Episode 34 Roar

On today's Roar, no-one likes having injections, but the team

have to give the fierce clouded leopard cubs their first jabs.

-Hello and welcome to Roar. I'm Johny.

-And I'm Rani,

and we're here on The African Experience

-to see a very rare red lechwe.

-That's right.

As you can see, it's rare because this red lechwe is actually white!

So, it's a white lechwe, Johny.

-No, no, no. It's a white red lechwe.

-Well, no, it's a white lechwe.

No it's a white red... Forget about it.

While Rani thinks about it, let's get on with the rest of the show.

It's called a red lechwe, but it's white.

Yeah, so it's white, it's a white lechwe.

Coming up, the new open top baboon enclosure has seen its fair share

of drama, including a monkey escape!

But what will happen when they put a black rhino

in with this troublesome troupe?

Plus, keeper Jim can't reach his favourite snack on his shoulder

using just his mouth, but we know an animal who can. Find out which.

I want my biscuit!

And we humans might be the most intelligent of all of the primates,

but we're certainly not the most athletic, as I find out

when the moloch gibbon puts me to shame.

First, though, it's an exciting day for

head keeper Jim on the cat section.

Well, I'm on my way to the clouded leopards,

because eight weeks ago, we had two kittens born,

and I'm on my way to catch them up and vaccinate them.

Jim and the team have been keeping a close eye on these adorable and very

rare cubs since they were born.

Clouded leopards, or cloudies, as they're known,

are endangered in the wild, with fewer than 10,000 left

in their native China and South East Asia.

They're very hard to breed in captivity,

but the park has one of the most successful breeding programmes

in the world for these cats.

These cubs are very important for the survival of the species.

It's always great to have kittens and cubs around.

Cloudies have always fascinated me,

and, as you can tell, they're really stunning.

The cubs are now eight weeks old

and it's time for their first vaccinations.

Jane and the team will be injecting them against diseases like cat flu,

and giving them a microchip so that they can always identify

which cat is which. But the cubs aren't pleased to see Jim!

Hello, my little winkles, how are we doing?

Don't be fooled by their cute looks.

These cats are well known for being feisty and even at eight weeks old,

they have very sharp teeth and claws.

-Rick, can you just come round here a minute?

-Yeah.

Just open the lid up a bit, please, to see what I'm doing.

Keep going. Go on, go on.

The safest way to lift up a cub is by the thick scruff of their neck,

as Jimmy's doing here.

Sweetie, sweetie, sweetie, sweetie.

Hang on, hang on. Let me... Let me just...

This is how the parents carry them, and doesn't cause them any pain.

Let me... Let me just...

Just let me hold you a little bit...

The team need to get the vaccine into them as quickly as possible

so as not to stress them too much.

It's different, isn't it?

Right, I need a bit of neck now.

-Next, they need to fit the cloudy with its microchip.

-Feisty as ever.

This chip will mean the cubs can always be identified

throughout their lives. Injecting it into the thick scruff of their neck

means it's pretty painless, and they don't even flinch.

There's your little microchip. Very good.

This is the first time the cubs have been handled,

so has Jim got a boy or a girl?

It's a girl, isn't it?

This is a little female. Absolutely stunning little thing.

Just a little bit of worming paste.

Just like cats at home, these cubs need to be protected

from parasites such as worms with a special medicine.

We're just about to weigh the cub,

so we just need to get the cub in the bag.

It's all right, all right.

Good, good. 1.2 kilograms.

-That's pretty good.

-Nice size. Absolutely stunning little thing.

-Beautiful.

-Let's get you away before you get too worried.

Now it's the second cub's turn.

You're even smaller, aren't you? Yeah, yeah!

Yeah, look. Yeah.

Yes, aren't you beautiful? That's a male.

That's definitely a male.

LEOPARD GROWLS

This is a little boy.

There's the vaccine in.

-That's good.

-In you go.

-Go on, in there. 1.2 kilograms again.

They're nice weights, aren't they, Jim?

Yeah. I mean, at first they looked quite small, but no...

-They're not thin at all.

-No, no.

With both cubs now vaccinated, wormed and microchipped, the team

can leave the family in peace.

Up you go there. What? Yeah, cloudies are always feisty, always feisty.

I mean, I was wearing gloves,

but you still feel the claws and the teeth.

Despite a few bites and scratches, it's all been worth it,

because this little brother and sister pair

are doing incredibly well, which is fantastic news for the park

and the future of the clouded leopard species.

# Forever young, I wanna be Forever young

# Do you really want to live forever? #

Go! Right, left, right, left!

It's time now for another Ask The Keeper,

and primate keeper today Adam May has a bit of a dusky dilemma,

cos me and the gang are going to be quizzing him on the dusky langurs.

-Adam, are you ready for this?

-I am, yes.

-Gang, are you steady?

-Yes!

-Let's fire away, then.

-Adam, how old is that little one

eating the cauliflower?

The youngest one in the group is called Meissa.

She's about a year and a half, so she's still smaller than the others,

so she's got a bit of growing up still to do.

So, she's still just a little kid, really, at the moment.

A year and a half and eating her cauliflower!

Very healthy, isn't she?

Adam, are dusty langurs an endangered species?

With a lot of that langurs, they are. One of the main problems

is human encroachment, which means they lose their natural habitat,

so there's fewer and fewer places for them to live in the wild, and that's

the same with a lot of primates.

The main problem is there's not any suitable habitat left for them.

So, where are they from originally?

They're found in Thailand and also in Malaysia, as well.

Adam, why are they orange when they're babies?

Good question. There are still only theories about that.

The main one at the moment they think

is because it's such a different colour to the rest in the group,

the adults and the older individuals can tell that they're very young.

So, like a naughty little child, they can get away with cheeky behaviour,

so they don't have to follow the same social rules as the adults.

Basically, it means they can be cheeky and can get away with it.

Adam, you really know your stuff about the dusky langurs

and I think we should try and catch Adam out.

-Do people agree with that?

-Yeah.

-Adam, give us a moment

cos we're going to come up with a killer question.

Come here, guys. Right.

WHISPERING

GIGGLING

So, will he get that?

-No.

-No, he's not going to get it?

-No.

-Let's find out, then. Adam May, we've got a question for you.

-OK.

-Right, then.

Now, you mentioned that dusky langurs are leaf eaters, yeah?

So, we've been doing a little bit of research before this

and we'd like to know how many leaves would it take

to weigh the same as a dusky langur's brain.

I mean, this is an easy question!

-Everyone knows that, yeah.

-Everyone knows this one!

Well, I mean,

if we're saying that a leaf is about a tenth of a gram,

I've been told in the past that their brains are around 60 grams,

so that means that the number of leaves would be around 600.

So, I'd say just a little bit more than that.

We're a bit gobsmacked, here!

That is very, very good.

When we did our research, we sort of said their brains weighed 67 grams,

and so we were going 670 leaves.

But I've got to say, Adam, high five that one!

-Nice one!

-That was really, really good.

-I think we should let Adam have that, what do you think?

-Yeah.

You've even got a round of applause!

Adam May, you're king of the primates!

-Thank you very much.

-OK.

Whee! We all love a new toy and the primates here in the park are

no different, but they're not into mountain bikes or games consoles

like you and I. No, their toys need to be specially developed

and I'm here with Mark from the education department who's been

busy at work playing Santa to the siamangs, isn't that right, Mark?

We've been making some hammocks today.

So, what is this exactly? It's a hammock for the gibbons.

Yeah, it's basically something new for their environment.

They can sit on it, swing from it, the keepers can hide food in it.

Do lots of different things with it.

-What is this made of?

-This is actually made from old fire hose.

The fire departments donate it to us because they have to throw it away.

So, we can reuse it and it can last a lifetime, so it's great for them.

Wicked! And what have we got here?

This is something for you to put up for us.

If you want to hang it on the end, we're going to peel some bananas

and put some food in the holes and then the siamangs

will have to work the food out with their fingers.

Brilliant! Well, I also see head keeper Simon Jeffery over here.

So, Simon, what are you up to?

Again, just making another toy so that we can hang up something

that will move, which is what it's all about.

You want stuff that has different things happening with it.

What are we going to do with this?

Well, hopefully, we're just going to hang it up we can put food on it.

How do they usually react when you put a new toy in their enclosure?

Is it like kids at Christmas?

It can be. Sometimes they'll have just one foot on it.

They like to test it out a lot first,

certain monkeys. Others just leap on it like idiots!

Well, I can't wait to see what these siamang gibbons make

of their brand new toy, so join us

later in the show to find out what they make of it.

What type of tiles can you not stick to the wall?

Reptiles.

THEY MAKE MONKEY NOISES

What do dogs eat at the cinema?

I don't know.

Pupcorn!

HE SNORTS

Why can't penguins keep secrets?

Because their teeth keep chattering!

# I'm a heartbreaker I'm a heartbreaker

# I'm a heartbreaker I'm a heartbreaker

# I'm a heartbreaker I'm a heartbreaker

# I'm a heart...I'm, I'm, I'm I'm a heart...I'm, I'm, I'm... #

I am now parked up in the ele enclosure

and I'm here to meet keeper Dave Magner. Hiya, Dave.

-Hi, Rani.

-Do you like my new outfit?

-It looks good.

-I had to wear that to drive this.

-I brought you a little gift.

-It's a nice big pile of sand.

Why have you asked me to bring sand along today?

So we can resurface the sand paddock.

OK, fair enough. I can see it needs a little bit of work doing.

You seem to have a bit of straw round, a bit of hay,

-but now you want sand down.

-Yeah.

OK, there's a lot of sand, I haven't a clue how much

is in there, there's no way we could lift it.

You have something very sharp in your hand.

Yeah, it's a knife, I'm going to split it

-and let it drop on the floor.

-OK, be careful with that knife.

I am here to supervise though, being an adult.

Oh, look at that!

Get me a bucket and spade and I'm at the beach. This is great, Dave.

Now, all this sand, how are we going to

spread this about in the enclosure?

We're going to let Jumbs, the elephant over there, do it.

We're going to stick some melons and some

other bits and pieces and just lodge them in there so he's actually got to

spread the sand around to get to what's actually been hidden.

We've got some melons here.

Now, I've got to admit, sand at the beach is lovely and soft

to play with and everything, but when it gets in your butties,

what a nightmare! Is that going to happen to Jumbs? Is this

-going to get all up his nose and he'll get agitated?

-No, he won't.

What he might do is he might throw some over his back.

They use it to cool themselves down.

It's good on their feet because it's slightly abrasive, so it keeps their

pads nice and smooth.

So, are you saying it's a bit like a pedicure for Jumbs?

-Well, it is in a way, yeah.

-OK, then, Dave. The pressure's

really on, Jumbs, then, so join us later

to see if Jumbs will smell out those treats and pedicure his feet! Yeah?

If you want to see what happens, join us later.

Some of the most mischievous

youngsters on the park are the baby gorillas.

Sometimes shy, sometimes cheeky, sometimes bossy, but always playful.

They are perhaps the funniest animals to watch in action.

Now we're going to meet one of the youngest gorillas on the park,

baby Joshie. He's one of head keeper Lorna's favourites.

He's just starting to sort of explorer much further now, so

he's leaving his mum, Shumba,

climbing a lot more and playing.

And foraging as well, starting

to forage and learning the sort of behaviours that he needs as an adult.

He is coming off his mum and it's OK when it's on his terms.

If he leaves his mum he's fine.

If his mum goes to leave him, he gets a little bit upset.

But if that happens, then he normally hoots, which is the equivalent

to a human sort of crying.

He's starting to interact more with the other

young gorillas, but they do give him a bit of a hard time.

They do play a bit rough with him,

so he does have a little cry about that, as well.

He's still suckling from mum and that

will continue for another year and a half or so, so it's just sort of

getting more adventurous and trying to be more independent.

Now, earlier on in the show, myself and Mark

from the education department, as well as Simon Jeffrey,

put some new toys in the siamang gibbon enclosure.

Now we're going to see what they make of it all.

Mark, what do you think they'll do with it?

-It's something new in the enclosure, so they should investigate it.

-Hi!

We've put some food inside the hanging log,

so they'll come down to that first.

They'll investigate and try it out,

see what this strange thing is in their enclosure.

How well do they know their enclosure?

Do they always know when something new's in there

and they want to test it out and see what it is?

They know when something new's been happening.

They've been able to watch us.

But they do know their enclosure incredibly well.

They're in it all the time.

Right... He's gone for some of the banana.

We've put some banana on some of the toys.

Is that to attract them to it?

They're not scared of it at all, are they?

It's to attract them to it to see what they do. As you can see,

he's sitting on the fire hose, so he's doing what we want.

Some animals are scared of them, some aren't.

Some of them go towards staff.

He's experimenting. He's standing on it.

But he's still keeping one hand on branches that he knows.

Look, this is amazing!

You can see how they're using their feet as, like, hands!

That's the best thing about primates.

Their hands and feet are identical, really.

He's able to grip on to the new rope,

the rope above that he's sure of,

he's gripping on to the new toy and trying to get the banana as well!

That's brilliant! Is this the son or is this the father?

This is the son, Bali.

Harry will watch him for a bit - they can learn from one another.

If he's found it first, maybe the dad will come down and do the same stuff.

He's well into it. He's going back again and again.

He's actually lifting it up now!

It's amazing how dextrous his hands are

to be able to fish the banana out.

They have very long fingers.

These are animals that swing from tree to tree and everything,

so they have these long hook-like hands, but with very long fingers.

In the wild, they eat durian fruit and stuff,

and they have to dip their fingers in to get stuff out.

Possibly even after bugs in trees.

I think these siamang gibbons have absolutely loved their presents.

You said if I helped you out, you'd get me a present, so where is it?

-That was you!

-We haven't studied you enough yet!

We don't know what research to do to see what you like.

You've forgotten, haven't you? Honestly!

Listen up all you gamers, here's today's cheat code.

It's crystal5.

How's your park? I hope you're remembering

to feed and treat your animals to keep them healthy and breeding.

Happy gaming!

OK, earlier on in the show

I was actually inside the ellie enclosure with head keeper Dave.

We placed those sandcastles there

and we shoved some fruit in them, some melons.

And what we were hoping is that Jums would come out,

sniff the fruit and then do Dave a favour

and spread the sand around the enclosure

to save Dave a bit of time.

Jums is there, and here's Dave now. Hi, Dave!

-Hi, Rani.

-Jums is out! He went straight for it.

-He did.

Now, you missed a bit of the action.

He went for the melons,

but he got the pineapple and he's put it in his mouth.

He hasn't eaten it, he just walked off. Is it a bit spiky?

I don't think so. He's still got it in his mouth now.

He has, hasn't he? Why is that?

Maybe he just likes the flavour of it.

He just likes to suck it!

With the melons, he picked them up

and it almost looked like he was blowing the sand off it.

-Yeah.

-Do think that would be the case?

Yeah, because if they pick up grass,

they're pulling grass up from the ground,

they'll shake it to get the mud off and then they put it in their mouth.

It's great Jums is getting a treat, but earlier on

you said you were hoping Jums could save you some time

by spreading the sand around

because the enclosure needs to be resurfaced.

I don't think he's going to do it for you.

I think he will, because come tomorrow morning,

that won't be like that at all, it'll be all over the floor.

What do you think he'll use to do that?

Is it mainly a trunk action thing or do you think it's a kicking it?

He'll use his feet, you know, just kick it about.

Now, I don't know about kicking the sand around,

but he definitely likes carrying all his straw!

Does he have a favourite place he likes to eat?

Is that what he's doing?

It doesn't matter where you put it in the paddock, he'll gather it up...

-He ends up going into the shelter...

-Right.

Or if it's sunny, he'll stand at the side of the shelter,

but I think he looks like he's heading to go into the shelter.

It looks really impressive.

Look at the way he's carrying all that!

That would take three of us to lift that.

-It would.

-He's just carrying it under his trunk,

-and he hasn't probably dropped a blade of grass!

-There he goes!

He'll stay in there until he's eaten it.

He seems to have enjoyed his snack,

but he doesn't seem too keen on doing much work!

I think you should hold off on asking him to be a keeper just yet!

I've been down at the parks for several months now

and have met so many weird and wonderful creatures

of all shapes and sizes.

Some I'd never seen before, many I'd never even heard of!

I've learnt loads, but I've still got some questions,

like, who's the best gymnast?

Which is the fiercest animal?

And, like, why do elephants have such big noses?

First up,

who's the best gymnast and why?

One thing's for sure,

it's not me!

Oh, man! That's proper hard!

I thought I was an active guy until I started working on Roar.

When it comes to acrobatics, there's one monkey

who's king of the swingers,

the moloch gibbon from Java, Indonesia.

They are keeper Matt's favourite primate.

In my opinion, moloch gibbons are the best athletes in the park.

You can tell this by their long arms. This is what they're adapted to use

to swing round the forest. They're very strong.

They can bridge massive gaps in the wild by swinging with their arms.

They can change direction without a problem

because their wrist joints are very supple.

Their arms are double the length of their leg.

The strength in their arms

are probably double the strength of what a human is.

It's all right for some!

The molochs need super-strong arms

because they live in the canopy of dense rainforests.

They spend most of their time swinging from branch to branch

and they can quickly cover huge areas to find food.

They can leap as far as 30 metres in one jump,

which means almost no predators can catch them.

Next up, the biggest nose in the animal kingdom

belongs to the biggest land mammal.

The ellie, of course!

But why do they need such a bit trunk?

Keeper Tom is demonstrating one of its uses.

That's as much as I can actually manage in one go.

An elephant can actually take nine of these into its trunk in one go.

It's going to take just over 300 of these per day. It's about 200 litres.

That's an amazing amount.

I'm glad I have to use a straw!

The elephant's trunk

is a huge, extremely powerful extension of its nose.

Earlier, we saw male ellie Jums carrying a bale of hay in his.

And just look how long it is at full stretch!

It's about 1.8 metres,

which means it sticks out over 70 times more than yours or mine.

Not only can they extend it out to pick the leaves

right at the very top of a tree,

they can push that tree over

if they want to get to the rest of the tree

so they can start stripping the bark.

That's certainly an impressive nose.

I wouldn't like to be nearby when one sneezed!

And, finally,

which is the most ferocious animal on the park?

Big cat keeper Jim is here to tell all.

What's he doing with a biscuit on his shoulder?

This is my favourite biscuit,

but I can't quite reach it.

I want my biscuit!

But I know an animal who can, and that's the honey badger.

The reason why the honey badger is so ferocious

is because, A, it's fearless,

and, B, it can turn its head, which contains some very sharp teeth,

more than 90 degrees, and there's a very good reason why.

They come from Africa, India and Nepal,

which is also home to fearless predators

such as the leopard and the lion.

He's got bigger predators in the wild,

so he's got to have a get-out clause, as it were.

And the get-out clause

is to be able to move within the skin, to be able to turn.

If a predator grabs him around the shoulders,

he can turn around and bite the predator and get away.

This ability to turn and bite

means that even the big cats

are nervous of taking on this fearless little creature.

Honey badgers have such a tough reputation

that the South African Army

has named an armour-plated vehicle after them.

Well, that's answered my questions.

Perhaps the honey badger can give Jim some tips.

I give up.

Lovely!

It's almost the end of the show, but before we leave you,

we're popping down to the open-topped baboon enclosure.

This was the scene of high drama earlier in the series

with a baboon escape.

Today, though, we're meeting up with head keeper Simon again to find out

about a brand-new addition to the enclosure, a black rhino.

It seems so odd to see a rhino in here with the baboons.

Has it ever happened before in any other parks?

There are a few other parks that have done it,

but usually they do it with white rhinos.

I don't think anyone has ever done it with black rhinos.

Why have you mixed them together?

Well, these animals are mixed together

because it's something you would see in the wild.

And it's a good use of space, as well, you know?

The baboons can use the trees

and they're more sort of, you know, ranging all around.

The rhino likes to range around, but they stay out of each other's way.

You're utilising a big area for two different animals.

It is environmentally enriching for the rhino and for the baboon.

How are they getting on together?

We chose Rukwa because she is a bit more of a relaxed rhino.

She's a very nice rhino, she's an older girl.

-She's 39 years old.

-Hey, she ain't that old!

Since we have put there, she has charged the baboons a few times,

so we have seen some charging.

She's relaxed now over the last week

and she seems quite at ease with them.

She sticks to her area, they stick to theirs and it's all well and good.

You know what? These baboons are so cheeky.

Do they ever try and tease her?

They're one of the naughtiest animals on the park.

I haven't seen any teasing yet.

Once they've become more relaxed,

it's more likely that the kids are going to try and annoy her.

We want them just to stay out of the way and enjoy themselves.

They all split up into big groups and go off across the entire paddock...

It's brilliant to see the baboons

all the way up in the tree and enjoying themselves,

and Rukwa chilling out. Well done, you!

Unfortunately, we are out of time on today's show,

but while we hang about with the baboons,

why don't you lot check out what's coming up

on the next episode of Roar.

It's going to be a rip-roaring show

as we look back at the highlights of the series so far.

We'll be reliving the moment

when we were caught in the middle of that baboon escape.

There's the time when Sam, the Roar Ranger,

found out whether or not he could conquer his fear.

And the story of the three kids who went back to the wild

and the keeper who journeyed deep into the jungle

to discover how they survived.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]