Episode 7 Roar

Today on 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 about to go.

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

And I'm Rani, and this fellow munching away

is Harris the Giraffe, and this is his keeper, Nick.

-Hiya.

-Now it doesn't look like he's having problems settling in

-and he's definitely not camera shy.

-Neither are we.

We should put our skills to good use and get on with the show.

Coming up today, an elephant's trunk has over 40,000 muscles,

which makes it a very handy tool.

We'll catch up with a tamarin family to see whether

they're still trying to drive out the new female.

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

but it has to cling on for dear life.

First it's a big day down at the African hunting dog enclosure.

Head Keeper Jim Vasey is facing the dangerous job of capturing

the three ferocious males who live here

so that they can be moved to another park.

African hunting dogs are amongst the most lethal carnivores

in the whole animal kingdom,

with an 80% success rate when they go in for the kill.

Their bone-crunching jaws are more powerful than a lion's

and they eat their prey alive. They hunt through the forest

and plains of central, east, and southern Africa.

Sadly, they're now endangered with fewer than 5,000 living in the wild.

So the ones in captivity

are really important to the survival of the species

and that's why these three are off to a new home in Belgium today.

As part of the breeding programme of the hunting dogs worldwide,

these are a very valuable bloodline,

so we're sending them off to start a new family.

But catching this band of aggressive brothers won't be easy.

They are a terrible trio, there's no doubt about it.

We actually stopped going in with them because

one of the keepers had a near experience with them.

There's only three but the way they were charging in at this keeper,

you would have thought there was 30 of them

because he had trouble keeping three off him.

Because they're so dangerous,

the plan is to sedate the dogs before moving them.

It's going to be tricky.

We would like to think it would go very well, and quick and simple,

but there's always going to be a problem.

One's not going to do what you want it to do or if all three decide

not to do it then we could be here all day.

Jim's worked out a plan to lure the dogs into a part of their enclosure

where they can be locked in, and it involves our cameraman.

I might have to use you as bait.

-I'm not going to put you in there.

-Thank goodness for that!

If you stand round about here, hopefully they can see you

and they'll be intrigued in what you're up to.

As they come through the slide, I can close the slide behind them.

Fortunately there's a good, strong fence.

Come on.

Our cameraman must look tasty, but Jim moves fast to shut the dogs in.

Got them.

Part 1 complete.

-Now the difficult part.

-Jane, the vet will be darting the dogs,

but knocking out animals is always risky.

It can be dangerous for the animals

and the keepers if a dog wakes up while they're trying to move it.

We'll come back when Jane's ready with the dart gun,

In the meantime Johny's gone over to the other side of the park

to help with a special feed.

I've been trying to strip the bark from this log

without damaging the wood, and it's a very difficult skill to master,

but as keeper Tom King's about to show us,

the park has some very unusual experts at this.

That's right, it's our ellies, Johny.

They are past masters at stripping not only bark but also leaves.

It's amazing to get so close to them. They've got the leaves there,

and they've got this unusual technique of wrapping their trunks

around the stick and peeling it all off in one go.

It's a technique they learn. The young calves will

just play around with the sticks but all the other females,

like Suana in front of us, she's wrapping her trunk

around the branch and she'll give it a quick tug.

Sometimes the leaves come off depending on what wood it is.

Sometimes they just break a bit off and eat the whole wood.

A lot of the wood we've fed out today is chestnut

so they'll go for the leaves first of all and strip all the leaves,

then they'll probably start on the bark.

Are the leaves their favourite thing?

Yes, and also they only really like eating the leaves

-when they're nice and green.

-Right.

They're quite prickly sticks. I'm surprised it doesn't hurt them

-a bit or pierce their skin.

-The skin is very thick.

I found a bit of skin earlier today.

Look at that. That's half a centimetre thick almost, isn't it?

-I'm not surprised nothing can get through that.

-Yes, it is very tough.

So when an elephant cuts itself, it's obviously been

something very, very sharp and very, very hard.

Why do they bother stripping this wood, do they eat that as well?

Yes. In the bark you have tannins,

and tannins for the digestive system is very good.

What we're doing is giving elephants as near to the natural diet.

OK, they may not get chestnut in Africa but chestnut we have

an abundance of and we'll cut it. Our elephants love it.

It's good enrichment for them so in the wild

they push a tree over and start ripping the branches off.

They eat the leaves, the fruits and then they start on the bark.

We can come back tomorrow and probably all these sticks

we have out in the paddock won't have one bit of bark on.

What about their teeth, they must be pretty sharp and strong?

No. Elephants don't have sharp teeth. What they have is molars.

They start to grow in the back of the jaw after a few months

and throughout their life, they move forwards.

Where humans, they grow upwards, elephants, they slide forwards, as

they wear they start to fracture and break off at the end of the jawbone.

Sometimes we're lucky and we find elephant teeth but

I think there's an elephant fairy that comes along

and takes the teeth, they're such a rare find.

Tammy, at the moment, you can see this.

-Wow!

-All she did there was put the stick in her mouth

then roll it backwards and forwards a few times.

That put pressure on the bark, the bark then came away from the wood

and she just spits it out and takes a big long strip out.

It's amazing how something that big can be so intricate

and delicate with their food.

You'd have to be barking mad not to find that impressive.

While Johny's busy with the ellies, I'm off to the tamarin enclosure.

Red-bellied tamarins come from the swampy forests of

western South America.

They live on fruit, nectar, and creepy crawlies,

which is why keeper Mat Forth has brought a wriggly snack with him.

-This is the new female here.

-She seems so relaxed and comfortable,

Why wouldn't you be when she's eating these tasty grubs?

-What are you giving her?

-These are mealworms, they love them.

They're very keen on insects, all gooey and nice.

Lovely, I'm not tempted to try one!

Now we do have a new female, how long has she been in here?

She's been in here a few months

with the other members of the group.

-Oops, hello you.

-And she's doing really well.

They're getting all on together very well.

Who else is in here? Remind anyone who hasn't seen this already.

We've got an adult male and his son and daughter

with the new female here as well.

When you put her in, was it instantly,

did she get on with everyone straightaway?

It wasn't too bad. She had a few problems with the younger female.

-Why would that be?

-That's just because in tamarin society

the females are dominant, so the female that was here already

sees this as her territory and the new female coming in is kind of

getting in the way of that. So they were a bit on edge to start with

but now they're getting on OK together.

How about the dad, did he connect instantly to his new wife supposedly?

Yes, he did. He wants to breed with an unrelated animal to his daughter

so as soon as he saw the female he was very attracted to her

-and they've been inseparable since.

-That's great news!

-It's pretty good.

-And the son was fine?

-Yes, again he's fine, it's really just the females

that are an issue in these sort of circumstances

because of the dominance thing, but the males just go with the flow.

We've mentioned now they're getting on really well

and we can see them both here, obviously they're desperate to have

some tasty mealworms, but if there had been a problem,

what would you have done then

We'd have found a new home for the female, the one that we bred here.

We need to make things genetically viable so we needed to make sure

that the male in here bred with something he wasn't related to.

I think they're definitely

one happy family now, and fingers crossed we'll have

even more little tamarins very soon.

Back at the hunting dog enclosure,

Jim has shut the three males into a small area of their own.

Today they're off to a new park in Belgium to start a new pack.

They're so dangerous it's vital that Jane sedates them before they

move them into specially made crates for the journey to their new home.

This is what we'll use to sedate the hunting dogs this morning.

It's a dart gun, powered by gas, and it's got a nice laser sight,

so hopefully I won't miss.

There's two main areas that we aim for.

We hope to go for their bottom, but if they're in a good

position we can go for the shoulder muscle.

We always use really tiny needles in the darts so no matter

where they go they couldn't injure the dogs at all.

Using a dart gun is a very skilful job,

but both Jane and Jim have had a lot of experience.

-Are all three out there?

-Yes.

-Did you get him?

-Yes.

That's one down then and two to go.

Nice shot.

The drug can take a few minutes to start working.

The second one Jane darted is putting up a bit of a fight.

Jane takes aim for a third time.

Individual animals react differently to the drug in the darts

so Jane has to judge the dose very carefully.

Too much anaesthetic can kill a dog,

that means that she can't put them into a deep sleep,

but that makes it more likely that they could wake up

so going in there is still dangerous.

Hopefully Jane's done her homework so they don't get up

and have a go cos once they latch on, they're mean little suckers.

The team are working fast because they know what harm

the animals could do if they come round.

Vet nurse Kerry is watching them closely

for any sign that they might wake up.

Pulse and respiration quicken. You look for other reflexes as well,

twitching of the ears, eye blinking, things like that.

Hopefully we never get to the stage where an animal wakes up

and there's a risk to others. I'm here to make sure

that the animal's still asleep and not going to endanger anybody.

Another vet's come along to help.

The dogs are quickly vaccinated

and their identifying microchips checked.

The last thing's to weigh them.

-About 31.

-That's 31 kilos.

While they're still out cold, Jim has a rare opportunity

to get a close look at these fearsome carnivores.

As you can see, there's a lot of teeth in there,

very sharp teeth, but you can also feel the muscle in the jaws.

I wouldn't want to be on the end of that.

Those jaws mean that in the wild, hunting dogs can take down prey

over three times their size like impala and wildebeest.

A human wouldn't stand a chance, so they need to hurry up and get

the dogs out of the enclosure and into the crates.

Jane gives the animal a drug that should bring him round,

but hopefully only once he's safely locked up in the box.

-Got him?

-Yes.

So far, so good, but everyone's aware that it's only

a matter of time before the sedative on the other two animals wears off.

They've brought the pair of them out into the yard because

they're going end-to-end in a bigger crate.

But Jim's having trouble getting it open.

I can't get that screw out.

And suddenly, one of the dogs starts to wake up.

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

Can they get him in before the wild dog gets really wild?

We'll come back shortly.

What has feathers and writes?

-I don't know.

-A ballpoint hen.

SHE HOWLS

-What's a cows favourite musical note?

-Don't know.

-E flat.

-That was absolutely rubbish.

Why is it hard to play cards in the jungle?

-I don't know, why is it hard?

-Because there's too many cheetahs.

Now, the highlight of every show for you Roar online gamers.

Yep, it's today's cheat code, and it's gold5.

So type that in as soon as possible.

And how's your British wildlife doing? Go on, give them a treat.

It's time for Ask the Keeper and we are going bonkers for bongos.

No, I'm not talking about miniature drums, I'm talking about

four baby antelope that are amongst this group here.

-Today's keeper is the lovely Miss Helen Rhode. Hiya.

-Hello.

-Helen, you look slightly nervous, are you?

-A little bit.

Good, because these guys have got some tough questions for you,

-haven't you, guys?

-Yeah.

-All right, who's going to kick us off?

What do they use their horns for?

They use their horns to defend themselves in the wild,

They're forest antelope and they come from big, dense forests,

so it helps them get through all the trees and shrubbery.

Where do they come from?

These are eastern bongos, they come from eastern Africa.

-They're also in central Africa.

-Do they live near any predators?

Yes, there's lots of predators, lions, big cats,

anything like that they've got to stay clear of, and also humans.

They hunt bongo for meat and horns. They have got lots of predators.

Are they endangered?

These animals, the eastern bongos, yes, they're pretty endangered.

There's only about 75 to 150 left in the wild,

so it's really important to look after these guys.

When they're born, do they have the same amount of stripes?

Yes, they're born with about 15 or 16 stripes.

It varies with each animal, but they keep the same amount of stripes.

Can they walk when they're born?

Yes. It takes them a little bit of time

but they get up and Mum helps them up and they walk around.

In fact, we managed to film a bongo birth last year in

yet another spectacular first for Roar, and you can see the calf here

taking it's very first shaky steps within an hour of being born.

So Helen's absolutely right.

Well, Helen, you're doing really, really well

but I think we need a killer question for you, so guys,

come around and let's huddle. You wait there, Helen,

and don't listen in. OK, let's think of one.

Here we go, OK then.

We've got a question for you, Helen, and it's a very serious question

and you should know the answer to this.

How many sets of bongo drums would it take

to weigh the same as an adult male bongo?

It's an easy one, we know.

-Well, an adult male bongo weighs probably about 400 kilos...

-Right.

..on average.

So to be honest, I don't know.

Probably 100, 150?

150, is that your final answer?

Let's go for 100.

-100? I'm quite impressed, actually it's 114 sets of bongo drums.

-Really?

Yes, so you didn't do too badly.

Are we impressed with her?

What do you think, thumbs up or thumbs down for Helen?

Two, four, eight thumbs. I tell what, you got thumbs up from me as well.

Thank you very much, Helen Rhodes, you know your stuff on bongos.

Join us next time on Roar for More Ask the Keeper.

By the way, just in case you're wondering,

bongo drums are not made from bongos, they're much too precious.

Back with the African hunting dogs there's a crisis.

Two of the sedated animals,

who are moving to Belgium to start a new pack,

are still out in the open and one's beginning to come round

but the keepers can't open the travel crate.

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

This is an extremely dangerous situation.

He's not fully alert yet but he could be within seconds.

Jane the vet may have to get more sedative into him very quickly.

But at last the door comes free and they quickly load both dogs.

Right, put the top in.

It's a huge relief as the crate is locked shut.

OK, that's got it.

It was a very close thing.

It was a bit of a panic because obviously you don't want a dog

of this calibre running around loose in the park.

Occasionally you get nervous, it's a job where once or twice a year,

something goes wrong and you get a bit worried, but this was OK.

Surprisingly Jane is very calm.

The dogs are now facing a five-hour journey, but whilst one of the dogs

came around too quickly, one of his brothers is still worryingly dopey.

The vet's assistant, Kerry, won't let him travel like this.

When we sedate them for a hospital procedure,

we're there to monitor them for the rest of the day,

but these will be in the back of a van for hours

so you want to be happy that they're fully recovered.

So what's she going to do?

I'll pinch his nose to see how awake he is

and see reactive he is.

Maybe I'll lose my fingers. No, you see I'm pinching quite hard

and he should be jumping back if he was awake enough to travel.

So really I'm not happy for him to go until he's reacting a bit more.

Animals can die under sedation.

No-one will relax until he comes round.

But at last the dog shakily gets to his feet.

He's up and about.

We're happy that they can travel.

So we're just going to give him some water

in case they want a drink and then they'll be on their way.

The dogs are off to father some puppies in Belgium,

so Jim's happy to see them go.

Bye, boys. Have a good life.

And there'll be some new hunting dogs arriving soon to replace them,

male and female, so let's hope we get some puppies here too.

They can have up to 20 pups in a single litter

so the keepers could be in for a busy time.

Right now, we need to catch up with Yoni, the Moloch gibbon mum,

and her new little baby.

Moloch gibbons really are the masters of swing.

They look like monkeys but they're actually apes. They don't have tails.

They're more intelligent, and better at swinging through

the trees of their natural homeland on the island of Java in Indonesia.

Unfortunately there are only 2,000 of them left in the wild,

which makes them the rarest gibbons of all.

So any Moloch gibbon babies are very precious, and last series,

in a fantastic first for Roar, we actually filmed one being born.

Now, their proud keeper, Jamie Robertson,

has invited us to come and see how both mother and baby are getting on.

This is Yoni, the mum, and we can see the newborn baby there.

It's just over two-weeks-old now.

and you can see it's bigger, it's filled out a lot more.

It was very scrawny when it was first born.

The arms are getting bigger, doing really well.

Straight after birth, Moloch gibbons swing through the trees

to avoid predators like slithery snakes.

This little gibbon had to learn to hold on very quickly.

Babies are born with an instinctual reaction to grip on,

same with human babies. Put your finger next to a human baby's hand,

and it automatically closes on it.

Because the way they move very quickly and very jerkily,

it has to hold on from almost initially coming straight out.

And just to prove Jamie's point, look at Yoni go.

With gibbons, it's probably going to be at least six months staying

very close to Mum, whereas other monkeys it can be as little as

two weeks before they're off and running round.

Other apes share the babysitting duties but not Molochs.

Baby gibbons stick to their mum like glue.

She tends to do most of it on her own at this stage.

Dad keeps a low profile,

it's mainly all down to Mum at the moment, and she's a very good mum.

Jamie looks after lots of other primates too

but he has a particular soft spot for the Molochs.

They look great, they move great,

they're just constantly doing something.

I love gibbons, they're one of my favourites.

It's not hard to see why, and we'll be back

to see how Yoni and her baby are getting on in the future.

We've almost come to the end of another Roar but how could we go

without ending the show on something sweet.

Oh, stop it, Johny, you're embarrassing me. Behave.

No, when I said sweet, I meant it literally.

We popped down to meet keeper Mat at the gorilla enclosure

-to make some honey pots.

-Hiya, Mat.

-Hello.

-What are we doing with this honey then?

-Well, you'll be...

-Eating it!

-..putting some honey into that tray for our gorillas.

-Right, OK then.

-But not too much.

-Not too much.

-Tell me when, Mat.

We don't even need that.

Do we need to smear it round?

-Is that all right like that?

-Yes, that'll probably be enough there.

-Smearing it?

-That's OK like that.

-Why honey for gorillas?

-It's just a sweet treat for them really.

We'll put it inside one of, what we call our honey pots,

and the gorillas have to use sticks to get it out.

So they'll use sticks, are they that intelligent?

Oh, yes, they'll definitely use them. Keifer the male

will probably be the first over and he'll get a stick.

-You do this often then? Because this little lady...

-Yes, that's Tambabi.

-Hi, Tambabi.

-She knows what's going to happen.

Everyone's gathering round but nobody's got sticks.

So what will Keifer make of this then?

If these guys start tucking in to it, will he shoo them off?

Keifer is just over there. If he wants to come over, he will.

And then he'll be the one that will be able to get the honey out.

So the honey is in place now.

-Ah, straight away a stick.

-Keifer's coming over.

Look at this, Keifer is actually going through the hay.

They'll go through the straw and find the correct stick,

like, the right size.

That is unbelievable. So they don't have a special stick

that they carry around, they go and find one?

If there isn't a suitable stick

they'll modify it to make it the right shape.

They'll break branches off, to fit inside the holes.

This is amazing. Keifer came over

and they just knew, they went out of the way.

-He didn't even have to tell them off.

-They know that he's in charge.

It's amazing. Do you think there's any way of opening that

-to see the stick actually go into the honey?

-That should be OK.

I know we can't get close to these guys because it isn't safe, is it?

But, Mat, you can do it, can't you? If we stand back.

Keifer is a big silverback

and they've the strength of, what is it, eight men?

-Something like that.

-That's amazing.

There you go, let's have a look. He's just getting a bit of a touch.

-It is only a treat for them, isn't it?

-Yes.

-Do you think he'll leave any for the rest of the crew?

-He could do,

when he gets bored he'll move away and then some of

the other females will come over.

He's got these massive hands as well.

So in the wild, would they have any reason to use sticks?

They have recently been shown to use sticks.

They use it to test the depth of water, so they'll put

a stick in to see how deep it is while they're wading across it.

Amazing, I can't believe I'm standing

next to a massive silverback, a very intelligent one too.

-Thanks for letting us get so close to him.

-That's OK.

Ooh I've got a wasp on my honey spreader.

I'm going to leave you now,

but why don't you check out the next episode of Roar. I'm scared of wasps.

In the next Roar, a beautiful baby tapir has a nasty infection

and the keepers are worried that he might die just like his brother did.

Our Roar ranger hits the heights of the gorilla house,

but there are bigger dangers than falling off.

Just keep walking along, that noise she's making

means she's getting a bit annoyed.

And what on earth's going on in the Diana monkey enclosure,

-are they having a disco down there?

-Don't miss it.

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