Episode 14 Roar

'Today on Roar, when it's dinner time on the savannah,

'there's nothing the lions like better

'than a nice chewy cape buffalo.

'So, when the park's lions spot this pair of cape buffalo,

'will they go in for the kill?'

Hello. Welcome to Roar.

I'm Rani and the bloke with the glow on,

that's Johny. Doing OK, Johny?

I'm doing well, Rani. The reason I've got a bit of a glow on

is because I'm working on my jab.

We've got an incredibly hot show for you.

We'll be playing around with this. A thermal imaging camera.

We're going to figure out what's hot and what's not on the park.

Really? Am I hot, Rani?

Erm, absolutely not, Johny.

Let's get on with the show.

I'm not playing this anymore.

'Coming up today, we'll discover all about the thermal imaging camera,

'where the keepers use it to reveal the animals' secrets.'

'The Ask The Keeper kids are going to find out

'if the giant tegu is as mean as he looks, or just a big pussycat.'

'Down in the bat cave, we'll see the difference between

'the harvest fruit eaters and the blood-sucking vampires.'

Myself and Johny, we're out here

and we are looking for the elusive cape buffalo.

-Any luck, Johny?

-No sign of them yet, Rani.

-Oh, no, wait, there they are.

-Have you found something?

-Yeah.

Hang on, let me have a look.

Oh, hang on a minute, they're not cape buffalo.

That's deputy head of big cats. Bob, how are you doing?

Look, I'm no expert, Bob,

but they're not cape buffalo, are they?

No, they're the elusive cape boxes, I think.

So, that's what they're made of, bits of boxes and stuff?

It's just cardboard boxes.

-And it won't harm the lions?

-No, nothing will harm them at all.

We are in the lion enclosure.

The lions are back there behind the fence.

Why are these cape buffalo here? They don't need walking.

It's to do with enrichment.

If you put something strange in their section,

they'll focus on it. Curiosity will take over

and hopefully they'll come over and hunt them.

They would hunt cape buffalo in the wild.

Once again, I'm no expert, but I imagine cape buffalo in real life

are quite a bit bigger than these guys.

Much bigger, yeah.

Will the lions think they are prey, or will they know it's a bit of fun

and something for them to tear to shreds?

They'll know it's just a bit of fun.

Cos it's something strange.

They'll come up here and, I expect you'll see what they do.

Do you think they'll go for the weak spots of the animal,

so to speak?

Will they go for the legs

like they would in the wild? Or maybe the neck?

I should imagine with these,

as the lions are probably bigger than they are anyway,

they'll just pile them over.

But in the wild, they'd go for the calf, which is this one here.

It's obviously going to be more vulnerable.

Being cape buffalo, they are quite a foe.

They wouldn't give in easily.

They would fight them. It would be a struggle to get them.

Join us a little later in the show to find out what this pride of lions

make of our cape buffalo and how long they last.

'It's not easy looking after all these unusual animals.

'So it's very important for the keepers to find out

'as much as they can about the different species.

'Because the more they know,

'the better they can care for their creatures.

'And, here on Roar, we like to help.

'So, when we got hold of a thermal imaging camera,

'we sent it straight over to the deputy head warden, Ian Turner.'

We've got a new toy. A thermal imaging camera.

'A thermal imaging camera sees temperatures

'and records them as different colours.

'So the cold areas show up as blues and greens,

'while the warmer parts are yellow and red,

'And the hot bits are white.'

I'm going to test it on a few animals in the park

and tell the difference

between warm-blooded and cold-blooded animals.

Hopefully, it'll be really interesting for the keepers to see.

# You're hot then you're cold You're yes then you're no

# You're in then you're out You're up then you're down... #

'First stop are the vultures.

'They've just been fed, and it's not a pretty sight.

'But what will the thermal image show?

'Mark Tyre's the keeper in charge of the vultures,

'so he's taking a look at the playback with Ian.'

-There you go.

-Brilliant.

The head is completely white.

There's no feathers there. That's where all the heat is.

It goes to show what fantastic insulators feathers are.

# She's a hot head Hot head, hot head... #

'The vultures' feathers keep their body heat inside like a coat.

'But on their head and neck they don't have feathers,

'so their heat can escape from those parts.

'And that's the heat which the camera's showing as white.

'Now, there's a rather gruesome reason

'why vultures don't have feathers there.'

They need a bald neck

to get into carcasses so they don't get all matted up in mess and blood.

It's easier for them to clean off.

If that was in feathers, it would just stay there all matted up.

-Which makes sense.

-Yeah.

# You're as cold as ice

# You're willing to sacrifice... #

'Mark also looks after the Californian sea lions.

'To cope with living in the cold ocean,

'they have fantastic insulation, a fur coat on the outside,

'which is all slicked down, and, just below the skin,

'they have a layer of fat called blubber.'

The blubber is two inches thick.

So that must be a fairly good insulator for the internal body.

'With all that insulation keeping the heat inside,

'the outside of the sea lions is showing up as very cold,

'except when they open their mouths.'

That's Buster in the water.

That's when he was shouting with his mouth open.

Can see right down his mouth, how it must be warm inside there, see.

'On the inside, sea lions are the same temperature as us,

'about 37 degrees centigrade.

'But the thermal imaging camera is reading their outsides

'at about 17 degrees. You can see the difference

'when Mark goes to give Buster a fish.

'But now the sea lions are off, and Ian is on his way

'to find the answer to a mystery about the zebras.

'We'll catch up with him later.'

Earlier on in the show,

we placed some very life-like cape buffalo

into the lions' enclosure. And I have to say life-like

because it's Bob's cape buffalo, and his lions as well.

With these lions, is there one that's more aggressive

who might come over first?

There are aggressive ones and inquisitive ones.

But I think Sweet Pea or Mildred will be the first ones up.

And can you recognise them just by looking at them?

Oh, yeah. I'll let you know which one's which.

-Wicked.

-All right then.

All we need to do now is release the lions

and let's see what they make of the cape buffalo.

Are you going to do that, please?

-I will.

-All right, Bob.

All right!

They're all coming over together.

-They're mounting each other.

-Wow! That's incredible.

-They are fighting each other to get over.

-That's Sweet Pea coming up.

Is it?

With a name like that,

it's got to be aggressive, hasn't it?

"Sweet Pea. Come on, Sweet Pea."

-Oh, there you go.

-Oh!

-Look at that!

-That's incredible!

-Taking them down.

-They're killed. They're dead.

-Yeah?

Who's that running away with this buffalo?

I imagine she's doing that because she's trying to stamp her authority,

saying "this piece is mine"!

She's got her piece, yeah.

She's taking it off somewhere where the others can't get to her.

But you can see they are intrigued. They will play with it for a while.

There's nothing there that will harm them.

-Brilliant.

-They're just going to tear it all to pieces.

How often would they actually make a catch like this?

They are incredible hunters.

But, you've also got to put into the equation the prey.

They obviously don't want to be eaten,

so they will, effectively, make it a hard time.

They won't hunt successfully every day.

I've got to say, it was really interesting behaviour

when they were running over.

Sweet Pea was in the lead,

but the lioness behind was grabbing her back,

like, "Slow down!

"I want to get to the cape buffalo first!"

If you look at it,

that was practising her hunting techniques as well.

They would jump on the back of a buffalo

to try and bring it down.

Now, one tonne of cape buffalo, how many lions could that feed?

It would feed anything up to about 20 lions in a good pride.

If the food source is there,

then obviously the pride number will go up.

But one cape buffalo, let's say a tonne of buffalo,

will feed about 20 animals.

Would that last? Is that, like, a meal for a week, or something?

No, they gorge-feed as much as they can.

They can gorge-feed anything up to about 15 or 20 kilos at a time,

which is a fair amount of food.

Then they obviously go and sleep it off.

They will need to be fed the following day

or a couple of days afterwards.

Bob, it's been incredible to see these lions in action.

But they have made a right old mess of our buffalo.

There is the small point that somebody's got to clear that up.

-So, can we leave you to that?

-Oh, cheers, mate!

(THEY LAUGH)

Where does a baby ape sleep?

In ape-ri-cots!

(GORILLA NOISES)

What do cats eat for breakfast?

Mice-Krispies!

Why can't polar bears eat penguins?

They can't get the wrappers off!

LAUGHTER

FUNKY MUSIC

It's quiz time for keeper Sarah

as she's going to be answering questions about the tegu

in Ask The Keeper.

Are you ready te-gu?

-I mean "to go"!

-Yep.

-That was really bad, Sarah,

I'm so sorry about that. Who have we got here, then?

This is Diego and he's a tegu.

-We've got a question here.

-How fast can they run?

About ten miles an hour. Cos they're quite big and heavy.

But if he really needed to get somewhere,

he'd run pretty fast, I think.

Does he eat anything apart from, like, plants and stuff?

Yeah, tegus eat a lot of different things.

they eat eggs and bugs and small mammals and birds,

plants, fruits.

Even they've been known to eat fish, as well.

They'll try and eat anything they can get their teeth round.

OK. Martha, have you got a question?

How long do they live?

They can live up to about 15 years in captivity.

If they're looked after properly.

I've noticed he's got this huge tongue.

Is he tasting the air when he puts his tongue out?

Similar to snakes, yeah. They flick their tongue out

and smell their environment with their tongue.

Yeah, the same principle as snakes.

He's picking up all the different smells around him.

-Checking if there's any danger?

-Yeah, just exploring things.

Are they poisonous?

No, they're not poisonous at all, these, no.

I've got a question.

With a name like Diego, where's he from?

He comes from Argentina mainly,

and Brazil and Uruguay.

Big part of South America.

Guys, Sarah's making this look easy.

Leslie, have you got a tough question?

Do they bite?

With a lot of animals, there is always the possibility of them biting

if they're frightened and not used to people.

But as you can see, Diego's very used to people now.

So, he's a very friendly tegu. He wouldn't bite anyone.

Sarah, if Diego's so friendly, can we have a bit of a touch?

-Yeah.

-Will that be all right?

Of course, go for it.

What does it feel like, guys?

It feels like a snake.

Does it? Can I touch it?

I'm touching this big sack, here. What's that all about? This bit?

That's what the boys have.

It's just to make them look big and impressive to show off

to the girls. Girls don't have these bits.

Is it like when a lad goes to the gym to get muscles

-to attract all the girls?

-Yeah, that's exactly what it is, yeah.

Sarah, you've done well so far.

But, to be honest, this is boring, guys.

She's answering all our questions.

I think we need to get on to the killer question.

Come on in, guys. Help me out here. Right. OK.

WHISPERING

'Hmm, I'm thinking, Diego is a Spanish name.

'That's the language they speak in Argentina

'where these tegus come from.

'So, I wonder...'

OK. It's Killer Question time.

We think we've got you with this one, Sarah.

Out of a few killer questions that we've done,

this is a really difficult one.

Sarah, if a tegu was to say

"tengo hambre" to you,

that's Spanish, what would he be meaning?

Obviously Spanish because he's Argentinean.

What would he be saying? "Tengo hambre."

I'm going to guess, because I've no idea,

I don't speak Spanish, but I'm going to guess

"I'm hungry". Something to do with feeding.

You're right. How did you get that one right? That's unbelievable.

-Seriously?!

-Yeah.

Round of applause for Sarah, guys.

Sarah, I'm flabbergasted.

What do you think, guys? Did she do well today?

ALL: Yeah.

Overall, a thumbs up or thumbs down?

ALL: Thumbs up.

Sarah, estupendo! That's Spanish for great.

'Back with Ian Turner. He's now up in the East Africa reserve,

'trying to get a new angle on an age-old question.'

'Why do zebras have stripes?

'Maybe the thermal imaging camera will help decide.

'But Ian's having trouble, because they just won't stand still.'

Hate working with animals.

'But eventually they stop for a breather.

'And now, you can just about see some of their stripes.

'This is because dark colours like black absorb heat,

'so are warmer than the white bits, which reflect heat.'

One theory is that the stripes are for heat regulation,

to stop them getting too hot. Black absorbs and white reflects.

There are lots of other theories. One is it keeps flies away.

Another is, if you've a mass of zebras together,

the black and white stripes in the heat makes them hazy

so a lion can see zebras,

but it can't pick out the individual zebra it wants to attack

which makes it better for them to stay in large groups

which is why zebras are in major groups.

# Feeling hot, hot, hot... #

'The zebras aren't the only animal here with very distinctive markings.

'What will the camera reveal about the giraffes?

'The keeper in charge of looking after them

'is Andy Hayton, and he's keen to check it out.

It's quite cool, actually.

You can actually see the difference in temperature on the pattern.

Obviously the darker spots are warmer.

The pattern on the coat is to do with light and dark.

Dark attracts more heat. Light repels heat.

A lot of camouflage is to break up an outline.

If you've a giraffe in fairly thick bush,

if something's coming after it looking for a meal,

the patterning will break them up and you won't be able

to see the giraffe quite as clearly if you're a predator.

'The thermal camera also reveals a very clear white line

'in the giraffe's hooves,

'which shows it's hotter than the rest.

'This is because their hooves never stop growing,

'so they need a constant supply of nice warm blood.'

Where the hoof and the leg join, it's called the coronet band.

That's where the growth comes from

for the hoof to grow down from there.

We can see a real clear-cut, defined line in the coronet band.

There's obviously a really good blood supply,

allowing the hoof to grow down. That's quite interesting to see.

This is quite a cool toy to play with.

You could look at all sorts with this.

'But Ian still has more animals to investigate.

'Including the hottest and the coolest guys in the place.

'So don't go away.'

'Calling all gamers,

'stand by to make a note of today's cheat code

'for the Roar game on the CBBC website.

'It's...

'If you haven't tried our game yet,

'why not give it a go?

'It's easy to get started

'and great fun.'

Here in the butterfly house,

there are 30 different species of butterflies

and even more types of plants.

So, how does each butterfly decide

what to have for its tea?

-Well, I'm here with keeper Kim. Hiya, Kim.

-Hiya.

To find out exactly which butterfly chooses what to eat.

Or do they just choose anything?

No, it's quite technical.

There are certain plants for certain butterflies,

It's not always the same plant.

But, we've got some tools here

to help us try and attract a few of the butterflies.

-I like!

-It will explain a bit easier how they find them.

There's plenty flying around. So if I give these to you.

So what are these? Obviously you've made some fake flowers.

Yeah. There are replicas of some of the flowers that are in here.

-So if I give you those ones.

-Right.

'Don't tell Kim, but I'm not sure the butterflies

'are going to fall for our fake flowers.

'They seem to be quite busy with the real ones.'

This is a swallowtail, just here.

It's beautiful! Hey, darling.

You can see her drinking the nectar from the flowers.

How do they actually drink the nectar?

They've got a really long tongue,

kind of a nose/tongue type of thing, called a proboscis.

-It is basically like a straw.

-They suck up the nectar.

They stick it in the middle of the flowers

and they suck up the nectar. Then they fly off to the next plant.

You know here, it looks like they've got loads of eyes,

but they haven't, have they?

That is a myth, isn't it?

Yeah. They've two eyes. One either side.

But each eye is made up of lots of tiny little screens, almost.

So they can see lots of different areas. A bit like a fly's eye,

they say they can see in slow motion and things like that.

These guys use their eyes to see almost all around them

so they can see where the flowers are.

Well, I've got to say, Kim, even with that great eyesight,

they haven't been able to spot my flowers.

Should we walk around the butterfly house

and see if we can attract more butterflies?

-We could do, couldn't we?

-Come on.

'But still no takers for our fake flowers.

'Those butterflies just keep fluttering by.'

'Ian Turner is on a mission to collect new information

'about the animals he and the other keepers look after here in the park.

'He's using a thermal imaging camera to reveal how different animals

'lose their body heat.

'Now he's got to Mirashi the rhino.

'She doesn't have a layer of blubber or a fur coat

'to keep her body heat inside,

'so that heat is escaping through her skin,

'which makes it hot.'

Hey, come and have a look.

-So, white's really hot.

-Yeah, she's quite hot, isn't she?

'Mirashi is particularly hot

'because she's just been having a run around.

'But the thermal imaging camera reveals one part of her

'that hasn't warmed up.'

Blue is cold. And the only blue we've got on her at the moment

is on the horn.

There's no blood supply through the horn.

It's just compressed hair and it grows from the root out.

So that's why there's no heat going through the horn at all.

'But the horns aren't the only part that's showing up as cold.

'It looks like her ears are much colder than the rest of her.

'And that's because they stick out.'

See, actually, the extremities of the body,

it's just a thin skin,

and the air around it obviously keeping it cool.

We can tell by actually feeling her ears.

If it's too cold, obviously we know they're not warm enough,

or if they're very hot, they've probably got a temperature.

So we can just feel the ears

and tell what sort of health state they're in.

This is what I expected her to really look like.

She's a lot warmer than I thought she would be.

That's a thick skin on there.

So we're actually getting some white heat through there.

I was quite surprised that she's showing so warm through that skin.

'Mirashi is hot because she's a warm-blooded animal.

'All mammals and birds are warm-blooded.

'They use some of their food to heat up their bodies inside.

'But what about cold-blooded creatures like snakes and reptiles?

'Keeper Sarah's put Diego the tegu away, and got out Ollie the python.

It's quite interesting, isn't it?

Because they are a completely different colour to us.

We're all different colours because of how our body

keeps itself warm.

Whereas she's just one solid colour

and she gradually changes all of it

-as she's changing temperature.

-That's right.

'Although running around can make the skin warmer,

'the internal temperature of most warm-blooded animals

'stays roughly the same all the time.

'For us, it's about 37 degrees centigrade.

'But cold-blooded creatures just take on the temperature

'of their surroundings.

'To see how that works, Sarah's put Ollie the snake onto

'a warm hot water bottle for a few minutes.

Yeah, turn him over.

Totally different. Look.

Like she'd been laid down for that few minutes.

-Yeah.

-Bright yellow. Even some red spots.

-Some red, yeah.

We can move to warm ourselves up, they need heat to move.

They need to move around their environment.

If it gets cold and they don't move at all,

-eventually they would die.

-Yeah.

It's really important that their environment is kept

at a certain temperature, as well.

Because, obviously, if they were this cold all the time,

they wouldn't then have their energy.

So we always make sure we have their hot end and cool end

so they can find their own preference, then.

But to digest their food,

they need to be kept at a certain temperature all the time,

otherwise they can't digest their food properly.

'Which is why you'll never find snakes and lizards living wild

'in cold countries.

'But now, Ian's fact-finding mission is over.

'The thermal images have revealed a secret side to the animals.'

-It's quite cool, actually.

-It's really effective.

That's really cool.

'And the keepers now know a little bit more

'about the creatures they look after.'

It's almost the end of another show.

But before we LEAF... Eh?!

It is time to feed the park's 31 fruit bats

-with their keeper, Alexa.

-Hi, Alexa.

-Hiya.

-We've got a whole load of browse here,

where shall we put them?

If we just start grabbing a few bits,

pop them up here on the netting.

This is their main feeding station.

OK. Now, these are, of course, fruit bats.

So, got to ask the question,

why are we bringing fruit bats browse and not fruit?

Does sound really strange but out in the wild,

they will also eat plant nectars, leafs, leaf buds.

So we bring it in just for something different for them.

Helps keep them entertained,

it's not just the boring fruit all day long.

And these have got little berries on as well,

so they might just nibble them.

-Two-in-one, maybe?

-Exactly.

We sometimes associate bats with wanting blood.

But do these bats do that, or are they different?

No, no. These guys only really eat fruit and plant nectar.

They get all the worldly goods they need from what they eat,

so they don't need meat.

You do get different species of bat, though.

All the ones in this country eat little midges and insects,

they do a wonderful job doing that.

But there is the true vampire bat, he does drink blood.

Is there really a vampire bat?

There is a vampire bat.

He doesn't drink blood from us, not generally.

We drink too much fizzy drinks and things like that,

so our blood's full of sugar, which isn't good for them.

So they tend to drink blood from cattle, sheep and pigs.

Well, they don't seem too interested in our browse at the moment.

But why don't you guys go BATTY about the next episode of Roar?

-Thanks very much, Alexa.

-True pro, Rani.

'Nico the gorilla will be 50 years old,

'and we're up for a party.

'But, will the birthday boy go bananas

'if he doesn't get what he wants?'

'When she was born, the baby giraffe seemed to be struggling.

'I'll catch up

'when she's steady on her feet.'

'And most people are scared of something,

'sharp teeth, nasty sting, creepy legs.

'But why is our Roar ranger frightened of a furry little face?

'All will be revealed next time on Roar.'

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