Episode 16 Roar

Today on Roar:

The vet is struggling to find out if Gretel the armadillo is pregnant,

because if she is, the baby could be in danger.

JUNGLE MUSIC THEME

# Ha-hoo-hoo

#Ha-hoo-hoo. #

ELEPHANT TRUMPETS

ROAR!

-Hello and welcome to Roar. I'm Rani.

-And I'm Johny.

Check those guys out. They're zebras and camels. They're beautiful!

They certainly are! And we have got a beautiful show lined up today,

so let's get the show on the road!

Coming up on Roar:

The tigers go wild about some funky smells, but which do they prefer?

Meat or poo?

BOING! BOING!

The keeper's for the high jump

when the team want answers about the wallabies.

BOING BOING!

And we'll find out who's got the biggest gob in the park.

BOING!

SEAL BARKING

There was excitement earlier this year when the park got two of these.

They're three-banded armadillos.

They come from South America and they're really weird.

They're one of the few animals that can roll up into a perfect ball.

Their armoured skin makes them look like some kind of reptile,

but armadillos are mammals,

and that hard protection is made from keratin,

the same stuff that makes hair and fingernails.

By the way, you'll never guess what else is made of keratin.

But more about THAT later on.

These two armadillos have been named Hansel and Gretel,

and keeper Sarah Grayson is thrilled to have them here.

It's really exciting to get new animals.

Since they've been here I've fallen in love with them.

I think they're brilliant.

Despite their names, Hansel and Gretel aren't brother and sister.

In fact, they'd never even met before coming here.

They came from two separate zoos in Germany,

so they hadn't been in the same enclosure.

When they were here, we actually introduced them to each other,

which was quite interesting. Ever since, they've loved each other.

It's nice that they get on so well.

That's good, because the hope was always that they'd start a family.

In fact, the keepers suspect that Gretel is already expecting a baby.

And if she is, there could be a cause for concern,

because first-time mums sometimes have problems with their pregnancy.

But it's very difficult to tell if an armadillo is pregnant.

Sarah has been using the simplest method, just weighing her ever week.

If you look at her weights,

they've been increasing, so that's promising.

We're excited that there might be a baby soon.

It will be brilliant to have a little baby one.

It'll just be a really big achievement.

Of course, Gretel could be putting on weight

because she's eating too much.

Sarah would like to try feeling her tummy,

but that's tricky with armadillos.

If you can see, they've got these armoured plating on their body,

and it's the two pieces joined by the three bands in the middle.

This is just to protect them.

They're very good. They can roll into a very tight ball

and they've got this amazing ability to snap shut as well.

Anything that might get in there, like our fingers,

if they're in there and they close,

they're stuck in there until they decide to open up again.

There might be another to find out if Gretel's pregnant.

Sarah's called in one of the safari park's vets, Chris Mangum,

and he's brought some hi-tech kit.

This is a small ultrasound scanner

that we can tell whether animals are pregnant with.

This probe scans the animal and sends a picture through here

up into these goggles and I can see a picture of what's inside.

So, we have the technology, but do we have the know-how?

I've never seen an armadillo, so I've never scanned one.

This will be a first time.

Armadillos are pregnant for four months,

and they generally give birth to just one baby, called a pup.

All right. You just relax.

But right now, Chris has run into a problem.

Gretel doesn't like the look of the ultrasound scanner.

Armadillos curl up as protection from predators,

but it works quite well against vets too!

The difficulty is that you have to make good contact with the skin.

The one thing that this scanner can't go through is air, ironically.

It'll go through a lot of things but not air.

I don't think we're going to get much of a picture.

I can just see a slight image of her insides,

but where I can't get to is just the bottom part of her belly,

where her uterus would be, if she's got some babies in there.

I think, unfortunately today, we won't get a good picture.

But we'll keep an eye on her and we might bring it back next week

and see if we can have another go when she's relaxed a bit.

As you can see, there's no way through these plates.

I think she needs to go home and relax.

So, that's armadillo-one, vet-nil. But Sarah isn't finished yet.

She's got another plan to reveal what's going on

and see if Gretel's all right.

We'll find out if it works later.

MACHINE BEEPS

BOING

Hair, claws and the armadillo's armour are made

from a substance called keratin.

But that's not all.

Surprisingly, the rhino's horn is made from the same stuff.

I told Rani, but I don't think she believed me!

She's gone to check it out with a man who knows.

So, what does my luscious hair and a rhino's horn have in common?

Oh, it's giving me a headache, that's for sure.

Adrian, is it true?

Does my hair have anything in common with a rhino's horn?

It certainly does.

What possibly could it have in common?

It contains a protein called keratin, which is found in rhino horn,

also in our hair, fingernails and clothes.

I'm looking at that horn, and that looks pretty hard,

and you always say, "Back away from the bars, they can be dangerous."

-Really?

-They are. It's very hard. It's compressed hair.

If you compressed hair tightly it can form something very solid.

Can rhino horns, like white rhino horns, grow quite big,

or do they tend to like to keep them well-maintained?

They can grow up to about 1.5 metres in length.

-That's unbelievable!

-It can weigh up to about 20 kilos

with a full horn 1.5 metres long.

That's a lot of weight and a lot of height on an animal that IS big,

but it's got to be a lot of weight on them.

Hence the muscle at the back of the neck.

You see the big muscle at the back. That's just solid muscle.

What happens if they were to damage their horn?

We've got this little piece here.

It's dislodged itself from the base of Razina's horn.

It's just like nicking your fingernail, really.

Can I see this? You say it's made up of hair.

That looks like me mum's brush that she uses to clean the floor!

-And that is rhino hair?

-That is rhino hair. That's from the horn.

It's loosened up where she was sharpening it on the bars like this,

-and it's just loosened it up.

-That is unbelievable!

Looking at this and seeing... No offence, but some grubby hair,

It's unbelievable that people poach rhinos in the wild for their horn.

Why is that?

Some people believe...

-Hello, darling.

-Can I touch her?

-Just move back if she just...

How you doing, sweetie? She don't mind. That's good.

-Oh, look...

-Good girl.

HE LAUGHS

Sorry, you were saying about people poaching.

Some people believe it has medicinal properties.

It has absolutely no medicinal properties whatsoever.

Science has proved this.

If you bite your fingernails, it doesn't make you any better.

As you can see, that's all it is. It's just hair.

Well, I think the horn looks perfect where it is, Adrian.

Hopefully you can see how gentle they are and how much fun they are.

To destroy an animal for a myth is a sad loss.

BOING!

You might be wondering why I'm sat by a load of poo.

Sometimes the keepers put new things in with the animals

to keep them on their toes,

and today is the turn of the park's premier predators, the Amur tigers.

I'm here with Gemma, who looks after them. What is the plan today?

We're going to hang different scents from trees, and when they're let out,

we're going to see how they react.

What have we got? We've got some poo. What kind of poo is this?

-This is male rhino dung.

-What else? We've got the rhino dung.

And we've got different scents. We've got onions, garlic and ginger,

which we'll rub into the trees to see how they react,

cos they're quite strong smells.

So garlic's not something they would eat,

but it's a different smell for them?

Just a different smell to give them a bit of variety.

-What's in this bag?

-It's catnip on this bag,

just to see how they react to the catnip.

-Brilliant. Then you've got a load of meat here.

-Yep.

We've got meat, which we'll hide up trees and in different places.

Right. Let's get on with this.

Where do we put the poo, then? Let's shovel this poo in here.

If we put that one up in the tree, that'd be good.

What shall I do with this big piece of meat here?

We're going to try and put this in the tree.

-So I'm going to try and throw it up.

-Yep.

SLIDE WHISTLE

Oh, I missed! I'm going to try and get it in that bit there.

SLIDE WHISTLE ARPEGGIO

-Oh, no! Almost. Right. OK.

-Come on, Johny!

SLIDE WHISTLE ARPEGGIO

Ugh, I'm doing rubbish here, Gemma.

HE LAUGHS

All right. Is that going to work?

Come on.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

-Yes! Result.

So we've put the meat out now. Anything else that we need to do,

or do you think we're ready to release the tigers?

Let's get our stuff together and we'll be ready.

Let's go.

Join us later to see what the tigers make of this meat and the smells.

Keeper Sarah is trying to find out if Gretel is pregnant.

She also needs to get to know the park's two armadillos better.

They're new here, and it's important to understand their behaviour.

Trouble is, Hansel and Gretel don't do very much during the day.

That's because armadillos are nocturnal.

Armadillos come out at night-time

so during the day, we don't really see them that much.

They come out occasionally and have a little wander around

but then generally just go back to bed

so it'd be interesting to know what they get up to at night.

And the way to do that is to snoop.

We've rigged two infrared cameras -

one to cover the enclosure

and the other for the inside of the nest box.

If she's pregnant, that's where Gretel is most likely to give birth.

To be able to catch any of the animals at night giving birth,

especially these guys, for me, would just be absolutely amazing.

So with everything set, the armadillos are left alone.

But the next morning, Sarah's back to see what goes on in the dark.

They tend to follow each other around a bit,

which is quite sweet,

and they share their nest box as well,

so I think they kind of appreciate each other's company in there.

In this one, you can see one of the armadillos,

I can't tell which one it is,

having a really good dig in the chippings.

And naturally what they do is they'd listen out for bugs under the soil.

Their hearing is really good.

I haven't seen them dig like that in the daytime.

This kind of shows that most of their bug foraging happens at night-time.

This also explains

why Sarah often finds the enclosure in a bit of a state.

Some mornings we come in and there are really deep holes.

It does sometimes look like a bomb's hit it in there.

And Sarah's noticed something else she wasn't expecting.

Watching this, it's quite interesting to see

how accurately they run in and out of their tunnels and around objects.

It's a surprise because during the day

the armadillos sometimes crash into things in their enclosure.

Of course, as a nocturnal animal,

their eyesight is adapted for the dark.

They also have very sensitive hearing and smell,

so maybe at night they're just less distracted.

Which goes to show maybe that during the day

when they are up and about and running around

the background noise that there is with people, visitors in, and us

walking in and out, making a bit of sound, might affect their hearing.

In the dead of the night when it's really quiet,

I expect their hearing and senses are a lot better

so they can move around more accurately. So that's interesting.

There's still no sign of an armadillo baby

but Sarah remains hopeful.

If I came in and lifted the lid and there was a little baby in there,

it would be absolutely brilliant.

It's kind of what a lot of keepers work towards,

so it'd be really exciting.

It certainly would be, if everything goes well.

But Gretel has never had a baby before

and first-time mums are much more likely to have problems.

So, we'll be back later to see what happens.

HYENA LAUGHS

What's the difference between a rainy day and a lion with toothache?

Don't know.

One pours with rain and the other roars with pain.

-Ah-ah-ah!

-Ah-ah-ah!

There were two leopards.

The first leopard said, "Isn't that a jogger over there?"

The second leopard said, "Oh yeah, I love fast food."

SHE "GNAWS"

Why did the chicken cross the road, roll in mud and then cross back over?

Don't know.

Because he was a dirty double-crosser.

LAUGHTER, MONKEY CRIES

Now, earlier on, myself and Gemma laid out some funky smells

and some tasty treats for the tigers.

Over there we've got some garlic and a bit of ginger as well

and some rhino dung.

Over here, we've got some catnip

and then we've put some meat up by the branches,

in the branches of this tree.

I'm here with Gemma. Gemma, what do you think they'll go for first?

Oh, they're coming over now!

That would be Soundari.

Soundari. Look, she's smelling straight away! Straight up there.

-And what did we put there? That's the dung?

-Yes, the rhino dung.

She doesn't know what to do.

So she's had a smell of the dung, a bit of catnip here.

This is incredible, she's going for all the bags.

-Where are the other tigers?

-You can just see the other one

in the long grass, now and again, you can see the stripes.

Oh, look! Wow!

Incredible, she got that big piece of meat.

She made light work of that. It was quite high up.

She's got the meat and is playing with it.

I'm surprised. Once she got it down, I thought she'd tear it to shreds.

But she just had a lick and now she's wandering off.

So this is Svetli, is it?

Yeah, this is Svetli.

Oh, OK, Svetli's having a bit of a taste now.

This is incredible, to see them with this big chunk of meat.

And then Shouri's just coming up behind the tree.

Oh! She's just come up there now.

-Oh, so she's gone for a piece of meat now?

-Yeah. If you like,

We can drive over for a closer look at her and what she's doing.

That'd be brilliant. Why not?

-She's just here.

-She's just here.

This is amazing.

CRUNCHING

Hear that crunching on the bone?

Yeah, that's her teeth against the bones. She's crunching it.

She must have a really strong jaw and powerful teeth, strong teeth.

-(WHISPERS)

-Hear that? Listen to that!

CRUNCHING

You would not want those teeth...

-No.

-..gnashing on you, would you?

She's coming very close now, and we've put the windows up a bit.

She's still not really looking at us. Oh, she's coming closer now.

Let's put the windows up! It's been a fantastic success, Gemma.

They've loved all the smells and treats we put out

but I think they're starting to get bored of those

and taking a fancy to us. Let's get out of here.

There are loads of great games on the CBBC website

but the Roar game is the only one

that gives you your own animal park to look after.

So why not give it a go?

Right now, though, make a note of this.

Rain12. That's today's cheat code.

And you'll see how to use it when you get started. Happy gaming!

Boing, boing!

All right, we have bounced all the way up to Wallaby Wood

to have Ask The Keeper with Dan and to meet these guys.

Dan, we'll put you on the spot now. Are you ready for the questions?

-Yeah.

-Or would you like to do some bouncing?

-Maybe later.

All right, who's got some questions for Dan about the wallabies?

What are their predators?

Out, obviously in Australia,

they live there, you've got dingoes

and unfortunately man that hunt them,

and birds of prey as well

so they tend to hide under the trees, cos it's a bit safer.

Morgan, have you got a tough question? Tough-ish?

-Go on, let's ask Dan.

-Why do their ears turn around?

Right, obviously, natural predators, like we said earlier...

They rotate them, they can rotate them anywhere they like,

and it's just so they can hear all around them.

I'd like to know the difference between a wallaby and a kangaroo.

To be honest, their setup is exactly the same. They are just smaller.

They do come from slightly different areas

but obviously the same country, continent.

Emily-Jane, do you have a question for Dan?

What sort of food do they eat?

They eat a lot of stuff, actually.

Mainly all the grass and stuff here,

but the beech trees that are here in the Wallaby wood,

have beech nuts, and at this time of year they start to fall down

and they start eating them.

And they eat a lot of fruit and veg as well.

They've got long tails. Do they ever trip over them?

Do you know what? I've never seen one trip over them.

The tail they have is for their balance.

They use it when they're hopping and stuff,

they almost use it as a third leg

and when they're hopping, they put it out straight

and it counterbalances the front end of them,

it stops them falling over.

We've used up all our questions.

Let's get together and come up with a killer question for Dan.

-Yeah!

-Look at these. All right, jump to it.

Do you like that, jump to it? Yeah? All right, killer question.

THEY WHISPER

THEY GIGGLE

Aha-ha-ha!

That's just to put you off, Dan.

Ready for your killer question?

OK, so, a wallaby enters the high jump in the 2012 Olympics.

Is it going to get the gold medal?

Do you know what? I think, yes, they would.

Let's expand on that a little bit.

How high do you think a wallaby can jump?

Just under a couple of metres, is it?

Well done. Sorry to tell you this,

but the wallaby won't be taking gold at the Olympics,

because last Olympics,

they cleared 2.3 metres.

So I think the wallaby would be way down

which means you have lost the killer question! Aw, look how sad he is.

Makes me feel bad for doing this.

Thumbs up or thumbs down for Dan there?

Be honest. Oh!

Ooh!

Be nice, Emily-Jane. Does he deserve one thumb, two thumbs, no thumbs?

We get one thumbs-up. Dan,

you're a wallaby winner.

APPLAUSE

Although they never knew for sure,

everyone was hoping that Gretel the armadillo was pregnant.

Well, it turned out that she was, but things haven't gone well.

There has been some sad news, actually.

Last night, we came in to give the armadillos their evening bugs

and we discovered that the female armadillo had a little baby with her.

But unfortunately, after a while,

we realised that the baby had actually died,

which is quite upsetting as I've been so excited looking forward to it.

The reason why the baby died is completely unknown,

but this is her first baby

and there can be a few complications, and being a new mum,

she might not have fully understood what was happening, and panicked.

It's not uncommon.

Many animals have problems the first time they have babies

but they do seem to learn

and often they're more successful with their next baby.

From this, we can now know that they get on well enough to breed,

there's nothing wrong with either of them, so we can take from that

and know that in the future we are likely to have a baby armadillo.

It's just when that's going to happen.

Since we filmed this item,

there's been some great news.

A few months later,

Gretel gave birth to a healthy baby.

It was a girl, and these pictures

are from when she was just two weeks old.

One...

Two...

Three, four...

-Mmph!

-It's nearly the end of the show

but before we go, we've just enough time to find out

which animal at the park can stuff more in its mouth than in its belly.

Any ideas, Rani?

It's not me!

-But I'm hoping keeper Sarah can enlighten us. Hi, Sarah.

-Hi.

So who? I'm guessing it's this little fella, or little lady...

BIG GULP

-What's the correct answer?

-It's a little fella.

-A little fella?

-He's a male.

-So this is a pelican?

-This is a pelican, yes.

-Whoo! Look at the fish! It just slides right in!

Incredible, it goes straight down. What are you feeding him?

Fish, I know, but is it his favourite type of fish?

We are feeding him mackerel,

which is, as you can see, his favourite fish.

-He's absolutely loving it, isn't he?

-It's amazing!

And the pouch, it's like elasticated skin or something.

What's the purpose of it?

The pouch for these guys actually acts as a fishing net

because as you can see, it's very elasticated

so when they're fishing, it'll fill up with water and fish

then they get rid of the water

when they bring their head up out of the water

and down the fish goes.

-Does the top bit of the beak work like a bit of a sword?

-Whoo-hoo-hoo!

It does, yeah. It's very good for grabbing fish as well, grabbing hold,

they've got a nice little tuft on the end here, you can see.

-Can we have a go?

-Can you have a go? You certainly can.

-Oh, man!

-You're going to get fishy hands.

-OK.

All right, then, OK, is there a trick to this?

Hold it at the very tip of the tail, if I were you.

Does it hurt? Here you go, darling.

-No, it's fine, you're all right, Rani.

-There we go.

We must have given it four or five fish so far. How much can it eat?

Well, pelicans are very greedy birds

so they'll eat as much as you can give them,

but normally around 300 grams a day

but they can hold up to a kilo of fish in their pouch at one time.

So what you're saying is, the pouch of a pelican

can hold more than its belly can?

One of your better ones, Rani, I'll give you that.

While Rani enjoys her joke, why don't you check out

what's coming up on the next action-packed episode of Roar.

The marmosets are going to be let out

in a special enclosure that has no bars or fences.

Will they make a run for it?

I'll be meeting some cute furry little babies.

Just a shame they've got eight legs each.

And the Roar Rangers find out the downside of kid goat cuddling.

It's just farted! It just farted on me!

We'll have all of that and more next time on Roar.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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