Episode 11 Roar

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

but will they survive the most dangerous lesson of all?

Dinnertime with the family.

-Welcome to Roar. I'm Rani.

-And I'm Johny. You know what?

-You remind me of a marmoset.

-Small and cute?

-Always looking for food!

Thanks, Johny(!) I think we should get on with the show.

Now where's that apple?

'Coming up today: start practising your "ahhhs"!'

Ahhh!

'I catch up with the baby otters now they're seven weeks old.

'The bongos are very shy, but I'll try to get closer than ever before.'

I've never been so close to a bongo.

'And the Roar Rangers want to feed the tigers. The tigers want them.

'Stick around to see who gets what they want.'

ROARS

There's always lots going on at Meerkat Mountain.

The big news is the five babies.

They're almost nine weeks old.

It looks like they spend all day playing around,

but they're very busy learning how to look after themselves.

For any young meerkat, almost everything is a lesson in survival.

And meerkat school is a school of hard knocks.

It's so important because they are from a dangerous part of the world -

the Kalahari Desert - and other dry and barren areas in Southern Africa.

Their lives are fraught with danger

and the babies must learn survival skills from a young age.

Keeper John Reynolds helps them.

Now he's got their morning snacks.

This is basically cat biscuits.

We give them all sorts of different treats in a day.

Sometimes fruit and veg, carrots or apple.

Cat biscuit, bugs. We scatter it on the mound, the sand, all here.

They have to climb up on things, dig in the sand,

go in the grasses to dig it out, to make it as natural as we can.

To get a meerkat's eye view of the action, John has an unusual camera.

Strapped to my foot is a camera.

That's so you can have a ground eye view of what is going on

with the meerkats.

For today's lesson,

we'll concentrate on the basic principles of survival.

Lesson One: fight for your food.

When John spreads the cat biscuit,

the meerkats go wild. If they want to eat, they have to be fast, tough

and ready to rumble.

It teaches them to fight

and spar and things like that. That's good.

It teaches them self-defence.

It helps their muscles. Running around makes their muscles stronger.

In the wild, as they get stronger, if they get involved with predators

they'll be able to run away. So there's more chance of survival.

Survival Lesson Two: look out for danger.

Out in the wild, there are many predators that enjoy a meerkat,

especially a little one. So they must learn how to keep guard.

What happens in a meerkat group is most of them are looking for food,

playing, and then you have one meerkat, the unlucky meerkat,

who is standing guard, looking for any signs of danger, on sentry duty.

They'll be standing up over there somewhere, sat on his back legs.

He'll be looking all over for any predators.

-He'll let the rest of the group know and they'll hide.

-Simples!

Survival Lesson Three:

hide from predators.

When the sentry spots a predator, all the meerkats run for cover.

In the wild, it's life and death.

It could be a snake, it could be a bird of prey

or the other terrible predator - a plane.

They see them soaring and think it's a massive bird.

The youngsters all followed the adults and hide under a tree log.

It wasn't a bird - it was a plane. But they don't know that.

All they see is something flying. Got to hide.

This morning's lesson is going well.

It's gold stars all round for the pupils.

But the babies are about to tackle the toughest part of their day -

dinnertime.

So don't go away.

Earlier in the series, the keepers rescued the otters' new babies.

Their two previous litters had all died.

We think mum Rosie doesn't produce enough milk to feed them.

So to save these babies, keeper Bev Allen became their foster mum.

She's very experienced at this and dedicated.

They're fed every couple of hours, day and night.

'I got to meet them at four weeks old. One's a boy named Kasem,

'while the other's a girl, Sumalee. Like puppies and kittens,

'baby otters are born blind. They open their eyes at about five weeks.

'Well, Kasem and Sumalee are now almost seven weeks old.

'I've come to see how they're getting on.'

-Hiya, Bev.

-Hiya.

-All right?

-Not bad.

-I hope you have four beautiful baby otter eyes to show me.

-I have.

They are a lot bigger than last time, a lot noisier and a lot bigger.

They are bigger! But still just as cute.

Have a hold. They're a bit wiggly. They know it's tea time.

That's the cutest thing I've ever seen in my life.

Let's look at their eyes. Open!

-How good is their eyesight, then?

-I think it's quite good.

-They know where things are. I'm just going to feed one.

-OK.

I'll just shut this one in so they don't make too much noise.

They're getting more inquisitive. They want to have a good look around.

I've just got to get the milk in. This is the boy.

-This is Kasem.

-OK.

Oh, look...!

I can't get over that. That is so cute.

-So not on solids yet.

-Not on solids yet. They will be next week.

We try to introduce them to solid food, cat food, basically.

Kasem's definitely enjoying his milk. But Sumalee's calling.

They've got a bond with each other. She's just wondering where he is.

-Is being part of the family important to them?

-Oh, yeah.

They do stick together. Usually, if babies are abandoned,

older brothers and sisters look after them.

When might you introduce them back into the family?

We hope when they're a lot bigger. Once they've learnt to swim,

that's when we'll introduce them.

I think Kasem's had enough. We'll just pop him back in.

There you go there. And this is the girl.

-Aww, the little screams.

-Do you want to have a hold of her?

You don't have to ask me twice! So incredibly cute.

-Do you want to have a go? Just support her.

-Like this?

-Let me try and get near her mouth.

-This is quite tricky!

-If I put her down like...

-She's very good at running away.

You hold her, I'll try to feed her.

OK.

Come on, come on.

Come on, Sumalee. Take your milk.

Do you think that she knows it's milk? Will she smell it?

-Let me get it into her mouth.

-You'd better do it. You're a pro.

-What kind of milk is that?

-This is puppy rearing milk.

We feed them every four hours now, so that's quite good.

-How long before they're on solids?

-Hopefully, about 60 days.

They're about 47 days old now. So hopefully in the next week or so.

Bits of meat and things and cat meat.

-They're developing little webbed feet.

-Yeah, ready for swimming.

And their little short claws as well, which are quite sharp.

-Will these guys make really good swimmers?

-They should do.

-When will you teach them to swim?

-It'll probably be in a week's time.

-Can we come back and see the park's cutest babies learn to swim?

-Yeah.

Brilliant. I'll bring my arm bands!

Our Roar Rangers today are a brother and sister team.

Rickneet and Tanya.

I am really excited doing this. I've talked about it for a while!

But are they ready for the challenges ahead?

One thing I wouldn't like to do

is stepping on animals' poo and wee.

Sorry, Tanya, this is Roar Rangers. There's always poo and wee to clean.

The only question is: what kind?

"Rickneet and Tanya, today you are going to be tiger keepers.

"It will be grrrrreat!"

I can't wait to see the tigers. The tiger's my favourite animal.

They have three tigers at Longleat - Soundari, Svetli and Shouri.

They're all sisters from the same litter, Siberian or Amur tigers,

which is the largest kind of cat in the world

from the forests of Eastern Russia and China.

With centuries of hunting combined with habitat loss,

the Amur tiger is now an endangered species.

Hello. I'm Bob. We've got a nice little job for you.

-Shall we go off and do it?

-Yes.

-Right.

The tigers have gone outside, so their bedroom needs to be cleaned.

-I want you to grab a pitchfork each. All right?

-Yeah.

Now you've got to chuck all this muck into that pen.

Eeeew!

There's wee everywhere on the floor in the enclosures.

And also the smell. It's... I don't like it.

You're lucky this isn't smellovision. Tiger wee does stink.

In fact, it's famous for the pong.

Come on, then.

You're doing really well. Once you start moving it, the smell hits you.

Yeah!

It makes my eyes a bit weak. They get a bit teary.

There's a good reason why it stinks.

Tigers are fiercely territorial.

They use urine to mark their patch.

The smell tells other tigers to keep out.

The smell's getting into my nose!

And the scent needs to be strong to be smelt at a distance

and so it lasts a long time.

Pitchforking is done with now. We sweep up now.

All right. A couple of brushes.

You've got an unfair advantage.

I tell you what - hold on.

-I've got a special brush just for you. There you go.

-Thank you.

Carry on, then.

-I don't think you're enjoying this.

-Not really!

-Are you sweating yet?

-No.

-Then you're not working hard enough!

- It's harder than I thought. - It's even more stinky now.

With all the dirty stuff cleared away,

it's time to make fresh beds for the tigers.

Right. So that's nice and fluffy. Nice and soft.

-Did you want to sleep on it?

-No!

No? Our tigers would love it. Come on, then.

The Roar Rangers have survived the dirty work.

Soon they'll get close

to three of the most terrifying creatures on Earth.

Maybe too close for comfort.

ROAR

What's a leopard with no spots? Spotless.

SEAL BARKS

What do frogs eat with their hamburgers? French flies.

Aaargh!

-What do you call a vampire's favourite dog?

-I don't know.

A bloodhound.

Back at Meerkat Mountain, the five babies are learning how to survive.

The adults show them how to find food and look for predators.

But there's one point in the day when it's too dangerous

to be near the grown-ups.

When they're fed a meal of meat,

the meerkats go into a feeding frenzy.

It can be very dangerous.

They grab the food. The babies will not let go of it.

They turn like helicopter blades.

They get whacked against the concrete, the metalwork...

So for the babies' safety, they must be separated into their own pen.

Four.

And five.

With the babies out of the way, feeding can begin.

Meerkats are omnivores - they eat everything, meat and vegetables.

But when it's meat time, they go completely wild.

It's every meerkat for themselves.

The youngsters wouldn't stand a chance of getting any of the food.

But they are ready to eat meat, so they get their own.

We're giving them bits of chicken, basically.

It helps them grow a lot faster. It's got everything their diet needs.

-We'll make sure each one gets one.

-They learn by copying the adults

so the meerkat meat mayhem is just as frenzied, only smaller.

Because they're quite big pieces,

it does take them a long time to eat.

It would be very hard for one of the babies to grab hold of two

because it takes so long to get through the first one.

Normally, after that they're full, so it is the perfect size for them.

When the meat's been devoured,

the meerkats go back to being a big, happy mob.

Then they all go back outside to practise their survival training,

play around and just relax.

It's Rani! I've come down to see the bongos. As they're so elusive,

-I thought I'd beat them at their own game. Dan, good disguise?

-Yeah,

-but they'd rather eat it.

-Thanks, Dan.

We say they're really elusive, but look. We've got a real treat.

They're up close to munch on their tasty browse. This is rare.

Yeah, definitely. We've got all this open space,

but they often go down to our bit that's covered in trees.

So when people come here, it can be a bit pot luck, really,

-whether you see them or not.

-This one's coming over for a snack.

He may eat it from the truck.

If you just keep it at arm's length.

-Are they quite feisty as well as quite nervy?

-They can be.

I've never been so close to a bongo.

Do you know, another reason you probably can't see them out here

-is I imagine they have really good hearing.

-They have got huge ears.

Very good for hearing, for hearing predators and stuff.

Also why we never see them is they know we're there before we get there.

They can go off and hide from their predators.

Last resort, if a predator comes up to them or gets near them,

they would probably run away first. They're very good jumpers, very fast.

And very strong as well, you know,

-so they're quite capable of looking after themselves.

-Do I keep feeding?

-He seems to be walking off.

-Yeah.

Chuck it on the floor. It might keep him there a bit.

Amazingly, we've got two here now. Who have we got?

We've got Tombo on the right there, our youngest.

-And Harpo on the left.

-Tombo and Harpo.

-Both males?

-Yes. All boys here.

It's been great getting this close.

Normally they don't come over, but here you appreciate their beauty.

Thanks very much.

If you like animals, get an animal park of your own.

Just go to the Roar game on the CBBC website.

It's easy to get started and great fun.

Now, though, make a note of this.

That's today's cheat code.

You'll soon see how to use it.

Good luck and have fun.

Back up in Tiger Territory, Rickneet and Tanya are coming face-to-face

with three of the most terrifying animals on Earth.

Soundari, Svetli and Shouri have now come into the house

and it's tea time.

Right...

First, I'll introduce you to the tigers, then we get down to work.

OK.

TIGER ROARS

-I told you they were friendly!

-That was loud,

louder than your television could ever play back.

A tiger roar can be hears well over 3 kilometres away.

And there's a lot of bass in it,

which at this rate makes your whole body vibrate.

It's believed that one reason they have this incredible roar

is to petrify their victims

and make them freeze with sheer terror.

No wonder the rangers look a little worried.

But they are safe with Bob, who is a trained keeper,

-looking after tigers for 20 years.

-Quite impressive.

-Yeah.

I'm a bit scared. They're quite grumpy and roaring at us.

I don't think they really want us here!

I felt a bit nervous. They were just jumping at us.

Are they hostile or just hungry? Rickneet and Tanya will find out.

Right, then, kids.

If you put some gloves on, all right? Here's a pair for you.

And a pair for you. What we have is a small chunk of meat.

It's just a treat for them.

Also, we can hide medication in there.

If we need to give them worming tablets or some antibiotics,

we can hide it in there and they don't know they're having it.

-Shall we feed them? Who's going first?

-Hold on, Bob!

You're used to the tigers, but the rangers just got here.

They're still recovering from the roars!

Go on, then. It's all right. I'm here.

Shall we do her first? She's up for it. Come on.

If you just hold the stick. Hold it very tight.

Right, is that a good grip? Yeah, that's it.

Just place it there and she'll take it off the stick. Don't let go.

You have to put it further. That's it.

You've fed a tiger!

Do you want to have a go? Nice, tight grip.

See if she takes it.

That's taller than you.

Amur tigers are huge. They can be up to three metres long,

not including the tail. That's more than both Roar Rangers put together.

Right, one reason why we do this

is so we can have a better look at certain parts of them.

If you hold it up, get closer...

-ROAR

-All right, grumpy. See the claws?

Hey, hey. See how sharp they are? The claws do all the damage.

Each claw is up to 4cm long.

They're sharp as knives and they have 18 of them.

When a tiger goes in for the kill,

the prey doesn't stand a chance.

Looks like this tiger wants something bigger than meat chunks.

But now it's time for Rickneet and Tanya to head off.

-What did they make of the day?

-It has been a dream for me.

And they're endangered. There aren't many left in the wild.

It's good to have a chance before they're all gone.

Rickneet and Tanya were very good. The growling is nothing to me,

but to someone who's never experienced it, it's frightening.

Being a tiger keeper was a bit scary and a bit fun.

Cleaning and sweeping was OK, but it was quite stinky

and the smell of the wee got to your eyes and nose.

I have lots of respect for Bob and what he has to do every day.

I'd invite them back to do it again so I don't have to!

Time is nearly up on today's show, but we thought we'd grab Ryan

and find out how the three very cute and hairy zebra foals are doing.

-Ryan, how are they?

-We couldn't ask for better. The births were fine.

The mums are rearing them well, they're integrating.

-Everything's perfect.

-Lovely.

-We've got three girls.

-Have you given them a name?

-Yes, Kichaa, Kimbia and Kabibi.

-How old are they now then?

-From 4 months to about 4 weeks.

-What does their future hold?

-Hopefully, we can keep them here.

It would be nice if they all spent the rest of their days with us here.

You said potentially you could keep them and they are doing well.

Is everyone bonding well? Do camels and zebras get on?

As you can see, as soon as Caroline starts coming over,

the zebras give her space. They're looking out for their foals.

An adult zebra wouldn't worry.

They spend all day and all night out here, so they have a relationship.

It's great to see them doing well.

For now, check what's coming up on the next episode of Roar.

For the first time with giraffes,

we'll show you the miracle of birth in broad daylight.

It's staggering footage.

-'Meanwhile it'll be us...'

-Aaargh!

-'against the keeper.'

-Aaaargh!

'The team want answers on camels.

'And we'll go all touchy-feely with a giant tarantula.

'Furry friend or eight-legged creep? You decide.'

Subtitles by Subtext for Red Bee Media Ltd - 2011

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