Episode 10 Roar

'Today on Roar...

'The baby goats are just one-week old

'and must join the rest of the herd.

'But they're a rough bunch with hard heads, spiky horns and no mercy.

'So, will the kids be all right?'

Hello. Welcome to Roar. I'm Johny.

And I'm Rani. This is Jessie the tapir.

We thought we'd pop down here this morning for breakfast.

For breakfast, Jessie loves nothing more than a greasy bacon buttie.

Er, Johny? No, she doesn't.

Oh, really? Oh, well, that's a shame. I'll have to eat it.

You know, waste not, want not.

I think we should just get on with the show.

Isn't that right, Jessie?

'Coming up today...there's big news from Gavin and Stacey.

'Their eggs have hatched.

'We'll get a first look at the new ostrich chicks.'

'Ever heard the expression, don't bite the hand that feeds you?

'The pelicans haven't.'

Whoa-whoa-whoa! What's up with this fella?

'The keeper's struggling,

because the sea lions are kicking up a racket.

'Still, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.'

THEY IMITATE A SEA LION

SEA LION BARKS

'But we're starting with the new kids on the block -

'the park's African pygmy goat babies.

'A week ago, nanny goats Marcia and Bubble each had twins.

'And since they were born,

'they've been kept in separate pens inside the barn.

'That's for the babies' protection,

'because nanny goats can be rough with each other's kids.

'Now the babies are big enough, and it's time to take the barriers down.

'Keeper Bev is on her way.'

This morning, we're just about to mix our goats.

We've got the two sets of twins.

They've obviously seen each other through the bars

and seen everything that's been going on,

but they haven't met each other, which is a nerve-wracking time

to see how they're going to get on.

So we'll have to see how it goes.

'Bev's main worry is for one of Marcia's babies, Margot.

'She was born quite small and with weak and wobbly back legs.

'Margot is getting stronger, but she's still rather fragile.'

We will keep a special eye on our little one.

She still is a bit wobbly on her feet.

If Bubble knocks her a couple of times, it won't do her any good.

She's our main concern at the moment.

We'll have to see how it goes.

'It's the moment of truth.'

Is she going to come out? Shall we take your babies?

'Bev is ready to step in if there's any trouble.'

This is the first time the babies have met.

'And soon enough, Margot needs to be rescued

'when she gets a head-butt from Bubble.'

Hang on with your mum for two minutes.

'The babies are confused and trying to suckle off the wrong mum.

'And the mums don't appreciate that at all.'

It's the babies. They're going naturally to a teat.

And once they realise the right thing to do, there'll be less head-butting.

As you can see, when Marcia goes to go down,

she doesn't tend to stab them, she tends to just knock them.

It looks a bit rough and ready, but that's goats for you.

'Bev needs to keep putting the right babies back with the right mums,

'which is a little confusing, even for her.'

I've got to try and remember which ones are which.

It's actually a bit difficult.

With Marcia and Bubbles' twins,

we had one brown one and one black-and-white one from both.

So when they're all mixed together, it's reasonably hard to see.

'It's easier for Marcia and Bubble.

'They can tell them apart by smell.'

Hopefully, that's the worst that Marcia and Bubs will do.

It seems to have calmed down a little bit, so I'll leave them mix.

'It's not long before they figure out what's what and who's who.

'And then the kids can settle down and just relax together.

'But this is only phase one of the operation.

'The next part is going to be a little more dicey.

'Next, the babies will go outside and mix with the other adult goats.

'Will Bev be able to protect little Margot

'amongst 14 fully-grown head-butting goats?

'Stick around to find out.'

I've popped down to the pelican pond to meet head keeper Mark

and give the pink-backed pelican

something different from their usual diet, aren't we?

-You all right? How're you doing?

-Not bad.

-Do you want these?

-I'd better, if we're handling... What are they?

We have sprats today, mainly.

-They're like tiny fish, aren't they?

-They are.

Why is this different from their usual...? Whoa!

-Who's this fella here?

-This is a young male.

He's one we hand-reared earlier in the year.

He's about seven months old now. He's a little bit gobby.

So, is he almost like a bit of an aggie teenager?

Definitely, as you can see.

He obviously knows the sprats are there. Shall we give him one?

He's actually not used to the sprats,

because we throw the sprats in the water, they sink to the bottom.

Hopefully, they'll fish down for them,

and you'll see them catch them in their pouch, bring them out,

eat, then swallow the fish.

-So, why won't he do that?

-He doesn't know how to yet.

-He's not learnt that game yet.

-So, that's why he's...?

We've got some normal mackerel for him.

Before he bites one of our hands off, we should get some sprats in.

-That's right. OK. So if we just...

-Whoa!

-So if we throw them in like that.

-Look at that!

So what they actually do there is they grab water and fish

and then they pull the pouch against their chest,

and it pushes the water out of the side,

keeps the fish in the middle in the pouch, and they swallow.

So we're throwing these sprats in,

but would they hunt in this manner out in the wild?

Yes. They'd probably hunt as a small group in sixes or sevens.

Surround shoals of fish, then all dive their beaks in at the same time.

It's like trying to corral them in a net.

Now, this fella's not happy. How long before he starts to do this?

Well, he's only seven months old,

so he still feels that we're provider of food,

so he still chases up on the bank.

We start to not hand it to him on the bank,

make him stay in the water and get it there.

Then he'll slowly revert to being a pelican

and he'll act like they do.

Will he watch them and learn off them?

We'll make sure we drop the fish in the shallow so he can see them.

Because, as you'll notice now, they'll start dive-fishing.

They're diving down to the bottom.

-So, they're diving down to get the other ones?

-Yeah.

That's what he doesn't know how to do. They do.

That is absolutely amazing.

How do they know where the fish are?

Have they got a sense of smell, is it their eyesight?

No. They're just guessing. They dive in and hope to find something.

It all looks a bit random. They go down and bob up.

Sometimes they have a fish, sometimes not.

I'm so impressed by their fishing.

Are they the only birds that do this?

Well, all different species of pelican fish like this,

-except for the brown pelican, which plunge-dives from height.

-Really?

Cormorants and things like that are a similar family to the pelican.

They would feed like this, as well.

OK. I think he's trying to eat himself here. What's he doing?

It has been absolutely incredible

to see these amazing fishing pelicans.

It's been amazing to see them up close,

but I think we'd better go before he tries to eat us, Mark.

LAUGHTER

What are porcupines' favourite food?

Prickled onions.

Pweee!

What happens when your cat has swallowed a ball of wool?

Meow!

It has mittens.

LAUGHTER

Where does the horse go when he's feeling ill?

I don't know.

The horse-pital!

LAUGHTER

It's time for Ask The Keeper,

and hoping to make a splash with this lot will be Keeper John,

as he tries to answer some questions on the five Californian sea lions.

Here you go!

Urrr!

-Who's this?

-That's Buster.

-Look at Buster!

-He's our breeding male.

There's Zook over there, flippers up, trying to get your attention.

And down here, this is Nancy.

Don't be rude, guys. Zook's waving, can you wave back?

There we go!

How much fish does a sea lion eat a day?

Our sea lions, depending on their age,

get between three or four kilos each a day.

Some of the younger ones get about two kilos,

so it really does just depend on their age and their size.

Why do they have whiskers?

They've got some of the most sensitive whiskers

of any mammal on the planet. It helps them hunt in water.

They don't need to have their eyes open in the water

when they're hunting, their whiskers are so sensitive

they can sense their prey in the water without seeing them.

Why is this lady making so much noise and splashing us, John?

She just wants some food, basically.

She's being very impatient and wants some food.

Do people hunt sea lions?

Yeah, people do still hunt sea lions, unfortunately.

People sometimes hunt because they're fishermen and don't want sea lions

taking their fish. Other people do it for their meat.

How long do sea lions live for?

In the wild, sea lions can live for about 15-17 years.

That's because of all sorts of things,

mainly that killer whales and sharks will pick them off.

But in captivity they'll live for about 30-35 years.

In case you missed that, because of the racket,

John said they live 30-35 years in captivity.

-How high can they jump?

-They can probably jump two or three metres.

John, you've done really well, and he's getting very loud,

so I think we'll have to come up with a killer question.

Guys, killer question time!

THEY WHISPER

All right, let's go for it! Hey, John.

-Hi.

-Ha-ha, you look nervous! OK, we have a question for you.

-Go on.

-About the Californian sea lions.

-Right.

Do Californian sea lions steer with their front flippers or their back?

They steer with their front flippers

and they push themselves through the water with their back.

-Are you sure?

-Yeah, I'm pretty sure.

Well, I'm glad you're sure, John, because you are correct.

But luckily we have a second part of your killer question.

Can you do your best sea lion impression for us,

and we want Buster, we want big, we want Buster!

You want me to do a Buster impression?

Yes!

I'll see what I can do.

Oh-oh-oh!

Normally we say thumbs up or thumbs down,

-but should we give John a seal of approval?

-Yeah.

Let's go for it.

Ar-ar-ar!

Now, that's Buster for you.

Ar-ar-ar!

It's a big day for the baby goats.

They're about to meet the rest of the herd for the very first time.

But keeper Bev is concerned.

Goats have horns and they're not afraid to use them,

either for protection or to establish

who's the boss in the herd.

Sometimes they just play too rough.

They do butt a lot, they push each other around a lot.

We have, back in the past, after one of our older females gave birth,

another one came along and butted her but also caught her wrong.

It doesn't happen very often,

but some of the goats do have sharp points on their horns,

and just caught her underneath the armpit,

and she had to have 17 stitches. That is worst-case scenario.

That doesn't happen very often, but, you know,

you've got to be prepared for things that could go wrong.

And the one Bev's most worried about is Margot, the smallest of the kids.

She's going to be very vulnerable amongst all those boisterous adults.

If something does go wrong, no doubt we'll get straight in there

and pick it up and take it away.

But the first hurdle is just getting

the nannies and the kids to the herd.

It's a 400-metre walk from the goat yard down to the main goat paddock.

Alex, I'm going to give you two, and you get one,

and then head onto the goat paddock. Open up that gate.

You're a bit too quick now, these days, aren't you?

GOAT SQUEALS

OK, that's cool.

OK? Brill. Come on!

The babies will be carried by the keepers, but the mums must walk.

Come on, goats!

But there's a snag, goats eat anything and everything,

and there's a lot of tasty stuff along the route.

It's going to be a long journey.

Come on!

This is going to take ages. Come on, goats!

Come on, goats!

Come on, goats.

But Bev has a few tricks to keep the mums moving.

Good girl, well done.

Good girl.

The herd can hear them coming and are curious to see the new kids.

And there's one goat in particular who could cause trouble.

The one you have to keep an eye on is Lillian, which is the white one.

She's our oldest female, she's our little grandma.

She's top goat, as such. If anyone's going to cause trouble,

do a bit of head-butting of the little ones, it's going to be Lily.

Now they're here, and it's time for the kids to meet the herd.

They're all quite interested,

but two of the adults are particularly curious.

Pugwash and Jacob are ex-pets and have never seen kids before.

But it's Marcia who'll get some unwelcome attention.

That was a typical goat shove.

Little Margot keeps wandering off, away from the protection of her mum.

But until she gets the hang of things,

they're going to keep bringing her back.

Especially while top goat Lillian is still sniffing around.

But it looks like sniffing is all that Lillian's going to do.

Any introduction is always a little bit heckles up, extra sniffing,

a bit of butting. But to be honest,

to begin with it looked a bit worrying,

but it was all over pretty quick.

Sometimes it goes on long, and there's a lot of chasing,

but there's hardly any chasing at the moment,

and it all seemed to settle down very quickly.

And now the anxious introductions are over,

the kids are free to explore their new home

and have fun just playing around.

# My first, my last

# My everything

# And the answer to

# All my dreams... #

There's no doubt about it, Gavin and Stacey were made for each other.

And earlier in the series we saw the proof,

a whole clutch of eggs in their nest.

But ostrich eggs often don't hatch -

in fact, the keepers reckon they'd be lucky

if they got just one chick out of all those eggs.

As you know the park's ostriches, Gavin and Stacey,

laid their first batch of eggs a little while ago.

I've come to meet keeper Ryan for an update.

Ryan, things must have gone quite well?

Yeah, as you can see, Johny, we had four eggs hatch eventually.

They're all doing fantastically well.

They're all following Mum around perfectly,

which is just what we'd expect to see here. Perfectly natural behaviour.

Really eating well. These guys are only a few weeks old now,

but you can see they're really gaining weight, cos they were quite,

you know, almost tennis ball-sized before when they're born,

but they've quadrupled almost in size.

Ostriches, fully grown, are not the cutest of animals,

but their little babies are so cute.

When do they change, when do they lose the markings?

It's going to be several months, really, before we can see them.

At the moment, they're just baby ostriches.

We don't know if they're male or female.

But to be honest, we don't really care, it's not important to us

what sex they are at the moment. I would have thought

maybe six to eight months' time, we'll be able to tell.

The males will start getting that quintessential black and white

plumage come through and the females will stay quite a grey colour.

In the couple of series I've done of Roar,

I've never actually met any young ostriches.

What's the success rate like?

In the wild, generally, they say,

um, a one in ten chance of the eggs hatching,

so a 10% chance, and out of the ones that hatch,

a 10% chance of them making adulthood.

So, almost it's a one in 100 shot for every egg to get an ostrich

that gets to adulthood. So to have four hatch,

out of, I think we had 16 eggs, so to get four hatch, for us,

is a great ratio anyway, and as you can see, they're doing really well.

I wouldn't be surprised if they all make it to adulthood.

Urgh, did you see that? Here it is again.

Ryan, they're so tiny at the moment, what are they eating?

Basically, what happens, Johny, as soon as they come out the shells

and they start moving around,

they follow Mum and they eat exactly what she eats.

So, there's a lot of seed heads in the grass at the moment,

and there's a lot of shorter lush grass underneath,

so they'll copy Mum.

If she went to a pile of stones and started trying to eat them,

that's what they'd go and eat. We also put ostrich feed,

which is like a specially formulated feed for ostrich,

we put a bit of that out for them every day.

Basically they're on an adult diet already.

Ryan, congratulations. It's great to see that these little ostriches

have hit the ground running.

We'll keep you guys updated throughout the series.

Hey, all you gamers, make a note of this - frost11.

That's today's cheat code for the Roar game on the CBBC website.

Did you know there's another way to get extra treats for your park?

Just click on the feeding time button, answer the questions,

stick with the action and see what you get. Happy gaming!

There's an invader living in the lakes and rivers of Britain,

a menace that's killing off our native wildlife.

This is the North American signal crayfish.

25 years ago, they began to escape from fish farms

and started to take over.

They've almost wiped out our native freshwater crayfish

and are now threatening fish stocks.

Our wild otters love to catch and eat them, but that's not enough.

In many parts of the country, the problem is getting worse.

But here at the park, they've found one good use for them.

Fancy a quick bite?

Well, think again, because this snack bites back.

Bev, please tell me, why am I holding a live crayfish?

Yeah, we're actually at the otter enclosure and, what we've done,

we've put some crayfish in the pond for them to eat.

-Right.

-As you can see, I think Romeo's got one already over there.

-Oh, he has!

-This is good enrichment for them.

This is one of the type of foods

that they would eat in the wild, you see.

Now, in the wild that's fine,

but it does make me feel slightly uncomfortable, cos it is live.

Is this all right to do this?

Yeah, this is all right.

These crayfish are actually a pest in our waters.

Our water bailiff now and then goes and actually gets some for us.

So we put it in, and it's good enrichment for the otters,

and also wild otters would go around eating these as well.

So it's a normal thing that they would eat in the wild.

The other thing is, these crayfish have snappy claws.

Is there any chance Romeo or Rosie

are going to get a little bite from the crayfish?

The crayfish will try and sort of nab them,

but as you can see, I think Romeo and Rosie,

they're pretty good at knowing what bits not to hold on to, as such.

These guys have got very sharp teeth,

so they're able to break the crustaceans down in their mouths.

Does that mean they've had these before?

We've put them in here before. They are aware what they are.

When you take their food out,

sometimes they put the food back in and wash it, as is happening there.

And then take it back out again.

We've also got a camera in the pond as well,

just in case we miss any of the action whilst they're going in.

Would they hunt only in the water,

on land? What are they even lying on top of their prey?

Yeah, they would hunt in water. But also on the side of river banks

and things, they'd go and get small mammals.

-Here we go.

-Look, look! Go for the big one!

-That's Rosie there.

-This is amazing to see.

You can actually see her hands in action -

she's really gripping on, isn't she?

She is using her hands there to hold onto it.

But also those teeth, you can just see how sharp those teeth are,

-and it's no problem for them.

-That's quite a big body.

Is she going to be able to munch her way through that?

I don't think it's...

As you can see, she's grabbing hold of it with her teeth.

-That is amazing.

-It is.

For such little creatures, they have got really powerful teeth.

You wouldn't think it.

They look very cute and cuddly, but very sharp teeth indeed!

Not anymore, Bev! We talk about them hunting out in the wild and stuff,

but Rosie and Romeo, are they from the wild, were they born here?

They were born in captivity, so they've never been out in the wild.

But they still have that instinct in how to kill their prey,

as you can see here.

We do feed small mammals and rodents that isn't alive,

but when we put the crayfish in, they know exactly what to do.

I was slightly sceptical

about putting the crayfish in with the otters,

but it's been fantastic seeing what they would be doing out in the wild.

It's been cracking!

Phew-ee, what is that smell? I bet Rani's been around here.

Eh, Johny! It's not me that's making the smell,

it's the ferrets in here,

and I think you should get yourself in here as well,

-cos Alexa wants a word.

-If I must!

Hi, girls, it's nearly the end of the show,

so we've got to make this quick.

What have we got planned? Stinks in here!

It does stink, doesn't it? It's not me!

It's these little fellas, then?

Yeah, these are our ten ferrets and they're all boys

and they all smell, so they need a little bit of a clean-up.

-You want to have a go?

-Alexa, is it the ferrets that smell,

because they're really dirty,

or is it because this place is... what is it?

No, they get cleaned out every single day.

Every morning, we're cleaning them out, every evening,

but they are boys and they need to mark their territory.

You say "marking their territory" -

I've just touched a ferret, which was a bit wet.

Does that mean it was ferret pee? Is that what we can smell?

No, no, no. A lot of it is the smell within their coat.

It's natural oils that their coat produces.

That would tell all the other ferrets who they are and who they're seeing,

and everything like that. So it's just perfectly natural.

It's not a good idea to bath them too much,

because it takes away their smell

and it takes away their security, and then they get uncomfortable

-and make themselves even smellier.

-We're trying to clean this place up,

but it doesn't look like they want us to clean up at all,

look at that! Sabotaging it!

Yeah, it takes us a long time to clean in here,

they want to play with us, they're social animals,

they've been handled from a young age, so they want to play,

they're used to people being here.

I've had an idea - the ferrets don't want us to clean,

we don't want to clean, we've come to the end of the show,

-why not say bye right now?

-Rani, that's the best idea you've had yet.

I don't think so, guys. These ferrets need cleaned.

I'll keep them entertained,

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

We'll be back in control to bring you another show

packed with animal action.

The meerkat babies have a lot to learn - how to hunt,

how to do sentry duty,

but will they survive the most dangerous lesson of all?

Dinnertime with the family.

The Road Rangers want to feed the tigers,

but the tigers want to feed on them.

So, who's going to get what they want?

And start practising your "aaah"s now.

Aaaaah!

Cos I'm going to catch up with the baby otters

when they're seven weeks old.

So, don't miss it!

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