Episode 9 Roar

There is an emergency in the parks,

where a one-tonne rhino has got his head stuck after being darted.

The only way to free him is to

push from one end and pull from the other.

But can they do it before he passes out?

Hey there, and welcome to Roar. I'm Rani.

And I'm Johny, and please welcome the park's 10 guinea fowl chicks.

Yay! Now, guinea fowls are actually native to West Africa, and are also

related to other game birds like chickens, turkeys and even partridge.

The guinea fowl hatchlings, or keets as they are known,

-are able to flutter fly at just 12 days old. It's impressive.

-It is.

It's also very handy, as Mum raises them on the ground all by herself

-without the safety of a nest up in the trees.

-That's right.

Today's show is a real high-flyer. Why don't we prepare for take-off?

A baby tapir has been really sick for two weeks now,

so what are the chances of making a full recovery?

The keepers are hoping that two pancake tortoises will mate,

but he seems to be a bit snappy.

And of course, we will be revealing

today's vital cheat code for the Roar online game.

But we're going to start with Kingo the rhino.

The parks have a really successful record of breeding black rhinos.

They've even sent five out to Africa to boost the numbers in the wild,

where they're critically endangered.

Of the 29 rhino calves born here over the years,

five have been fathered by Kingo, so he's a very important bull indeed.

But he's not been well for some time.

He has sore and infected feet and every step he takes is painful.

Sometimes when his feet are particularly bad,

when they were particularly bad, he was quite miserable.

It's not very nice for him. He's a big animal.

They're walking around on pebbly ground, with holes in their feet.

Things can get stuck in there and every now and again

he may bang his feet or scrape them to get something out.

We can't put a bandage on them or anything like that,

so we just have to keep it clean and keep a good eye on it, really.

If they didn't do anything about it,

the infections in Kingo's feet could spread and put his life in danger.

So, Jane the vet has been cleaning out the pus

and dead skin at regular intervals and his feet are getting better.

But he is limping badly,

so she'll be coming over in the morning to do it again.

Tonight we're going to bring him into one of his bedrooms.

There won't be any bedding or any food in there or any water,

because we don't want him to eat anything.

And then when we sedate him, he'd regurgitate

or choke on any food or any fluids.

Jane will be using a sedative drug to knock Kingo out, and the amount

that she uses will depend on how much he weighs.

Good boy, good boy.

So, just outside his bedroom,

there's a rhino-sized set of scales that he has to walk over.

Good lad. On you get. Come on. He's a little bit tentative.

Normally he gets a little bit of bribery.

But... There we go.

1,170 kilos.

That's the weight of about 40 fridges.

Kingo is certainly one big rhino.

Good boy. In you go. Good lad.

However careful the vet is, animals can die under sedation.

Kingo has to be knocked out,

but Nick isn't looking forward to the morning.

It's a big day, a big and nerve-wracking day.

We don't like doing it. At the end of the day, it's an animal that

you could end up losing if it all goes wrong.

Nick isn't exaggerating.

The keepers know that Kingo could die under sedation.

We'll come back when they dart him.

Now, the little baby tapir,

who was born here four weeks ago, did very well at first.

But recently he's got diarrhoea.

And the keepers have been very worried about him,

because his brother died from a similar problem.

They've been giving him something called a probiotic,

which is like a medicine to settle his tummy.

'I popped down to see how he's doing.

'He's with his mum, Wilma, and keeper, Barry Higgs.'

-This is the little fellow, then?

-Yep. He's our baby tapir.

-All wet!

-What's happened?

-He's been for a swim this morning with Mum.

It's been quite warm out there so he's gone to cool down.

He's not looking his best. He's a bit covered in mud.

I think he looks absolutely gorgeous.

So the little fellow's not too well?

No, he's not 100%. He's got a bit of a tummy bug at the moment.

We're having to give him a probiotic liquid,

which he'll have twice a day.

So what are his symptoms so far?

Well, he's unfortunately had quite a bit of diarrhoea.

Which is not pleasant for him.

-Poor little chap.

-We are just helping him out now.

Right. OK, have you got this liquid then and I can maybe give you a hand?

It looks like he wants to go for the food. Is he on solids?

He's still suckling quite a bit from his mum.

He's picking up, as you can see, all sorts of bits and pieces.

Everything is new to him,

so that's probably why he's picked up what he has.

Do you know where he picked it up from?

Probably the paddock. Maybe drunk some water from the wallow,

which hasn't agreed with him.

Like us, no-one likes to take medicine, so little fella

is on his way out AWAY from the syringe.

That's how you give the probiotic, isn't it?

Yes. He actually likes it. It's mainly water and the probiotic

is inside it. He's been really good with taking it so far.

Wilma's now going to go out and have a bit of Tommy's breakfast.

Does he follow Mum everywhere?

Pretty much, yeah. He does like to explore.

We're just going to give him this.

-He likes it, as you can see. There it goes.

-Is that it?

That's it. Quick as that.

Well, slap my thighs.

Very good at taking his medicine, this little fellow!

You're giving it to him twice a day.

How long are you giving it to him for?

Well, pretty much until the diarrhoea ceases.

Probably for at least a good couple of weeks or so.

Apart from the diarrhoea, is there any other symptoms?

Anything we need to look out for?

Well, he's actually been fantastic.

He's very, very energetic.

There's no signs of him slowing down or being lethargic.

He's pretty much for running around like a good' un.

Apart from the diarrhoea,

you wouldn't see anything wrong with him at all.

He is putting on weight as well, which is reassuring. So, yeah.

Apart from that, he's a healthy little chap.

Well, he looks absolutely beautiful with all his little stripes so far.

Hopefully, keep giving him the medicine,

and he'll be fit as a fiddle before you know it.

Let's keep our fingers crossed, eh?

Barry, thank you for letting us come down.

I'd better wash my hands.

He might be cute, but I tell you what, he's absolutely filthy!

Barry, show us your hands. Filthy.

-What did one snake say to the other snake?

-I don't know.

I've got a crushhh on you.

SQUAWKS

What goes bump, ow, bump, ow?

-I don't know.

-A penguin rolling down the stairs.

-Baaaaa!

-Baaaaa!

How does a bird manage to land safely with a broken wing?

-I don't know.

-With its sparrow-chutes!

With a total of 14 African elephants,

the parks have the biggest collection in Europe.

Lots of ellies means lots of work for the keepers, coming up with

ideas for things to keep them interested

and feeding them over 300,000 kilos of fruit, veg and hay every day.

Sometimes they manage to combine fun with food,

and they can be very creative.

On a boiling hot day there's nothing I like more than an ice lolly.

Believe it or not, elephants love ice lollies as well.

I'm meeting keeper Angela to learn how to make elephant ice lollies.

How cool is that? Come in.

-Hello, Angela.

-Hello!

-You all right?

-Not bad. Have you come to give me a hand?

I have, to make ice lollies for elephants.

-Do they really like it?

-They do. It's nice for them to cool down,

and it's crunchy, different texture. They really enjoy them.

So, what do I do first? We got some melon.

-Yep.

-We've got some bananas and we've got some oranges as well.

They usually have bananas and oranges.

Melon, they only get on a special treat,

and so we're mixing it all up.

So, if you want to chop up some melon for me.

-Just chop it up into nice little tiny bits.

-OK.

Would they have fruit in the wild?

Not like this, no. Especially not in a smoothie form either!

Right. Iced up as a lolly.

Would they not be scared of the ice at all, then?

They quite enjoy it. Usually they stamp on it

and break it up into tiny pieces.

And then sort of suck up the pieces.

They prefer the fruit to the lolly,

blending it they're going to have to eat it all.

There we go.

This is the biggest blender I've ever seen!

Let me try to turn this thing off. There we go.

So, once we've mixed all that up, then we have to freeze them?

-Yep.

-You've got some already done?

-Here's some we made earlier.

-Right, OK.

-There we go.

-Brilliant. So this is what they look like?

How do we get these things open?

If you just peel the cup off, it should just break off.

I cannot wait to see what the elephants make of these.

Obviously they'll have to use their trunks to pick up the ice lollies.

Now, although the trunk on an elly

like Jums here weighs about 140kg, it's an amazingly flexible tool

which he uses to eat, drink, smell, breathe and pick things up.

So, they are very small. I'm quite worried that

they won't be able to pick it up.

No, he'll definitely be able to pick those up.

He can pick up quite a lot with that trunk.

So why is it so... I guess dexterous.

Why is it that such a big animal can pick up small things?

Their top lip and nose form a point, and two fingers at the bottom,

so it almost acts like a hand at the bottom.

They've got a really good grip.

If one of them grabs hold of you, they don't like letting go.

Has one of them ever grabbed you then?

The little 'uns are playful.

You wouldn't get close to Jums to play with him!

Angela, he's coming right over. Look. He's picked one up!

Oh, no. He's left it.

It might be a bit cold. It might not be the right flavour for him.

So have they got quite delicate palates as well?

They're quite picky with food.

They'll leave the worst bits till last. Just like people, really.

Oh, yeah. There he goes.

And so, will they ever use their trunks to sort of lick it first?

I don't think they'd lick it, no. They'd just start munching.

They're not as delicate as us!

Angela, I can see him having a little feel of the ice lollies.

Are their trunks quite sensitive?

Very. The trunk has lots of nerve endings.

It's one of their main ways of sensing things around them.

So obviously a very good sense of smell as well.

When I held the iced lollies, they were quite cold.

Will they get a similar sensation?

Definitely, yeah. They wouldn't be able to hold them for too long.

He's left some of them. I think he'll come back later.

Yeah, I think so.

Either I'm a wally, or Jums looks mighty jolly with his lolly.

Back at the new rhino house, Kingo is waiting for a visit

from vet Jane Hopper.

Kingo has a problem with his feet.

We've sedated him three or four times.

About a year ago the infection was nearly in the bone,

and we don't want it to get very bad again.

So, we'll sedate him again, just have a look,

see if they've got better again or infected, so we know.

Because rhinos are so big and dangerous,

sedating Kingo is the only way they can safely get at his feet.

If they didn't treat him, the infection would spread

and eventually kill him.

So, the risk of him dying under sedation has to be taken.

Even though Kingo is a very important breeding rhino.

He's fathered five calves already, and they'd very much like some more.

But this is tricky.

Sedating a rhino is a complicated process.

The keepers here are brilliant and very experienced in sedation,

so it's a team effort.

We get keepers from other sections just to help pull ropes

and help in case there are any problems.

It's a nice team effort from the zoo.

As soon as enough people are on hand to help,

Jane prepares the sedative dart.

Because there's so much at stake, our crew have been asked

to keep out of the way.

But the keepers have allowed us to set up a fixed camera,

which will show us most of what happens in Kingo's stall.

With the dart prepared, Jane goes inside to sedate the big bull.

You can just see the pink speck

where the dart has hit his shoulder. A perfect shot.

-The dart is in.

-If all goes well,

a few minutes from now, Kingo will be lying quietly asleep.

You never know what's going to happen.

These animals have a cunning way of throwing problems

you could never have imagined at you.

We're all here, hopefully ready for anything.

Jane goes back inside to keep an eye on him,

and immediately spots a problem.

Just a moment.

Is it worth pushing him back a bit?

His head is really dropping.

Well, I'm not very happy with this, that's all.

Unfortunately, we can't see the problem

because we can't move the camera.

But as Kingo is getting more and more drowsy, he's pushing his head

into a narrow gap at the end of his stall.

It's a safety gap for keepers

to get quickly in or out of the rhino's bedroom in an emergency.

It's just bad luck that Kingo has put his head in it, but now it's stuck.

And when he lies down as he falls asleep, he could hurt himself badly.

The team have an emergency on their hands.

Let me just shut the door for a minute.

This is so serious that we are keeping well back.

Jane gets on the radio to call for equipment to cut Kingo free.

Mechanics, or anyone at the maintenance yard, could you bring

a saw to cut through a large piece of wood very quickly

to the new rhino sheds by the lodges, please?

'OK, I'll grab something.'

Thank you, we've got a rhino stuck. Have we got any more people?

-Shall we ask for more keepers?

-Come on, Kingo.

They're pushing his head, as well as pulling,

though we can't see it from this position.

He's a very tough rhino, so this won't hurt his leg at all.

But they have to get him free any way they can.

He could hurt himself badly if they don't.

But Kingo weighs over a tonne, so the team of eight keepers and two vets

may not be strong enough to move him, and they're running out of time,

before the sedative knocks him out.

But suddenly, his head starts to come free.

More. We're winning.

-More. Yes.

-Keep going.

Make sure he doesn't come back.

-Everybody out.

-The keepers have won the tug-of-war,

and saved Kingo from what could have been a serious injury.

Thank goodness for that.

We'll come back when they set to work on Kingo's sore feet.

But, what will they find?

OK, it's now time for another Ask The Keeper.

Now, the keeper we're going to be putting our questions to today

is deputy head, Ben Warren. Hiya, Ben.

-Hi, Rani.

-We're asking about an animal

that I'm telling these guys would make a great pet.

It's Winnie the honey badger. Am I right?

-I wouldn't have her as a pet, that's for sure!

-Certainly not.

She's one of the most fearsome animals here.

-She's very fierce.

-And we have got

lots of questions about her, so who wants to kick it off?

Why are honey badgers called honey badgers?

Well, in the wild, they're very good at destroying

hives, beehives, to get the honey out.

There are guided to them by this bird called the honeyguide.

The badger will follow the bird.

The badger will rip apart the beehive, get all the honey out

and the bird will get the leftovers.

That's why it's called a honey badger.

How many teeth do they have?

That's a good question.

I wouldn't know. I've never got into a fight with a badger

to find out. I do know their teeth are very sharp.

I've seen them ripping apart meat and stuff like that,

and they've got enough to do their job.

How many babies do they have?

They can have two to six babies. Sadly here we've never have any,

since I've been here, we've never had any baby badgers.

So I've never seen one.

But apparently they have around two to six.

What is the biggest prey that they take down for food?

They're not really that fussy on their food.

They're omnivores, which means they eat anything.

From slugs and snails, to reptiles, to birds, berries, roots,

all that sort of thing.

They prefer meat, and obviously honey.

The most dangerous thing is probably a snake.

How old do the honey badgers get?

Apparently they make it to around 20-25. The one in here

at the moment is currently 19, so she's getting on a good age.

In the wild, probably a lot less. You can probably half it.

How fast can badgers...well, honey badgers run?

I've never had to run away from one so I'm not sure.

But I believe it's around 20-25 mph,

which is fairly quick for something with such short legs.

OK, we've had loads of great questions,

loads of great answers, but how will you do on the killer question?

All right, we're going to just take a little moment while we discuss

what our killer question will be, we'll be back with you in a sec.

OK, here we go, guys. Ahem! Right.

THEY WHISPER

OK. Ben Warren, we have a killer question for you.

So, up to what length can a honey badger's claws grow to?

That depends on what he's digging in.

-OK.

-But I would say two to three inches.

Two to three inches?

Really sorry to tell you this, Ben, but we've done our research.

You've given it in inches, we'll give it to you in centimetres.

The correct answer is four centimetres, so you're not far off,

two inches is all right.

-I want you to go in and measure her claws!

-Winnie?!

You know what, I don't think now's a good time!

Guys, what do you think? Thumbs up or thumbs down to Ben Warren?

One OK... I'm going to average it out for you, Ben.

-Thank you so much.

-No worries.

Now it's the most important part of the show for all you online gamers.

Cheat code time.

And today's secret code is: rock9.

Key that into your computer

and unlock a fresh set of treats and food for all the animals

in your very own wildlife park.

Back at the new rhino house, Kingo is now fully sedated

and lying comfortably, with a blue towel over his eyes

in case he does start to wake up.

Jane the vet needs to move fast because animals

can die under sedation, but how bad will his infected feet be?

I want to try and cut some of this away. What do you think?

Jane's working with three of the most experienced keepers,

scraping out pus and dead skin.

It's a bit like having a verruca cut out, only much worse.

Jane had to do exactly the same job a few months ago.

-How are you doing at the back?

-Looking good.

-Good, well done.

With the treatment going well, deputy head of rhinos, Nick Turk,

is pleased with how his team handled the emergency.

It was quite hairy.

Luckily when we do something like this

we grab loads of people from other sections,

and we put a rope around his feet and we pulled,

and we managed to get him out.

Are we happy with his back ones?

I think that's the best we can do.

Yep. That's quite open.

Let's put it down and get it washed.

When you sedate a large animal,

it's helpful if you can do the job as quickly as possible.

We had John from elephants help with the foot care, so he was doing feet

whilst Jane and Paul were as well,

so it meant that we could do all four feet relatively quickly.

These are funny bits that I think are healing up from before.

-Yes, you can just cut them out.

-I think it's really good. Good.

Jane and the team have cleaned out Kingo's feet

and packed the holes with antibiotic gel to stop any further infections.

Now she wants Kingo awake again as soon as possible.

While he remains under sedation, he's still in danger,

so she injects him with a fast-acting drug to wake him up.

Good. He'll be getting up in a minute.

But Kingo doesn't move.

Come on, lad. Up you get. Kingo!

Come on, up you get.

Paul decides to give him a tap on the nose.

Well done, Paul.

-Good boy, all right.

-And it does the trick.

Amazingly, Kingo is back up on his newly cleaned-out feet in no time.

Animals in the wild can't afford to show

that they're in pain or injured. They'd get eaten.

If you were to do that for a human, we'd be on crutches for six weeks.

We'd be whingeing and whining. Animals are different.

They just get on with it. They have a higher pain threshold.

I'm sure they do, cos of the way they hit and batter each other.

But they just get on with it.

So, Kingo doesn't seem to be bothered

by what happened at all, and Jane's pleased with the work they got done.

His feet are OK. They're a lot better than they were a year ago.

I still think we'll be sedating him

three times in the next year to see how they're going,

because it takes a long time for things like that to become normal.

I'm sure when we sedate him again we'll find the same thing.

Gradual improvement, but no miracles overnight.

But at least Kingo's feet should hurt less than they did,

and Nick doesn't think it will take him long to recover.

Most rhinos are pretty good after that.

They start feeding quickly.

He's very good. He's a very calm animal,

so they'll be no running around and spinning around and panicking.

We'll feed him, we'll keep him in for tonight,

then let him out into the yard, so he's got a nice, clean surface

for the next couple of days just to make sure things heal over,

before we let him out into the paddock again.

When he is allowed out again,

there's an important job waiting for him.

He's our breeding bull here.

He's already having one baby in about 10 months' time,

and we hope to mix him with more females so we can get more babies.

He's got a large public space, lots of female rhinos. I think he's OK.

-Thank you all very much.

-Cheers, you lot.

-I'll come down any time.

-Thank you, John. That was brilliant.

That's what it's all about. Everybody working together.

It is indeed, and we'll keep you up-to-date

with news about Kingo later in the series.

With any luck, there will be news like this.

Now, before we leave you today, head keeper Rich Barnes

has promised to tell us a love story. I love love stories. My favourite.

Whether it's a dragon, a princess...

Yeah, all right, Rani. Calm down.

-Rich, how are you doing, mate?

-Ready for the story.

-Who have we got here?

This little guy here, this is Steve.

He's our male pancake tortoise.

-Right.

-And his beloved girlfriend here is Twerp.

And she's a female tortoise.

-Beloved.

-So, this is the love story you were talking about?

Yes. It wasn't a typical love story.

It wasn't love at first sight. And it took both of them

a bit of time and encouragement, but we kept at it.

Initially he tried to chase her around and attack her

and was biting hold of pretty much of any piece of skin he could.

Legs, tail, neck, that sort of stuff.

-That can be painful, can't it?

-Yeah, it can be.

Admittedly, to start with, she wasn't enjoying it overly much.

-Right.

-But then we kept on and probably introduced them

about three or four more times after that, and each time afterwards

she got more confident and then started attacking him!

So she was doing the same thing that he started doing to her,

and then after a while, we just sort of had to bite the bullet

and leave them together.

After just a few hours it settled down

and then they hit it off.

How can you tell when two pancake tortoises get on?

What do they do with each other?

Well, there are no smashed plates, that's the first indication!

Do they share a leaf of lettuce? Do they cuddle up together?

They do, they share the same meal

and they won't fight each other now over the food.

He lets her eat quite happily with him and vice versa.

So that's the first thing we looked for.

See, I'm getting my love story.

I wanted to know they'd be going,

"Hey, go on, you have the last piece of lettuce."

"No, you have it, no, you have it!"

Now they've worked out their differences, good luck.

Will you tell us if they have some little ones?

Yep, hopefully we'll have some joy.

Brilliant. Well, thank you very much, Rich.

We are out of time, so while we say goodbye

to love's young dream, check out what's coming up

on the next episode. I like happy endings.

Our Roar Ranger comes face-to-face

with some of the creepiest creatures in the park.

We bring you a Roar exclusive. The first time we've ever seen Hercules,

the very clever banded leaf monkey. He answers to his name, apparently.

Hercules!

And 14 mucky elephants share a giant bath, so it gets really dirty.

But will the keepers find treasure at the bottom?

Make sure you're watching.

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