'But it's almost evening and after a day in the forest,

'Oudiki, Kouki and Tiya will now be heading for bed.'

Oudiki's just over there, but I can't come and see him yet

cos it's a bit too late in the day,

so it's a bit of a tease.

It's been just over a year since I saw them last,

so I guess one more night is not going to kill me. I hope.

I really can't wait to get up there.

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

'It'll certainly do better if you type in today's cheat code, grass456

'with no gaps in between the letters and numbers.'

'And that'll unlock new food and treats for all your lovely animals.'

Earlier on in the show, we put some pretend prey into the lion enclosure

and now it's time to see what they make of it.

-Chris, are you ready to release them?

-Shall we do it?

-Yeah, let's do it!

OK! Release them!

-Here they come.

-We have five lions. They've come straight over to it.

Wonder how long it's going to last. They seem a bit nervous at first.

-A little bit. But not too much.

-They're going for it now.

-Bison fur. Look at that.

-Wow.

We did put some real bison fur on there.

-Is this dad that's gone over?

-It certainly is, that's Cinnamon.

Are they mimicking what they do out in the wild?

That's pretty impressive! That is one dead bison there.

If they were to stand on their prey and say, "This is mine"

-then that's mimicking the wild, yeah.

-Wow, amazing.

Now they're having a good old smell, a good old feel of it,

seeing what it's like and, yeah, it's doing everything we hoped.

-We've got lots of excited lions.

-It's brilliant.

Do they ever fight over things like this?

It really depends on Dad. The only one that generally fights

is if Dad declares it's all his, nobody can do anything about it.

But he's playing nicely today, so hopefully they'll all get a go.

They're having a good old sniff. When they do tear it apart,

do you think they'll use claws or their big teeth?

You can see, they've all got their claws into it,

but I guarantee they'll be using their teeth on it.

What happens if they accidentally swallow some of this pretend prey?

It's made out of cardboard, isn't it, and hessian sacks.

If you think about what these guys normally take into their stomachs,

a little bit of hessian's not an issue. It'll go straight through.

-They're really tearing it apart. They seem to be working as a team.

-Yeah.

Wow! So, one of the girls has ran off with it.

Is this where we could see a little bit of an argument?

She obviously decided she wanted it all to herself.

But she didn't get too far. It's a bit too big for her. Brilliant.

Well, I'm not going to argue with those lions.

They've taken it over there and I'm sure they'll enjoy

playing with their pretend prey. It's not lasted long.

Maybe next time we need to make it out of titanium steel.

'Now it's goodbye to the UK again.

'as we're heading to The Gabon in Africa

'for more Back To The Wild.

'After spending a night in the jungle,

'Donna Honey is finally going to be reunited

'with the three gorillas she hand-raised from birth in the UK.'

I'm finally going to get to see the kids!

So I'm very happy. Very excited.

'The gorillas haven't set eyes on her for over a year,

'so it'll be interesting to see whether the youngsters

'do remember their foster mum.'

It's going to be a bit of a shock for them, so it's probably...

Well, it's maybe going to take a little while for them to come over.

I'm hoping the kids will be fairly pleased to see me.

I think the best I can hope for is a little hello

and then they'll get on with their day.

We'll soon find out.

'It's a 40-minute hike up the hill to the gorilla house.

'The youngsters sleep here every night,

'but spend all the daylight hours out in the jungle

'learning what to eat and how to be gorillas.

'Before they leave the house, though,

'the daily routine starts with a cup of milk.'

-Bless her.

-'The gorillas have enjoyed their milk as usual.

'Will they even notice, let alone remember, their former keeper?'

Hello, handsome! Hello.

'It seems she needn't have worried.

'Oudiki has come straight over to give her a welcome hug.

'And Kouki's not far behind.

'The kids are overjoyed to see her

'and hitch a ride into the forest.

'It's obvious the youngsters are very much at home here.

'They are going back to the wild

'but they haven't forgotten someone who showed them so much care

'when they were just babies.'

That felt really good, actually having Oudiki say hello.

And Kouki got a ride into the forest from me, as well.

So that was nice.

Probably the best outcome I could get, really.

'After 12 months living in the forest,

'the gorillas are growing fast.

'The biggest surprise is how Tiya has changed.

'When Donna left her, she was still in nappies,

'not able to climb or find food on her own.'

Tiya has changed dramatically.

She's climbing and she seems more with it.

She's just grown up quite a lot.

And she looks a bit different, too.

'And they're not just climbing a little bit.

'These tough tots scamper to the tops of trees over 15 metres high.

'It's the ultimate adventure playground.'

This is fab, to see them out in the forest,

doing what they want,

having pretty much a free choice

to go where they want

and spend their time pretty much as they please.

-It's lovely.

-'But gorillas can easily become stressed.

'So it's really important to keep them feeling safe and relaxed

'at all times. It's one of the key skills of gorilla keepers.'

When I'm here with the gorillas, I'm just trying to mimic their behaviour

while I'm with them to say that everything's OK

and I'm content and happy.

I'm just trying to give off the right signals.

I don't want to come across in a threatening way at all.

So I'm just behaving like them.

'The gorillas may well be free to roam

'but they're still reliant on a team of carers for some things.

'The group get three feeds of milk every day.

'They would still have been suckling if their mum was looking after them

'so they're given milk until they move completely onto solids.

'They used to need help drinking, but now they use cups by themselves.

'And when they've had their elevenses,

'they get back to what gorillas do most of the time,

'filling their tummies.

'They just see the forest as one big larder.

'But they have to be taught what's good and safe to eat.

'Then they munch their way through ten kilos of shoots,

'leaves and fruit every day.

'And the team running the project have observed them eating

'over 50 kinds of plant, as well as sap from the trees.

'Donna's pleased with their progress.'

It's great to be here.

It's a real privilege.

I'm very happy to be here to see the gorillas out in the wild

doing their own thing, doing what they want and just being gorillas.

'We'll be following the gorillas' adventures over the next few days.

'So look out for more Back To The Wild.'

-Well, unfortunately, that's all we've got time for.

-Johny, please!

Rani, stop badgering me! We're going to see Winnie now before we go.

-Hiya, Jim.

-You all right?

We've come down to see Winnie the honey badger.

-What's on the menu?

-Today she's got one of her favourites. Rats.

Urgh, rats. What does she love about rats?

-She loves everything.

-Yeah?

-Eats the lot.

-Do you want to feed her?

-Yeah, unless you want to?

You know, I'm more of a master chef.

I'd like to do something in the kitchen. You just throw it.

Here she is, waiting for it.

I've heard... She's very small, but look, she's quite vicious

for such a small, cute little creature.

-Yeah, she is. She's got a very bad reputation in Africa.

-Right.

-No-one messes with her.

-Not just Winnie, but all honey badgers.

-Yeah.

They've got this reputation, nothing will phase her.

It's quite a big meal there. How often do you feed her?

-We feed her every day.

-Every day?

-Every day.

-Just one a day?

-Yeah.

-She's ran off.

-She'll hide that, store it and come back for more.

She must have a larder down there where she stored it all.

She must have quite a network of tunnels underneath here.

Yeah, I hate to think how many tunnels there are,

because when we come in to clean, we quite often fall down them,

because the grass gets long, so we have to make sure the grass is cut.

-Ah!

-She's back for another one.

-There's no way she ate that.

You say you come in to clean this. We've never been allowed in.

And you say she's fearless and ferocious.

-How do you get in there? Ah! Got you now, Jim!

-Good one, Rani.

-No, because it takes three of us.

-Really?

-Yes.

One will go round the back of her enclosure and make sure she's there,

and whilst they're feeding her over there,

the two remaining keepers get in, do a quick clean,

change the water and everything else and then get out before she gets us.

That's got to be pretty scary! "Quick, before Winnie gets back!"

Thank you for the heads up. I won't be messing with her any time soon.

-I thought you came to help me clean?

-Don't even go there!

-There's three of us.

-I think it's time that we got off.

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

See you later!

'Oudiki, Kouki and Tiya, who were hand-raised in the parks,

'are now in a jungle nursery in Africa.

'But how are they going to learn to survive on their own?

'Who's going to teach them?'

'We meet an extremely ancient breed of wild moggies.

'But does the head keeper know why they're called pallas cats?'

Yes!

'And we get more than we bargained for at the elephant paddock.'

That is the biggest pee I've ever seen! It's like a swimming pool!

'Make sure you're watching.'

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