Episode 29 Roar

An African wild dog called Dead Eye Dave

has to be knocked out for a life-saving operation.

But will his brother attack him when he comes back to the enclosure?

Welcome to Roar. I'm Johny.

I'm Rani. And this chilled-out fella is the red-footed tortoise.

These guys are from South America and they draw their name

from their red and orange scales on their head, feet and tails.

All tortoises are slow, but the red-footed tortoise, on average,

walks less than a kilometre an hour.

We'd better leave him here because we've got an action-packed show,

so come on!

'Coming up on today's show...

'Stand by for one of the longest and thinnest tongues in the world.

-'It's amazing.'

-I'd believe anything about these creatures after today!

'Are the lion-tailed macaques smart enough

'and strong enough to break into coconuts?'

They're all fighting for it now!

'And how will the black-and-white ruffed lemurs keeper get on

-'when he faces...'

-The killer question!

-Oh, that's a good one.

'But first, the extraordinary story of Dead Eye Dave.'

African hunting dogs are some of the wildest

and most endangered creatures in the world.

In the wild, a pack of them are almost invincible,

able to hunt and kill animals many times their own size.

But like any puppies, they're helpless when they're born,

especially when they're orphans.

Two years ago, the keepers had to work round the clock

to try and save this litter of 14 pups.

Here we go then -

a five-day-old, wriggly, hunting dog puppy.

Believe it or not, this is actually probably about twice the size

of what they were when they were first born.

Chris and the team did everything their mother would have done.

Well, almost everything.

In the first stages of their lives, they don't wee and poo by themselves.

Normally, Mum stimulates them.

She'll lick their bits and pieces to stimulate them to wee and poo.

I'm not going to do that, so instead I'm using a piece of cotton wool.

But without their mother, their chances never looked good.

Despite all the keepers' care,

eight of them died over the next few weeks.

Head of section Rich Barnes was left with six - four girls and two boys.

But at least the survivors looked strong and healthy.

They're proper wild little dogs

and since about two weeks old, they've been pulling each other over

and trying to tear each other's ears off and stuff,

so they're already pretty cool.

You can see how they can turn into these ferocious killing machines.

From the day they were born, the two males were a dangerous double act.

And look at them now, just two years on!

They're called Chobe and Dead Eye Dave

who, as the name suggests, always had a bit of a bad eye.

But what was a nickname has now turned into a problem.

Keeper Jess noticed something strange going on with Dave's eye

and called in the vet.

Today, we're going to knock out one of the wild dogs

from the hand-reared lot that were born here two years back

to try and find out what's going on with his eye.

It's changed colour a few times in the last few weeks,

so Jane the vet will have a look to find out what's happening with it.

Separating Dave from Chobe may cause them to fight later on,

so Jane will sedate him and check out the eye

as close as possible to his brother.

-Is this him here?

-Yeah.

Kerry, Jane's assistant, is here with a medical kit.

With luck, they'll be able to treat him quickly on the spot.

Good boy!

DOG WHIMPERS

I went for a shoulder shot.

As usual, Jane was bang on target

and Dave should go safely to sleep in this part of the enclosure.

Unless we find anything worrying, we'll do the whole sedation here.

If we find anything worrying, we may transfer him to the vet hospital,

but hopefully, it'll just be a quick procedure here.

The drugs Jane uses are powerful, but Rich goes first.

If Dave is still awake, he'll be very dangerous.

-The towel is to keep light from his eyes.

-Wait there a minute.

We're just waiting to make sure that the sedation is fully applied,

then Jane will start having a look at him.

I think you're good to come in, Kerry. I think he's doing very well.

Jane immediately checks out the problem eye

and it doesn't look good.

-Is that bad?

-Yeah.

-You see where it's beginning to erode in the surface?

-Yeah.

I think the whole thing needs to come out,

-so it does need to be done in the vet hospital.

-OK.

We'll have to take him, do it

-and bring him back as quickly as possible.

-Yeah.

If we've got to do that, we've got to do that.

The problem is much worse than they thought.

We're transferring the dog to the vet hospital.

The eye is very badly infected and we need to remove the eye.

It's bad news and the operation is risky, but if they don't do it,

the infection could spread and kill him anyway.

Oh, sorry, I'm just measuring my tongue

because I've heard some information that's going to set tongues wagging.

My tongue is only six centimetres long,

but an anteater's tongue is an incredible 60 centimetres long.

I'm here with Head of Hoofstock Joel Bunce. Joel, that can't be right.

-I'm afraid it's true.

-Can we measure that out on my tape measure here?

60 centimetres is that long!

Why does an anteater's tongue need to be that long?

Because he feeds primarily on termites.

So what he needs to do is raid a termite mound and they're huge.

They build huge tunnels into them,

so he needs to be able to get all the way down to get his food.

Why isn't he called a termite-eater, rather than an anteater?

Termites and ants are basically the same thing.

He eats a lot of them, 30,000,

so the longer the tongue, the more food he's able to get.

I noticed him in this enclosure.

He's one of the strangest animals on the park. He looks so bizarre.

Where do you find one in the wild?

They're quite widespread in South America.

There are other types of anteater, but these are the biggest.

I still can't believe that his tongue really is 60 centimetres,

so I've had a word with the Roar boffins to devise a contraption

to see just how long his tongue is.

So can we try and get him outside with our contraption?

-Yeah, that's no problem.

-Brilliant. Join us later to find out

if an anteater's tongue really is as long as they say... No way!

-What happened when the cat swallowed a ball of wool?

-I don't know.

He had mittens!

Raargh! Raargh!

Why was the mother glow-worm unhappy?

Because her children weren't very bright.

Cuh, cuh, cuh!

How do you get an elephant into a matchbox?

Take all the matches out first.

Oh, rubbish!

The lion-tailed macaques can make a meal out of anything.

Today, we're going to be going nuts, literally, with coconuts.

I'm here with keeper Liam. I've brought the coconuts down

because we are going to be giving these to the lion-tailed macaques.

OK, how are we going to crack these open to give it to them?

We don't need to do that. They'll do it for us. Easy!

Liam, Liam, Liam, listen to this.

Hard! Look at those things. They're tiny! How are they going to do it?

They are stronger than they look and they are very clever.

They will get into them no problem, I reckon, within a few minutes.

I'm placing one down here. They're all watching us.

-Do they know this is a treat? Have they ever had coconuts before?

-Yeah.

But any time any activity goes on outside,

it means something is going to change and they'll always investigate it.

They've seen us walking around with coconuts, so they know what it is.

-Are they curious? Shall I place one here?

-Yeah, under the bush.

If he or she doesn't find this, I'm going to blame you.

-Let's pop another one over here on these branches.

-It fits perfectly.

You've given them coconuts before. How do they get into them?

I'm pretty sure they'll stand up on their back two feet,

then smash them on the ground, something hard.

A lot of the youngsters will just use them as toys.

Coconuts are quite rich. Will it be OK for their digestive system?

-I've heard a rumour!

-Yeah, that might go through.

-We only give them a little amount because it is quite rich.

-Right.

-It can go through them if they eat lots of coconuts.

-They get the poos.

-Yeah.

-It's a little bit of a treat, so they're all in position,

the lion-tailed macaques, and they are a bit fierce when we're in here,

-so the best place to watch them...

-Is definitely outside the enclosure

-because they don't like us being around their coconuts.

-Fair enough!

We'll make our way outside. Join us later on

when the lion-tailed macaques can be in here enjoying their coconuts.

Down at the vet centre, Dead Eye Dave is on the operating table.

The two-year-old African hunting dog has a bad eye,

which vet Jane Hopper needs to remove as quickly as possible

because otherwise, Dave may well die.

The eye is very, very ulcerated

and it's so ulcerated, the eye is actually dying.

If we leave it, the eye may burst, which is horrible,

so we need to remove the eye before anything really awful happens.

Jane has had to sedate Dave to operate,

but he can't pant which is how dogs control their temperature.

Vet assistant Kerry has noticed that he's getting hot,

which could be dangerous, so she's covering him with a cold, wet towel.

Dead Eye Dave is a favourite of Head of Section Rich Barnes

because he helped to hand-rear him.

This is one of the hand-raised ones from 2007.

All the animals are quite special,

but we have a bit more of a connection with these guys,

so we want to do everything right by them and we're a bit worried.

Hopefully, he'll get through the operation and everything will be OK.

So the sooner it's done, the better,

but at least Kerry has good news.

His temperature's back to normal.

The cold towel and the ice packs have reduced his temperature slowly,

so that's all good now.

We won't show you what Jane's doing because it's pretty gruesome.

But at last, she's finished.

Good work, yeah. If I ever want an eye removed, I'll get Jane to do it.

With the operation a success,

the priority is now to get Dave back to his enclosure

as quickly as possible.

But will his brother accept him or attack him?

The other boy's a bit nervous because we're all here.

When we go, they'll sit next to each other either side of the fence.

We'll give it a few hours,

try not to leave it too long, then mix them back together.

There's always a danger that they could attack each other.

We have to do what we have to do, so we'll just have to see what happens.

Everyone is very nervous.

Dave's weak and his life could be in the balance.

Great anteaters must be amongst the weirdest looking creatures on Earth.

But there's a good reason why they have that super-long snout

with a little mouth and savage front claws.

They get their food by breaking into rock-hard termite mounds,

sticking their noses in and scoffing all the ant-like termites inside.

I'm still outside the anteater enclosure.

An anteater's got a tongue that's around 60 centimetres long,

so we've devised a contraption that will show us just how long it is.

Joel, what do you think will happen?

I think he will stick his tongue

into those clear plastic tunnels with the mealworms in and eat them all.

-His tongue can stretch that far into the tube?

-Yeah, it certainly will.

-What have we got in there?

-We have mealworms.

-Gross! Are these one of his favourite foods?

-Yes, he loves them.

He's coming out now. He's going straight over to our contraption.

Has he got a good sense of smell? He's got a long nose. Look at this.

-I saw something coming through there.

-Yeah, it is now.

-No way!

-That's the shorter tunnel.

-That will be no problem for him.

-It's unreal. It's like a little whip.

-Yes, exactly.

-It seems like the worms are just sticking to the tongue.

Has he got a sticky tongue or any special adaptations?

Yeah, the tongue is quite sticky,

so that helps keep a grip on the termites or insects he's eating,

just long enough to get it back into his mouth.

I never realised how slim it would be. It's not like a regular tongue.

No, it's very small and string-like.

He's got this long snout. Is that a mouth or a nose? What is it?

It's a combination of the two.

It's mostly nose, but he's got a very small mouth right at the end.

-It's only small because he's eating small insects.

-Has he got any teeth?

No real teeth as such.

Right at the back of the snout or the mouth,

he's got a little plate which is used for crushing termites or insects

just small enough to swallow them into his stomach.

Look at that! We've got an amazing shot. He's going for worms.

But that tongue looks like a worm itself. Look at that giant worm!

-Oh, my gosh! That's easily 60 centimetres.

-Yeah.

Wow! Do these guys eat a lot? Are they constantly foraging for food?

Well, they have to really eat about 30,000 termites a day to survive,

which is a huge amount.

Why do you think they love the termites so much?

Is it just something that's naturally found where they are?

It's just how they've evolved.

They've become very specialised in what they do.

There's no competition for termites. Nothing else eats them in their area.

Their sole focus is on doing that.

That's how they've lasted all this time

because they've just specialised in one thing.

That tongue is making short work of those mealworms. It moves so fast.

Yeah, it's very quick, reputedly 150 times a minute.

I've not counted myself, but I can quite believe it, yeah.

I'd believe anything about these creatures after today.

Before this, I thought you were maybe lying.

60 centimetres is a lot, but after seeing this, I believe you.

Thanks for letting us get so close to the amazing anteater.

Now it's time to pick up a pen or fire up your computer.

That's right because here is today's cheat code.

It's "coral762".

Type it in carefully because only this exact code

will unlock today's food and treats

for the animals in your wildlife park.

Earlier in the show, myself and keeper Liam placed some coconuts

in the lion-tailed macaques' enclosure. They've all got one.

Even the little ones grabbed them.

I thought Spock the big male would come along,

but Bootsman is the obvious one.

Look at that! You said they'd walk on two legs.

You see them running away, grabbing what they can and off they go.

Wow! It's great to see them on two legs.

-Would they have a need to do that in the wild?

-Yeah, they will do that.

They do it to gain a higher vantage point when searching for food.

We scatter all the food around, so they forage.

They'll stand up on two legs to get a higher vantage point.

They do it in the wild for the same thing and to look out for predators.

-Do they know they're edible products?

-Yeah.

When they first had them, they probably would've investigated them,

destroyed them, then realised these were quite tasty.

They know they're nice now,

so you can see them all desperately trying to get into them.

It's amazing to see their balance when they're holding something.

-They're just jumping around.

-Really agile.

-Look at that.

He's definitely built to move around like that. He does that quite often.

He's trying to bite this one.

Are their teeth sharp enough to get into the coconut?

Not at that size, but they can work their way into it.

A big adult male like Spock can start cracking it,

but not strong enough to bite through it and crack it open.

-Where are these guys from?

-India.

And what about the tails? What is that used for? Balancing?

They don't use them as much

as you see a lot of the primates that live high up in the canopies do.

But they still use them for balance.

You can see him running along there. He's got into that one.

Now he's charging around the enclosure with it.

Is the idea to eat it high up to keep away from everyone else?

He'll move around. They're following him because he's got into it.

-"How have you done it, Boots?"

-You can see them all doing that now.

He's got right into that and he's probably eaten most of that coconut.

Well done, Boots. He's the first one to crack the coconut.

-He's the champion.

-Liam, thank you so much.

-No problem.

They're all fighting for it now!

# Boo boo ba ba boo...

# Ba ba boo boo boo Ba ba boo... #

It's Ask The Keeper time once again

and today, we'll be learning all about those lovely lemurs.

To help me out, I've got four inquisitive young minds.

The keeper is Adam May who is a bit of a pro when it comes to primates.

-Are you enjoying the weather?

-Yeah, it's beautiful.

Get ready for a storm of questions. Girls, bring on the thunder.

-Are they born with black and white tails?

-That's a very good question.

We haven't bred the lemurs since I've been working here,

so I've never actually seen a baby.

But I presume they do because we've got a few here

that have banding on their tails and there's some that don't.

I presume some of them will be born with it and some without,

but I'm not entirely sure about it.

Why are their eyes so big?

Their eyes are quite large, they're bright and very big

because these guys are classed as cathemeral,

so they're active during the day and night.

Because they're active when there's low light levels,

they need to have big eyes, so they can see well, much like cats' eyes.

When you see a cat's eyes in the dark, they glow bright.

It's one of the reasons why they're called lemurs. It means "ghost".

Because people see the eyes and hear the loud shrieks,

when it's dark, they said they were like ghosts.

-Do you have to cut their fingernails?

-No, with these guys, we don't.

I don't know if we can see. It's a bit difficult.

They have what's called a grooming claw on their toe

which is next to the thumb.

Next to the big toe. That's a bit longer.

That's the grooming claw used for cleaning themselves and each other.

But they have fingernails like us.

They tend to wear them down as they run around,

so we don't worry about their nails.

-Any other questions?

-How can they communicate with other animals?

Yeah, communication with these guys is mainly vocal,

so they do a lot of different calls like we would speak.

They do a very loud alarm call. It's like a barking, like a dog.

It sounds like they're aggressive, but they're not angry or anything.

Can you communicate with these guys? Have you learnt any of their sounds?

I can tell what they mean, but there's a lot we're not too sure of.

Sometimes it's difficult to understand why they do it.

-Adam, I am pretty impressed with your knowledge so far.

-Thank you.

Will your lemur luck run out now as it's time for the killer question?

WHISPERING

OK, of the questions so far, he's answered every single one right.

-That's a good one. OK, Adam, I think we've got you.

-OK.

-Are you ready?

Yeah, go ahead.

How many teeth in total does a lemur have?

Oh, that's a good one.

That's a very good question. I'm not sure about that one.

They have incisors like we do

and canines and a few molars at the back.

I think it's about 26 that they have,

but I'm not too sure about that one, so I think you've got me that time.

-It's quite a good guess, but you're ten off.

-Ten off?

-Yeah.

Lemurs actually have 36 teeth, so we got you on that one.

-You got me on that one, yeah.

-You did pretty well.

Girls, overall, how do you reckon Adam did? Thumbs up or thumbs down?

Thumbs up all round.

You didn't get the killer question right, but you did pretty well.

Find out how our next keeper gets on in Ask The Keeper.

Over at the hunting dog enclosure, the keepers are preparing

to let brothers Dead Eye Dave and Chobe back in together.

Dave has recovered well from his operation,

but his biggest hurdle may still lie ahead

because African hunting dogs are very aggressive.

Chobe may not want his brother back and could go in for the kill,

so we were asked to keep well back

and the keepers let them meet again through a fence.

When they didn't snarl, Rich took the chance of opening the slide.

Good boy. Go on then. Good lad.

Good boys.

You be nice to him.

To everyone's relief, they greeted each other like...well, brothers.

We left them overnight to settle down.

-Now Chris Hales has come to bring them a treat.

-Come on, you two.

Obviously, yesterday, poor old Dead Eye Dave had his eye taken out.

If any human being had had that done to them,

I'm sure we'd still be laying in a hospital complaining of lots of pain,

whereas he's running around with his brother there.

He's acting as if nothing's happened whatsoever.

It's fantastic. It goes to show just how tough African wild dogs are.

Well, unfortunately, it's nearly time for the end of the show.

It is, but how could we leave you without a bit of "fowl" play first?

I'm not talking about the way Johny plays footie, but guinea fowl.

-We're here with keeper Barry. How are you?

-Fine, Johny.

-Nice to see you, Barry.

-Ten guinea fowl chicks. They are adorable.

-What's this?

-This is their food. They eat chick mash.

What's in there? Seeds and things like that?

-Yeah, it's all mashed up nice and small.

-That's a lot.

There are ten of them and they do go through it.

-Let's place it down.

-They won't come straight over because we're in here.

They keep together as a gang. We'll be as calm and gentle as possible.

-Will they always stick together?

-We hope so.

We've got five in the main paddock and they're fully-grown adults.

They hang about together. It's quite cute.

-Are they all healthy and well?

-Yeah, we are delighted with them.

When you come to a park like this, we see the ellies, lions and tigers.

What do the guinea fowl add to the deer park?

It's interesting. People come to the deer park

and when they see a flock of guinea fowl,

they go, "What on earth are they?"

They're quite funny and they're obviously quite noisy.

They're just fun to have around.

We don't want to stress them out. It's been fantastic to get so close.

I think we should fly the nest.

Yeah, and while we do, check out what's on the next episode of Roar.

-You didn't laugh. I said "fly the nest".

-Ah!

'There's been a very rare sighting out in the safari area -

'a new-born baby antelope and it's pure white,

'but could its colour be the death of it?

'The fishing cat gets crabby, but who's got the sharpest claws?

'And I try to make friends with the silverbacks...

'without much success.'

Was that telling us off or telling Boo Boo off?

-I think it's telling you guys off.

-Right, OK.

'Make sure you're watching.'

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd 2010

Email [email protected]