Episode 6 Roar

Brown hyenas are lean, mean and very rarely seen, even in the wild.

The only ones in Britain are here in the park

and the keeper has to go in with them, despite the danger.

Hello, and welcome to another episode of Roar. I'm Rani.

And I'm Johny and this fellow here is Blue, the water buffalo.

Water buffaloes get their name for spending most of the day

submerged in muddy waters of Asia's tropical forests.

Their widely hooved feet allow them to move about

in wetlands and swamps without sinking too deeply into the mud.

That's a good job, because they can get up to weights

of up to 1200 kilograms - about the same weight as a small family car.

Speaking of WEIGHT, I can't WAIT to get on

-with the rest of the show. Let's not waste any more time.

-Drive on.

Coming up today, the biggest tigers in the world

are hungry for red meat, so we lay a trail for them.

Will they be able to hunt down the dinner?

And our twin Roar Rangers struggle to shift a mountain of a rhino poo.

She ain't going to be good at shovelling up the poo.

Cos she ain't strong enough.

But we're going to start with the enormous Siberian tigers.

They're very dangerous, but also very playful.

I've always wanted to do that, and I know what you're thinking!

You can't do graffiti in a tiger enclosure!

Well, I can, because this is non-toxic chalk spray.

Mr Jim Vassey has asked me to bring it along. Do you like that, Jim?

-Me and you together.

-Yes, very nice.

All right. Enough of me and you.

-Why the chalk spray?

-We're going to lay a scent trail.

We'll do it in the cage, for the cubs to follow.

-Right, OK.

-This is a way of seeing how good their noses are.

The three cubs, two boys called Altay, Altai

and a little girl, Sayan, were born last year.

They've been developing really well but Jim wants to check

that they can follow a scent as they would do in the wild.

I'll spray a trail of chalk

and Jim will drag a bag of animal blood and guts along it.

-This is what you will lay the trail with?

-Yes.

Lots of meat that's filled with blood.

OK, I'll let you do that. Over there we have a camera.

There's Jamie on a camera and he's going to catch all the action

from up top, so we'll see the tigers following the line.

-Hopefully.

-Hopefully! Do you not have faith in the ability

of the noses of your tigers?

The thing is, they might cheat.

-I don't believe it! Let's lay this scent trial.

-OK, then.

-If you follow the chalk on my line, all right?

-OK. Hang on...

Look at this. Because we have done this before.

We've laid scent trails for tigers.

And they seem to follow it.

I suppose this is a good way to make sure it's nice and clear, isn't it?

Yes. For the camera and for us.

The other thing we have mentioned in the past is that a lot of times,

you think that they're possibly following our scent.

Would they follow the scent of the chalk?

The chalk doesn't smell of anything. The meat's going to be stronger.

OK. Now, who have we got in the enclosure?

-There's obviously dad. Malchek.

-Malchek.

Then we've got Nika, who's mum.

-Nika.

-And then we've got the three kids.

Now, we've not done this with them.

-No.

-Are they going to be able to follow this trail?

It gives us a good indication of how good their noses are

-while they're young.

-How old are they now?

They're almost a year old now.

Now in here, you guys just give them their food.

Do they still have characteristics of trying to do a kill?

Yes, you actually see them play-biting the food.

-Right.

-As if they're killing.

So they are getting the instinct to kill.

Is that why we're doing this then today? It's a little bit like how

-they behave out in the wild following a trail?

-That's right.

It's a form of enrichment. Rather than just chucking the meat in here

every time we feed them, we're making them work for it.

-Are we leaving the food here?

-Yes.

-OK, Jim. We'd better get on

with scattering this meat. Join us later in the show

when we let the tigers out and fight if they can follow their noses.

Rah!

Today's Roar Rangers are nine-year-old twins

James and Emily from Essex.

We're the Rangers! We're the Rangers! Woo hoo! Yes!

They're obviously talented dancers, but will they be good Roar Rangers?

They're certainly keen enough.

I like the giraffes because I like the way they lick their lips.

The job I'm most looking forward to is cleaning out the poo.

PARP!

That's what we like to hear! But is there a bit of sibling rivalry?

She ain't going to be good at shovelling the poo.

Cos she ain't strong enough.

The big question is, what task will they be doing?

"Today Emily and James, you are rhino keeping.

"There is a bit of cleaning up to do."

-Ooh!

-Urgh!

Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo! Woo-hoo!

That does seem like a poo job. Show us your shovelling dance, James.

# Show me, show me # Show me and show me... #

Our Roar Rangers will be clearing up after the park's black rhinos.

Coming from countries in central and southern Africa,

hese massive mammals weigh as much as a small family car.

With only about 3600 left in the wild, they're critically endangered.

Looking after three of them is a real treat for our Roar Rangers.

Rhino keeper Helen will be showing them the ropes.

-Hiya!

-Hello.

-Hello.

-What's your name?

-My name's Emily.

-I'm James.

It's a good job you've got wellies on,

-because the first job is picking up their poo.

-Bleugh!

Vongo, Salome and Rufiji

are safely locked up in the top paddock.

-Ready?

-So Emily and James are safe to clear up the lower one.

This is the poo. It's a bit smelly.

It's a very big job indeed.

Shovels at the ready? Go.

I can't keep up. I can't do it!

A rhino eats about three tons of food every year.

And mixed with water, poos out even more.

This is really tiring!

Rhinos mark their territory by pooing in the same place every day.

It's good news for our Roar Rangers.

Hold on, there's poo stealing going on here.

-Which one of you is the tiredest then?

-Me!

No wonder they're shattered. Our Roar Rangers are shovelling up

almost twice their own body weight.

It's killing my back!

When I saw this I thought, I don't want to do it. But I have to.

I think I want to have a rest.

I'm aching. I'm sweating.

I don't know how they do it.

At least that's the shovelling done.

Now they just have to move those wheelbarrows.

-Do you reckon you'll be able to manage it?

-Whoa!

I can do it because I'm a boy.

Are you sure of that, James?

Ha, ha, ha!

You might want some help there...

-Ready?

-Yes.

Nearly tipped it.

Think you can do any better, Emily?

-Oh, it's gone. Oh!

-Nearly!

Don't worry. We'll get it back in.

There we go. Oh, no!

More to clear up.

Uh-oh! It's time for keeper Helen to take over.

Our exhausted Roar Rangers take a well-earned rest

while Helen fetches some snacks.

You wait there a minute. I'll go and get you some stuff.

But the snacks are for the rhinos!

We'll come back when the twins have recovered

to see how they get on with feeding the giant beasts.

-How do baboons get upstairs?

-I don't know.

-On an elevator.

-Ha, ha, ha!

What did the farmer say to the cow

-that didn't produce any milk?

-I don't know.

-You're an UDDER failure.

-Ha, ha, ha!

HE SNORTS

-Why did the elephant paint his toenails red?

-I don't know.

So he could hide in the cherry trees.

Ha, ha, ha!

Welcome back to the Siberian tiger enclosure.

Earlier on in the show,

Jim laid a scent trail within the enclosure of blood

and I followed it with some yellow spray chalk, which was non-toxic.

Now the idea for this is that we wanted to see

if the tigers could follow their nose and get a big treat of meat.

-That's right, Jim?

-That's right.

The tigers of course were locked away.

It's now time to set them free.

OK, here they come. Now, this one looks pretty big.

-I'm guessing this is Malchek going through?

-That's Dad.

He's completely ignored our scent trail.

We can tell because of the yellow chalk.

He has wandered off over there. The reason for that?

He's gone to the place where we'd normally put his food.

He'd expect his lump of meat in a certain place.

This way, they have to work for it.

They've got to follow their noses to find it.

And the little cubs have come out. I say little,

they've got big, haven't they?

They grow quick.

Actually, one of them has gone up to our heart.

-Yes. Oh, yeah.

-So very clever,

actually going to the beginning of the scent trail,

-because that's near the door?

-That's right.

-Well, it's following it a little way, look.

-Yes, it's having a go.

So, as the cubs, how advanced is their sense of smell?

It is quite advanced compared to ours, but because

they stay with mum and dad, and in the wild they'd be with just mum

and they wouldn't need to use

their senses that much because they'll just sit there, wait for mum

to make a kill and then call them, and they'll go and join her.

So they're not really using them.

So we're trying to get them to start using them at an earlier age.

The other two haven't gone over yet.

Is that because they haven't picked up the smell of meat?

-Because it's meat, isn't it?

-That's right.

Is that what it is? They haven't picked it up,

or, "Yeah, let him do the work."

Yes, they're a bit like dad. They've decided that their meat

is going to be somewhere else, and they've gone looking for it.

But that one, though, you can see

-she's following the trail.

-We say she's following it,

she's just walked off it now

and gone straight for the food.

Taken a short cut! So they're quite bright.

That's right, yes. Yeah.

We were talking about following scents to find meat,

using their senses. Do they recognise family members?

Yes. In a territory that mum will have with the cubs, she will go round

and scent mark certain areas. Trees, bushes, stuff like that.

And the clubs know her scent. And they'll add theirs.

But sometimes you'll see a tiger go up to someone else's scent

and rub themselves on it to remove it and to coat themselves with it.

-Then they'll leave their scent there.

-I can see dad there, he's growling

at the little one that's got the meat. Is little one safe?

-Little one's safe. In actual fact, little one's growling at dad.

-Is it?

-Big growl, actually.

-Yes, saying, "Keep away."

-Well, Jim, it was great

to see them in action. But it looks like the tigers have walked off.

They've had their fill of food,

and they no longer want to follow our scent trail.

Speaking of scent, Jim, I think you should go and get a shower!

Same as the tigers.

Having shovelled loads of rhino poo earlier on, our Roar Rangers' reward

is to feed the mighty beasts.

Rhinos eat 22 kilos of food every day.

That's like you and me scoffing 150 apples.

But today's treat is fruit salad, lots of it.

Are you ready to put some fruit out?

-Yes.

-I'm tired.

Rhinos have to forage all over the place in the wild,

so our Roar Rangers fling the fruit in every direction.

-It's time to release the beasts.

-Come on, then!

As rhinos can run at up to 30mph, experienced keeper Helen

makes sure that our Roar Rangers are safely behind the fence.

OK, make sure you stay back,

because this is Rufiji coming over, and she's our oldest female.

She's quite aggressive.

Black rhinos are the most dangerous kind.

They're aggressive at the drop of a hat, to frighten their rivals

or if they feel threatened themselves.

Horn clashing, snorting, shrieking

and charging are very common,

but they don't usually have a serious fight.

All right, Fij, calm down. Good girl.

But whilst Rufiji is a bit of a handful...Salome is a big softie.

Put it in her mouth, put it in there.

There you go, you've just fed your first rhino.

Don't be scared, she's all right.

-Eurgh!

-Can I stroke her?

Our Roar Rangers can stroke this rhino because she's a quiet one,

and they're with a trained animal keeper.

Does she feel how you expected her to feel?

-No.

-No. She feels quite hard.

Rough. She feels rough

-and all wrinkly.

-That's all mud, where she's been in the wallow.

Rhinos love to wallow. Not only does the mud cool them down,

but it also acts as an insect repellent and a great sunblock.

And, when it dries and falls off, it takes lots of dead skin with it.

She's nice.

Because we cleaned up all the poo,

it's a good reward to stroke a rhino.

Is she going to wee?

-No, she's going to sit down.

-Oh.

She's like a dog, isn't she?

Ooh, she's farting now.

Eeurrgh!

-Gross!

-You've made her all relaxed, look.

Euw, time to make a quick exit!

So, have our Roar Rangers had a treat?

They were really lucky to actually get to scratch Salome.

She doesn't always come over,

so they were lucky and I think they enjoyed it, so that's nice.

I think you could be right there.

It was really exciting. I just loved it.

So what about James?

It's been the best day of my life.

And, from the look of it, I think the rhinos enjoyed it, too.

The park's a home to many dangerous carnivores,

and they have a very good record of breeding from them.

But they're desperate to get some cubs from a new species

who have recently arrived and we haven't seen yet.

Somewhere in this enclosure

two bone-crunching brown hyenas are hiding.

And, despite their reputation,

a keeper needs to go in and check on their health.

These fearsome animals

can smell their prey from as much as five kilometres away.

As they prowl through the windswept dunes of Africa's Skeleton Coast.

Their home in southern Africa is a fiercely hot, dry wilderness.

But brown hyenas don't need to drink water at all.

They can get all the fluid they need from their food.

And head of carnivores Rich Barnes says they can eat everything.

Horns, hooves, the lot!

They can even bite through buffalo bones to get at the marrow inside.

The jaws on all hyenas is particularly hard-core.

You wouldn't want to put your hand in the mouth of a hyena.

We put them bits of food down, and we've quite often heard her

crunching on the bones. These are bones

that we kind of put an axe through to chop up into pieces.

That gives you some idea of how solid they are.

Brown hyenas are mostly active at night, and very hard to see,

even in the wild.

The pair hiding in this enclosure

are the only ones in the whole of the UK,

and have never been filmed before. But Rich has been working on a plan.

Since they arrived, what I've been doing

is spending a lot of time down here, when they're more active,

which is late in the day, early evening.

Just as the sun's going down.

Just sitting down here, not doing a whole lot, just watching them.

So the idea today, is just going to be to go along, put the food in,

sit back and hopefully they'll do something.

Rich needs to see them regularly to check on their health.

The best way to get close enough to is to take their food in there.

But it could be dangerous.

So he's taking a rake in with him.

This is just a slab of meat which I can't even smell, and I'm holding it.

But already the female, she's smelling it.

She's got her nose in the air

and she's got the scent of it, so she'll certainly get stuck in.

And, if the male watches her do so then, hopefully,

he'll come and do the same.

This is incredible. It's the first time

the brown hyenas here have ever been filmed.

Hello.

Only a very experienced keeper could do this.

(Hey, hey, hey.)

It's a good thing he took the rake to push her away.

(Hey. Hey.)

Rich's method of slowly getting

the hyenas used to him is clearly working.

(There you go, good girl. Good girl. Good girl.

(There's a good girl.)

(Normally she lets you get in there, put the food down.

(But today she tried to take it off of me,

'(and she wouldn't leave me alone.

'(I had to kind of push her away a couple of times with the rake.

'(I think she just wanted'

(to get to the beef. It obviously looked quite tasty.

(I'm just hoping, if we stay nice and quiet,

(the male will be watching from a distance,

(and he'll just come over and hopefully get involved as well.)

Rich has to see the male to check that he's all right.

But he really doesn't want to go back in there,

so we'll come back later to see if the male does come out.

Lemons and limes are too sour for the human palate to enjoy,

but what will lion-tailed macaques make of them?

I'm here with primate keeper Ruth to find out. What's the big idea, Ruth?

Today we're going to put their palate to the ultimate test,

giving them very citrussy lemons and limes and see what they make of them.

I've got to say, if I were to have one of these, I'd be like...

Do you think they'll have the same reaction?

We hope so. They don't often get these,

so we're just go to give it to them and see what happens.

In general, why would you do something like this?

It's a bit of sensory enrichment for them. It keeps them on their toes.

They wouldn't necessarily get these in the wild,

but they would eat a huge variety of fruits and vegetables,

so it's really good stimulation for them.

OK, wicked. What do you reckon will happen, then?

I reckon they'll all probably start fighting over them.

It's quite a big group, so if you don't eat quick,

you don't eat at all.

They'll be in hot competition for them.

I don't want to be fighting with them,

so I reckon we should get out of here and let them out.

-Sounds like a plan.

-Bring it on.

Let's do it.

This is an interesting experiment.

They've noticed the lemons and limes already.

Macaques like to take their food away.

They've got big cheek pouches, which they stuff with

as much food as they can get in as quick a time as possible.

Then they'll go off somewhere,

which is what you can see them doing now.

Are they quite intelligent, macaques?

Will they know what to do? Will they realise there's juicy fruit inside?

Well, sour fruit inside!

Yes, they are really intelligent.

In the wild, their food isn't obviously readily available

so they developed big brains to cope with that.

They've got to search for food, work out how to get it,

so they're really intelligent and inquisitive.

They'll definitely know and they've got a good sense of smell.

Look at this fellow here, walking on two legs. Do they do that often?

I have seen them do that, trying to make a quick exit.

Are they skilled on two legs, like humans, or is it mainly on four?

-Because I haven't seen them doing it often.

-They are quadrupedal.

Interesting word, what does that mean?

-It means the use four legs, rather than two.

-OK.

But they can run on two when they want to.

Are their palates similar to a human's?

I think so. They've obviously got the ability

to taste sweet and sour, just like we have.

That's why I thought maybe they wouldn't go for it so much.

They tend to like very sweet things - banana, apple, that kind of thing.

That would be the first thing to go.

They're not even flinching. They love it!

Look at this little one here. Is that with his mum?

Yes, that's actually the youngest in the group. She's only five months.

I don't know about you, but I thought this lot would be

a bunch of sour pusses. See what I did there?

I think we'll leave them.

The lion-tailed macaques are citrus specialists.

-They're loving it.

-They are.

Now for the moment all you online Roar gamers have been waiting for -

today's cheat code.

Type that in and who knows what treats and surprises

are in store for your animals today?

And don't forget to check out our brand-new enclosure. Have fun!

Back at the hyena enclosure, Rich is anxious.

He's seen the female brown hyena, but he needs to see her mate too

to check that he's all right

because they're really hoping that this pair will have some cubs.

They're very jumpy creatures, so our camera crew are staying well back.

The female was tempted out into the open by some meat that Rich took in,

but where's the male?

She's looked round a couple of times, so I think he's around.

If he does come in, he'll come in from

the thicker bushy area at the corner there.

She's now trying to drag the meat off.

If she takes it into the bushes, the male won't come out

and we won't see him.

His kind of little den is just inside those bushes.

I think he's up and about, he's just kind of aware that we're here.

You win some, you lose some. You have to just put the time in, I guess.

This is not going well.

Rich can only make sure that the male isn't injured or ill

by seeing him.

But at long last, he makes a move.

There he is. You see him?

He's having a scratch. The male's just come out.

He's just walked across the back of the enclosure at the top.

He's just watching us.

Rich can see he's OK, which is the main thing,

and we now have shots of both of the brown hyenas,

the only ones in Britain today.

They'll always be wild and hard to spot,

but little by little, the hyenas are becoming more confident.

I'm glad that he didn't just come out, see us and run off again.

He's obviously happy enough to sit up there in the bushes

and just watch us.

He's kind of keeping his distance. So I think that's quite nice.

It shows you can't always get animals to do what you want them to do.

Sometimes you just have to sit and wait.

It's worth it. Not many people

have had the chance to see these extremely rare animals,

and we'll certainly bring you news if they do go on to produce cubs.

Last year, three very rare belted ruffed lemurs

arrived in the park from France.

The island of Madagascar off Africa's east coast

is the only place in the world

where lemurs live in the wild

And they're critically endangered

Since their arrival six months ago,

the new lemurs have been kept apart from the other primates and monkeys

to make sure they didn't bring any illnesses with them.

But now Mel Frampton has a surprise in store for us. What is the news?

Big news! These guys are out of quarantine

and they're about to move house.

They're going down into the De Brazza enclosure,

where those guys are on Monkey Walk.

They'll have a nice big bedroom, a big outside,

because their quarantine is finished.

-They're free!

-Fantastic news.

How long will it take them to get used to their new enclosure?

There will be more space. How many are here?

-We've got three here.

-Look at me counting them, they keep moving.

-I thought there was 50!

-We've got three in here.

It'll take them a couple of weeks to settle,

they'll have lots of new smells.

It'll keep them busy for a while, actually.

One other question, when you move these guys to their new enclosure,

will you give it a good scrub

because De Brazzas have a different smell?

Definitely. It will have to be fully disinfected.

I can get you two to come and give me a hand, if you like?

I can get you two, you two.

I don't mind that, Rani, because I love these guys. They're amazing.

Yeah, and you love cleaning!

While Johny gets his brush and mop ready to clean the enclosure,

why don't you check out what's on the next episode of Roar?

There's high drama when some of the most savage carnivores in the world

have to be moved to another park, but what happens when

one of them wakes up before they can get him into the travel crate?

We need to get this in now, Jim. This dog is literally about to go.

And the most endangered gibbons in the world have a new baby.

-But, it has to cling on for dear life.

-Don't miss it!

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