Episode 3 Roar

Today on Roar...

Big changes are coming to the giraffe herd,

with a new one arriving and another due to leave.

But transporting five-metre-tall giraffes is a risky business,

and anything could happen on moving day.

Hello and welcome to Roar. I'm Johny.

And I'm Rani. And this little fellow, with the beady eyes,

is Bill the Siberian lynx.

Did you know that the Siberian lynx is the largest of the lynx family,

and an adult male can weigh up to 22 kilos?

That's the equivalent of four domestic cats.

Johny, enough of this "weight-ing"

around, I think we should get on with today's show.

Coming up - Eight-legged freak or furry friend?

What will the fearless foursome make of the giant tarantula?

Do the dusky langurs know they're eating rose petals?

Or do they just need new spectacles?

And I find out how long you'd last if you tried to play hide and seek

with the lions.

All I can say is, I'm glad that we're out here and they're in there.

But now, there are big changes on the way in the giraffe herd.

In a few days, a new male is due to be brought here.

And that the same time, the female named Amber

is moving to another animal park.

If you've been watching Roar for a while, you might

remember when Amber had a baby. We managed to film the whole thing.

It was a boy. They named him Karamojo, and he was the very first

giraffe to be born here in the park.

But now it's time for Amber to move on, and join a new breeding

programme at another park.

Keeper Nick will be sorry to say goodbye.

Amber is, sadly, leaving us. She's going off to another park.

She was the first female, and she had the baby, so it will be a shame, but

in a way out of all of them she's best suited to leave us because at

least she's going to be part of another breeding group.

So she'll be able to have more babies up there.

Definitely a happy future for her.

But right now the keepers need to start getting things ready

for moving day, and the first job is to persuade Amber to walk

from the large enclosure into the giraffe house and its small yard.

From there, they'll be able to get her onto the transporter lorry

when it comes on moving day.

To keep Amber company while she's waiting in the yard,

head of section Paul Beer is planning to bring

another giraffe, Setanta, in with her.

We've lined up the gateways to bring the giraffe in.

Claire and Keira are going to open the gate.

Hopefully Amber and Setanta will walk up here, I'll follow them

through, try to get the gate shut at the end and just keep

them contained in the yard. Do you want to go for it?

Setanta, come on!

Come on! Come on!

But, after a promising start, both giraffes stop in their tracks,

and refuse to go any further.

Keeper Keira has got a carrot to see if they can be tempted along.

But at the moment, they don't seem very interested in food.

And you just can't rush a giraffe.

If you start pushing them too much, they're just going to get

threatened, scared, and it's going to be a disaster.

So you want to take it slowly-slowly and see how it goes.

The keepers must be very careful.

Giraffes have a kick strong enough to kill a lion, and they can swing

their necks with great force.

Luckily, Amber is a gentle character,

and she's just being a little shy.

Keeper Claire reckons this could take a while.

She has just not got any interest in Keira and Paul at all at the moment,

she's just standing back.

We just have to wait and see if she relaxes a bit,

and then pays attention to us again.

Usually when they're acting like this, it can take hours.

Hopefully it'll not take days.

There is a possibility that it's our camera crew who are

putting the giraffes off,

so we're going to leave them to it and come back later to see if

that helps the keepers get them in, ready for moving day.

It's dinner time with a difference here at the lion enclosure, and with

me is keeper Chris Hales, who's got an idea. What's the big idea, Chris?

OK. The idea is that we don't make it too easy for them.

Normally they get a couple of big pieces each, or one large piece each.

Today, that's not exactly big, is it?

Well, it looks kind of big to me.

It might be big for us, but for a lion, that would last

all of ten seconds. What we've done, we've taken

their entire meal, and cut it up into loads and loads of pieces.

-And we're just going to hide it everywhere.

-Brilliant.

It's quite gruesome, I have to say.

So where shall we put the first bit of meat?

There's all different places we can put it.

There's tyres in the enclosure, so we can hide it in there.

We can hide it under log piles.

As you can see behind me, there's a ladder.

There's your first job.

Let's go up here, then.

I'm going to put this quite high up.

I never really think of lions as being good climbers,

are you sure they'll get it if I put it up here?

I guarantee they will get that. The height you're at at the moment,

with one of the lions standing on their back feet,

they're already taller than that.

Speaking of the lions, you've got me a bit scared. Where are they?

There's actually two of them behind us over there. So we've got

Milo and Moonlight, and I can assure you they are safely shut away.

Brilliant. That's good to know.

OK. So I'm going to put that there.

-Yes, good stuff.

-You sure they'll get it from up there?

Obviously, the beauty of being a cat is that they've got

lots of different things on their side to help them find food.

So, obviously, they've got great vision.

That's how they find most of their prey.

But they've also got a really, really good sense of smell. So, in theory,

if they can't see the food, they should be able to pick up the smell.

Have you had a sniff of it yet?

It's quite fragrant, but it's not an overly strong smell.

It's not too bad. This is actually quite fresh.

Only the best for our cats.

Where else shall we put it that's quite out of the way?

This is kind of down to your imagination.

Literally, anywhere that you can find.

Obviously we've got tyres, we've got log piles,

we've got long grass, you can hide it absolutely anywhere you want.

Underneath here, is that cool?

And you know what, I might pop one in this tyre as well.

I don't think they'll find it there.

So who have we got in the enclosure?

I can see two lions.

Indeed. We've got Milo and Moonlight, and they're actually twins.

They're brothers. So we've got Milo, who's completely food obsessed.

That's why he's doing nothing but running up and down.

He can smell this already.

You say they're food obsessed?

-Yeah.

-If they were to get out, I guess, would we be food?

Are they quite vicious towards humans?

I don't like to imagine that kind of scenario.

It worries you a little bit!

Let's not imagine that scenario, let's hurry and get this meat out.

Join us later on in the show for a bit of lion hide and seek. Come on.

It's time now for Ask The Keeper, where Rob Gordon is going

to be having questions fired at him by this group of boffins, all about

the very chilling Chile Rose spider.

Rob, I hope you don't get caught out in their sticky web.

OK, who's going to ask the first question?

-Go on then.

-Where do they come from?

The Chile Rose tarantula comes from Chile, in South America.

There are a few different types that come from South America.

This kind comes from the north of Chile, which is quite tropical.

And very, very humid.

I know that the Chile Rose tarantula lives from 15-20 years.

How does that compare to other tarantulas?

Most female tarantulas can live to

that sort of age, and they're very reliant on environmental things.

They need a bit of heat. They need a bit of humidity.

Given the right things, they can live to that age.

Male tarantulas, though, tend not to live that long.

Maybe only a quarter to a third of that time.

You've got a really wriggly spider there.

Would it be fair to say that

it might have done a little dropping on your hand there?

I think she has, yes!

I can just see a little bit on my finger there.

It doesn't happen very often, but she has

left a little deposit behind.

-Tarantula poo, does it smell?

-No, I can't smell it out here.

It's very, very liquidy, so it's not too bad. I'm sure

-it'll wash off easily.

-It doesn't look too nice.

Occupational hazard, I think they call that.

Is the Chile Rose tarantula a well-known pet?

The Chile Rose tarantula is one of the more common species in captivity,

partly because they're easy to keep.

They don't mind being handled.

Not every tarantula can cope with being handled.

Some are quite nervous.

-So this one's quite good for that sort of thing.

-What do they eat?

Mostly other insects, which they tend to catch live.

Anything really that they see, there are a lot of different

insects in that part of the world.

They may also scavenge small dead things.

-Sometimes bits of meat and things like that.

-Why are tarantulas red?

Not all tarantulas are red.

This one obviously is, and it's in the name, because it's called a rose.

It's probably to blend in with their background, so they probably come

from areas where there's a lot of red soil or red rocks.

But others come in various different colours.

Mostly for the same reason. Sometimes they're quite bright colours,

so that they can display to each other.

Does it feel tickly on your hand?

No. They're really light. You can just feel their toes really.

Would anyone like to have a hold?

-I will.

-OK. There you go.

-She's going to walk on.

-Careful.

Support her body.

What's it like, Sean?

She feels a bit ticklish.

A bit tickly? And she seems very wriggly, cos it's

quite windy here, isn't it, Rob?

Yes. She can feel the air.

You should take this little lady back,

because we're going to come up with a Killer Question.

Alright then, guys. Come on in, come on in.

OK, now we'll talk about the Killer Question.

Rob, they're being mean now!

Right then, Rob. We have a Killer Question for you.

What we'd like to know -

how many spiders' legs do you actually have on your section here?

So you've got to do the maths, and you've got to do it fast.

You have to explain your workings out as well!

Well, we've got about 12 here.

Are you sure you only have 12 spiders here?

As far as I can remember. We have a few.

I'm going to have to jog your memory, because

we've been doing a bit of research, and you actually have 13 spiders.

Unlucky for some. Which would make it into 104 legs.

So I'm sorry, Rob.

What do you think? Apart from the Killer Question,

the rest of Rob's answers, thumbs-up or thumbs-down for him?

Oooh! We're just missing one thumb, so you can have one from me as well,

-Rob. Thank you very much.

-Thank you.

What do you get when you cross a skunk and a bear?

-I don't know.

-Winnie the Pooh!

-Miaow! Miaow!

-Why did the centipede get

dropped from the insect football team?

Don't know.

He took too long to put his boots on!

Ooh, ooh, ooh, ooh!

What do you get when a budgie flies into a pastry dish?

-I don't know.

-Tweetie Pie!

We're back at the lion enclosure

with keeper Chris Hales, to see if lions Milo and Moonlight can find

the tasty, meaty treats we've hidden around the enclosure.

Shall we let them through?

-Yes. Are you ready for this?

-On your call.

Let's do it. OK, you ready?

-Yes.

-Here they come.

-So, who do you think's going to be out first?

-This is Milo.

So this is the food obsessed one.

OK. So no surprises there.

Indeed. But, he's closely followed by his brother, Moonlight.

So they're having a good old sniff around.

-I'm assuming you put one in this tyre here?

-Yes, I did.

He's trying his hardest to get that one out.

Moonlight is having a sniff around.

You've got to remember that they're used to big pieces,

which are a lot easier to find. So this is quite different for them.

I think he has got that one out of the tyre there.

-Yes.

-Pretty easily.

Did we hide one over there?

We put one underneath the log there. Moonlight is having a good old sniff.

There's one in amongst those logs as well.

I did hide a piece of meat underneath that bridge there.

-He's found it, look. He's found it.

-There we go.

Did you see what he did there?

His nose was picking up the scent of it, but as soon as he got

it in sight, his vision took over instead.

They've got better vision than they have sense of smell.

-Really?

-Yes.

-Have they got good night-time vision?

They've got fantastic night-time vision.

That's when they do most of their hunting.

Because their sight is actually a lot better than the prey species'.

-So they've got the edge.

-Would they usually hunt together,

or would they hunt alone in the wild?

This kind of situation, actually, they're brothers obviously.

They stay together. People might think that's unusual,

but this is exactly what would happen.

They've come away from their pride, left their mum, dad and sisters,

and they've gone off on their own together. This is what would happen.

They go off hunting together,

-and eventually they'll take over another pride together.

-Wow.

Ah, look at that. That was so easy, wasn't it, for him?

He pulled it straight out the log.

Well, they're certainly enjoying the meat, Chris.

Milo's finished his bit, so... Oh, look at this.

Here we go. He's spotted that.

He's seen it. Wow! Wow. That is impressive.

That was a really half-hearted jump, wasn't it?

But it's amazing. You wouldn't think it, but he was

actually pretty much as tall as that stump.

Yeah, he did like a little kind of jump there but he didn't

even have to do that. He could have reached that, no worries.

It's been so impressive to see these guys in action,

and all I can say is, I'm glad that we're out here

and they're in there, locked away.

-Thank you, Chris. It's been amazing.

-No worries.

Back up at the giraffes, the keepers have finally

managed to get Amber and her companion into the yard.

It took quite a while to persuade them in here.

Though, the job did get easier after the keeper in charge, Paul Beer,

sent our film crew away.

They're a bit unsure when there's a strange object around,

and having the cameras there put them off a little bit,

but they settled down. We left them a few hours, had another go

and they walked straight in. She's coping well.

If she'd been on her own, she'd be more stressed than she is,

but as you can see, these two are fine.

Amber had to be brought in here because it's almost moving day.

A new male is due to arrive on a transporter lorry.

After he's unloaded, the plan is to get Amber on board.

To help with that, the team of keepers

are busy building special safety barriers out of wooden boards.

We'll have a board on this bar when it's finished,

and gradually walk it behind her and push her forward slowly, so she goes

to the door, then push her up and coax her up the back of the lorry.

The keepers are doing all this preparation

because they know how difficult giraffes can be.

They're one of the worst animals to transport,

so you want to keep everything nice and straightforward.

The more basic it is, and if it works, the better.

And keep her stress levels down.

Moving day is not going to be easy for anyone. The keepers don't

know what the new male giraffe's going to be like when he gets here.

And then, how on earth are they going to persuade shy, timid Amber

to go on the transporter?

It's certainly going to be a tricky operation,

and we'll be back to see what happens.

If you would like to have your own virtual animal park,

check out the Roar game on the CBBC website.

And don't miss the brand new enclosure that's just been added.

Right now, though, make a note of this.

That's today's cheat code. You'll see how to use it

when you start playing the game. Go on! Give it a go!

When it comes to impressing me, forget chocolate, forget perfume.

What I like is a good old-fashioned bunch of roses, and it looks like

keeper Jamie has done his research.

Jamie! They're a bit limp, aren't they?

They can obviously not be for me!

Well, actually, yeah - they're for the dusky langurs, here.

Why have you got rose petals for the dusky langurs?

It's a little treat, something new for them to have for their lunch.

It looks like this little fellow is waiting for a treat,

-so can we pass them in to him?

-Yeah, we can give him a few here.

Is it safe for me to do it?

Yeah, if you just let him have some. He should take it off you.

OK. They've got quite long fingers.

Oh! He's a bit greedy, this one.

Yeah, he's the dominant male, so he will take control of the food.

There's a nice scattering there of petals

for all the dusky langurs, but what attracts them

to rose petals? Is it their gorgeous smell or the vibrant colours?

It's probably a combination of a few things. The smell attracts them.

It's something new, so it will be more interesting than

the regular food they get, which perks their interest

more than the normal cabbage and things they get.

They definitely smell better than cabbage. But in the wild,

are rose petals, or any sort of petals, things they would eat?

Not necessarily rose petals,

but they will eat a lot of leaves as part of their diet, so while they're

browsing for that, they will take in flower petals,

so that is something they would take in with their diet.

Who else have we got in here, is that a little one up there?

Yeah, up there you've got Meersa. She's just over a year old now.

She is Orion's daughter.

-This is a family group.

-Right.

There's Mum and Dad and then the two daughters here.

So what would happen, Jamie,

if the others did come down now for their food?

If they hopped down to take some and he wasn't particularly happy

about it, he would chase them off, he would swipe at them.

-Really?

-Maybe vocalise.

And make sure that they knew that he's claiming this and this is his.

Now, I'm having a look up there.

We've got a little one, little baby,

Meersa, and I think she's trying to find

a different route down, trying to outfox Dad, to get the rose petals.

Yeah, it looks like she's trying to find a vantage point she can get in,

where he'll not see what she's up to,

but it doesn't look like she's going to have any luck.

I think next time, Jamie, you should distract Dad

and I will give rose petals to the rest of the family.

No problem.

It's the big day at the giraffe house.

A transporter lorry is just arriving with the new male on board,

while Amber is waiting to go to another animal park.

Moving giraffes is a difficult and hazardous operation,

so head of section Paul Beer has drafted in all the help he can get.

It's really dangerous, moving giraffes.

They could get stressed, damage themselves and break their legs,

they could die in the box with stress. And we could get kicked.

Amber is inside the giraffe house and we've rigged up this CCTV camera

so we can see what happens. But first,

the team need to unload the new male from the transporter lorry.

A young boy called Harris is arriving.

He's been hand-reared. He's only two-and-a-half years old.

He's quite a small lad. Should be interesting.

Harris was hand-reared, so he's not as shy or nervous as most giraffes,

and as soon as the gate is open,

-he walks straight off.

-He went in quite well.

He's standing in there now, just ignoring everybody.

He's looking around, seeing

what's happening, he came off really well. So far, so good.

Now to get Amber on to the transporter.

This could be much more dangerous.

The biggest concern is that she could injure herself

going up the ramp, or if we have to give her any sort of sedatives,

that works against us. She might panic and regurgitate.

In case of emergencies, park vet Jane Hopper is standing by.

Hopefully everything will go well, but as usual with animals, you can

never be sure, so we are a bit worried.

Two keepers walk behind Amber with a wooden board.

It's the safest way to encourage her forward.

The worst thing now would be if she panicked.

Amber inches forward towards the transporter,

but as she gets near the open door, she suddenly changes her mind.

She kicks out, but the keepers are safe behind the barrier.

They can kill you with one kick, so it's quite dangerous.

If Amber gets worked up, the vet may have to give her a sedative drug

to calm her down, but that has its own risks.

They're animals that don't really respond very well to it.

They can panic under it, and sort of overtake the system

and then they can sort of collapse.

So using a sedative would be a last resort.

Before that, they're going to try again.

She's inching forward.

And very slowly, Amber goes up the ramp and into the transporter.

We've got her on. All the guys have done really well.

She went straight up and in, we couldn't have asked for much better.

Now she's in, Amber will be safe on her journey.

The transporter is specially made for moving giraffes,

and even has an adjustable roof.

But now it's time to say goodbye.

I think we are all quite sad to see Amber go, because she's quite

a gentle giraffe and we all remember her having little Karamojo, the baby,

and she was a great mum, so we're all very fond of her.

But I'm sure she'll go and have more giraffe calves

and continue to do very well.

While Amber heads off to a new home, young Harris is settling in.

The future holds a lot in store for him,

and we'll be following his story later in the series.

We've heard that, apparently, there's a 15ft gorilla in that shed,

so we thought, "Why don't we creep along and have a look?"

-Rani, what's that noise?

-I don't know what that noise is.

It's probably the 15ft gorilla,

angrily tapping away at the walls, ready for his next Rani-sized meal.

-Stop it!

-It's no laughing matter.

Johny, what's that noise?

-You wait there and I'll go and have a look.

-Johny, don't, don't, don't!

-Rani...

-What is it?

-..you do not want to see what's in there!

I do, I do! What is it? What is it?

Ah! He's having a laugh!

-Got to admit, I got you!

-I didn't believe you.

You were right scared.

Obviously it's not a real 15ft gorilla, but a wooden 15ft gorilla,

made by tree surgeon Scott Lawrence.

-Hiya, Scott.

-You all right?

Now, Scott, Johny just said you're a tree surgeon.

Shall we call you Dr Scott, firstly?

I didn't actually think tree surgeons carved

big animals out of pieces of wood.

-Yeah.

-What's happened here?

-Yeah,

it's a good use of a tree that's got to come down, if it's dying.

It's a good use to recycle it for

something, so I thought I'd carve a gorilla for the zoo.

You say a tree that's come down. Is this from one piece of wood?

-Yeah, this is part of a tree.

-Ooh!

It's huge. Where do you start making a thing like this?

Well, you just sort of draw it on there

and start cutting lumps out of it, and...

He makes it sound so easy, doesn't he?

"One day I thought, see that tree, I'll just draw..."

I recognise this fella, he's one of my favourites. Is this Ambam?

It is, yeah.

That's what I've modelled it on, because it's standing upright

and usually they don't stand straight upright.

They usually can't stand up as straight as that, so I've done

that one just on Ambam because he's quite famous for standing upright.

It looks fantastic and it's a big old thing,

isn't it, just like himself?

It must have taken you ages to do.

Yeah, it's taken a couple of weeks on and off, really.

-A couple of weeks?!

-He's so cool, isn't he?

I was expecting a year or something like that!

We've got to point out the detail because,

if you look around the top, it looks like Ambam's covered in hair.

Is that what you're doing? You can see that all over.

You get that effect with the chainsaw.

And you're going to do that all over?

Well, all over and I'll leave the chest smooth and the face smooth.

Now, I'm hoping that the public get to see this, as well.

-Where's it going to be?

-It's going to be

on show down outside one of the gorilla enclosures.

-Not inside the gorilla enclosure?

-No, no.

You don't think the gorillas...?

It looks lifelike. You don't think any of them will

-mistake him for a real gorilla, like Rani did?!

-Hopefully not.

Hopefully they won't be offended by him.

I've got to say, it's brilliant and we

-can't wait to see when it's finished. Well done.

-Wicked.

-Thanks a lot.

-While Scott chips away at the rest of this

gorilla, why don't you check out what's coming up on the next Roar?

Our Roar Rangers have come to help feed the coatis,

but what happens when the coatis start helping themselves?

You've got to find it first!

One of the gorillas has a brand new baby.

We'll be getting our first good look.

And since she got pregnant, Rafigi

-the rhino is supposed to have mellowed out.

-Woah!

Apart from trying to attack me!

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