Episode 27 Roar

'If you don't like snakes then get behind the sofa now

'because today, for the first time on Roar,

'we're going to see just how fast a snake can strike.

'Trust me, you wouldn't want to be a mouse.'

-Oh, whoa!

-My goodness! It made me jump.

-Look at that!

Hello and welcome to Roar. I'm Rani. Johny, what are you doing?

I was just about to show the viewers my amazing juggling skills.

-I found these coconuts. Look.

-Johny, they're not coconuts.

-They're armadillos.

-Oh, yeah. I knew that.

I got you! I was only kidding. I'll just put them back in the enclosure.

Let's get on with the show.

'Coming up, most people would call in pest control

'if they had bugs in their bedroom. Not keeper Graham.

'He's got tarantulas, baboon spiders, cockroaches and more.'

'They hunt in a pack and are ruthless killers,

'so why do they roll around in poo and even eat it?'

'And our Roar Rangers meet a snappy customer

'who doesn't bother about chewing his food. He swallows it whole.'

'All the keepers love animals and each have their favourite.

'Animal Adventure keeper Graham Digg is training to be a vet.

'But he has a dark secret.'

This is the bug room, behind the scenes. Come on in.

'This room is normally off-limits to the public

'but Graham's let the Roar cameras in to show us his favourite animals.

'The creepy-crawlies.'

This is Norman, our giant African land snail.

He's really cool. He's really slimy to touch, as well.

'The veg garden wouldn't stand a chance with this fella around.'

Next we have our giant African millipedes.

These guys have over 300 legs.

'300 legs and it grows to 36 centimetres long.

'That's longer than a long ruler.'

We also have some slightly scarier animals in the bug room,

like this whip scorpion.

And finally, we have our Chilean rose tarantulas.

These guys are huge.

'A roomful of wriggly, slimy creatures

'isn't most people's idea of fun. But Graham's such a fan

'that even outside work, he's still surrounded by insects and spiders.'

Hi, welcome to my bug room, I mean bedroom. These are my insects.

'Yes, that's right, most people keep books, toys and clothes

'in their bedroom, but not Graham.

'He's got 17 different species of insects and spiders

'and nearly 100 individual bugs.

'I hope those lids are on nice and tight.'

These are katydids, a type of grasshopper species.

I have seven of these altogether.

'That's the first escaper. Let's hope there's no more.'

This is my pink toed tarantula.

'Even with pretty pink toes,

'you still wouldn't want to snuggle up with this one at night.'

This is an orange baboon tarantula.

'These vicious spiders love to bite so much

'that they're also known as orange bitey things. Seriously.

'They aren't venomous but they are very painful. Ouch!'

And these are my cockroaches.

I have lots of different species.

My favourite is the Madagascan hissing cockroach.

COCKROACH HISSES

'Most people would call out pest control

'if they found these critters in their bedroom.

'But like 99 percent of cockroach species,

'Madagascan hissers do an important job in the wild

'eating decaying vegetation. They are great recyclers.'

This is the curly haired tarantula. It's coming up to her feeding time.

She's feeding on black crickets and she eats about one a week.

So let's see if she's hungry today.

'There are 900 different species of tarantula

'and they are all venomous, but most are harmless to humans.

'They inject their prey with venom from their fangs.

'Tarantulas can only eat liquid food

'so they turn their prey into soup with strong digestive juices

'before sucking it up into their small mouths. Nice.'

Those are my bugs, but my flatmate doesn't know I have them.

She's coming back so you'd better go.

SCREAMING

'Now, if you are a regular Roar viewer, you will remember this.

'Deputy head warden Ian Turner was on a mission

'to find the fastest animal in the safari park

'with his trusty speed camera.'

'The tigers were fast, the lions even faster.

'But amazingly, it was the sea lions who won the sprinting gold medal

'with a top speed of 42 kilometres per hour.

'Today, though, we've got another challenge.

'How fast are snakes when they strike their prey?'

The keepers here have to feed a whole host of ferocious animals.

Today is no different. We've got to try and help feed the python.

Don't worry, Rani, I'm here. Where's the beast?

-Ta-da!

-Darren, that's not a python. Let's get the python out.

-Oh, this is! This is one of our babies.

-Really?

Aw, it's a baby python. We'll let him off, then.

Am I supposed to say baby pythons are cute?

-Cos he's quite little.

-I think so. Just over a year old, it's a female

-and she's called Togo.

-Hi, Togo.

-Aw.

-And she's quite lovely.

But she is hungry. She does want some lunch rather fast.

OK. We better get on with it before she thinks we're lunch.

-What are we doing, laying the table?

-Would be nice.

-No, we take them out of their holding box.

-This thing?

-This thing here.

This is where they would live most of the time.

And we put them in special feeding boxes.

-If you hold that for us just for a minute.

-Ooh, cold!

-Yeah.

-They adjust to the room temperature around them.

-Ah!

And we have this little feeding box here

and the idea is, this is neutral ground, so we don't want her...

Every time I lift the lid, we don't want her striking at me thinking,

"Dinner's here!" We want to go into an area that she recognises,

this is the dinner table, so in here is where she gets fed.

This one's wriggling around. I want to put her in the feeding box.

I do need your help again. I wouldn't ask you to put your fingers in there

cos she might strike and think you're a wriggly mouse,

so we have this contraption. This is a pair of tweezers.

What we want to do is, I'm going to put the mouse in there and if you...

-I'll do the feeding.

-You do the wiggling.

-As Mummy.

-There's a camera here.

-Hopefully we'll get a good look.

I have to load a mouse in there like that.

And hopefully, Johny, we've got that speed gun machine here.

This will give us... We're trying to collect a lot of readings

of how fast these animals go and this is a fast strike.

We've done it a few times. Hopefully we'll get both.

-Right, no worries.

-I'm actually quite scared!

-You mustn't be scared.

-OK. Here you go, Togo.

Just there, nice and gentle. She should sense it.

'In the wild, royal pythons eat rodents

'as part of their natural diet. And just to reassure you,

'this mouse is already dead.'

-Here she comes.

-Has Togo noticed it?

-She seems to be...

-She's got that tongue out. She's sensing the smell.

She can smell it. She's getting scent particles on the end of her tongue.

I'm going to help her a little bit just by angling the box. Oh.

Give it a gentle wiggle.

-Do you think it's a little bit...

-RANI GASPS

-Whoa!

-My goodness! It made me jump!

-Look at that!

-Did you get a reading?

-I did! 44 kilometres per hour!

-Fantastic.

If you release it now.

What she's doing now, she's going to eat her dinner, she wraps it up,

squeezes it. You two did brilliant. Fantastic.

I'm slightly shook up!

I have to say, I was like, "Oh, it's only a small python."

-That was actually pretty scary.

-It was the grip for me.

It kind of made these big long tweezers jolt when she went for it.

How long will it take this python to devour that mouse?

This will take anything up to about 20 minutes, half an hour to do this.

But, of course, she doesn't realise it's been defrosted from our freezer.

Her instinct is to grab it, hold on really tight and squidge it.

Being constrictors, they squeeze in and the prey breathes in,

can't breathe out and dies really quick.

But she has to go through that motion.

When she's comfortable that it's well and truly dead and it's safe,

she'll manoeuvre her body and start to eat it head-first.

But if she's getting that mouse into her throat,

-is she still going to be able to breathe?

-Yeah.

She's so well designed. Snakes have a windpipe that's almost on a stalk

that she can push to one side. She can still breathe all the time.

You know what? It's been fascinating to see this snake devour that mouse

but you could've taught it some table manners. Honestly!

Eating with her mouth open. Unbelievable.

'Our Roar Rangers today are brother and sister Rickneet and Tanya.

'These two are looking forward to meeting some really wild animals.'

Being a Roar Ranger is amazing cos you get to go closer to animals.

I am really excited doing this

because I have been talking about it for a while.

'Is there any part of the job they wouldn't like to do?'

The one thing I wouldn't like to do is stepping on animals' poo and wee.

'Tanya, this is Roar Rangers.

'There's always poo and wee!

'But what's their challenge today?'

Rickneet and Tanya, today you are going to be big bird keepers.

Let's swoop into action.

'Oh, they're in a flutter already.

'There are loads of fantastic feathered friends here

'but which ones will they be working with? Time to meet keeper Sarah

'who looks after many of the park's birds.'

-Hi there.

-Hi, my name's Tanya.

-Hiya, Tanya.

-I'm Rickneet.

-Hi, Rickneet. What we're going to do today is

you guys are going to give me a hand preparing some fish for these birds

and then we're going to feed them. So follow me. Let's go.

'Sweet. The first job today is a smelly one,

'preparing breakfast for the pink-backed pelicans.'

Before we get going, we need to glove up.

It just so happens I have some gloves in my pocket.

Here comes the really disgusting part.

We feed our pelicans with smelly mackerel.

So we need to weigh ourselves out some of this.

'Ah, sticky fish! What a way to start the day!'

Now we pop on up to see these pelicans and give them their grub.

-It smells fishy.

-Urgh!

'At Pelican Pond, someone's having trouble with the grownup gloves.

'It's feeding time, so unless you want fish fingers, Tanya,

'those gloves have got to stay on.

-FANFARE

-There we go.

'Our rangers will be feeding the adult pelicans today.

'But first, they have to get their attention.'

-How good are you guys at whistling?

-OK.

OK? Do you want to give it a go?

HE WHISTLES

I can't do it.

THEY WHISTLE

-That's it. And give a bit of, "Come on!"

-Come on!

-THEY WHISTLE

-Come on!

We've got one. And once one comes, the rest will follow.

'These huge prehistoric-looking birds

'live in the wetlands and lake areas of sub-Saharan Africa.

'They build their nests out of sticks

'and their wingspan can be two and a half metres.'

We'll start feeding these ones that have arrived already. Grab a fish.

That's it. And do your best to aim it for the birds.

They'll catch it. Like that.

'These pelicans feed by scooping up fish and water in their huge beaks.

'Then they squash the water out of the bill

'by pressing it against their chest.

'They don't have any teeth so they swallow the fish whole.

'Finally, though, the pelicans are full up.

'But there's still one more treat to come, meeting a very friendly

'not so little youngster. We'll come back later

'when our rangers get to meet the hand-reared baby pelican.

'They better play their cards right. It looks like he's a bit snappy.'

SHE LAUGHS

Ohh! With a sense of smell 100 times more powerful than ours

and the ability to smell their prey from nearly two miles away,

keeper Gemma and I are going to test out the Canadian timber wolf's

sense of smell and send them on a little treasure hunt.

-How are you?

-OK.

-First things first, I want to make sure we're safe

because they are wolves and I can see them circling.

We're perfectly safe. Any problems, we have a patrol vehicle over there

making sure we are safe. If there are any problems, I'll give you thumbs up

-but we should be fine.

-What do you want us to do? What's the plan?

If we just walk along, throw out some of the droppings you've got there

and hopefully it will provoke a bit of a reaction.

What kind of poop have we got here?

-Not that I'm particularly interested for my own purposes.

-It's deer poo.

-Deer is something they would hunt in the wild.

-So this is how they hunt?

-They smell for poo?

-Yep, they'd locate an animal through smell

-and through sight.

-That really does smell pretty bad.

I guess the challenge is whether they come over

and follow the trail of the poo. Do you think they'll do it?

I'm hoping they will. I don't see why they shouldn't. Let's see if they do.

OK, let's get back in the safety of our Jeep.

While we do, check out what else is on Roar and join us a bit later on.

What did the teddy bear say when the monkey offered him a dessert?

I don't know, what did the teddy bear say

-when the money offered him a dessert?

-No, thanks, I'm stuffed.

HE IMITATES BIRD CALLS

What do you get if an elephant sneezes?

Out of the way!

SHE MEOWS

What happened to the frog when it broke down?

-What?

-It got "toad" away.

THEY LAUGH

'I'm rushing up to the giraffery because the keepers have told me

'there's some exciting news. So far this year,

'there have been two gorgeous baby giraffe born in the park.

'Kaiser was the first followed a few weeks later by young Kate.

'The keepers managed to capture her birth with these amazing shots.

'Now another baby has been born

'and keeper Ryan has asked me up to see it.'

I am in for a very special treat!

A little baby giraffe. I've got to say, not seen one this close before.

-We've got two there!

-Yeah.

-But this one with the little black tufts,

-who is it?

-This is our latest addition.

In fact, he's that new that we haven't given him a name yet.

Normally we wait at least a week before we name them,

just an old habit. But he's just coming up to a week old

so we'll have to think about it any day.

That's his mum there, Eliza, just walking behind.

I can't believe he's not even a week and he's there, upright,

looking at us, trying to get on the camera. He's a confident little boy.

He's got quite a look to him, hasn't he? He can be quite defensive

but he's young, so while he's unsure about the world around him,

he figures his best plan is to just assume everything's out to get him.

So he does kick. If we walked over, he wouldn't be too happy.

How old is the one next to him?

Kaiser is probably about six weeks older.

-Not that much difference.

-Not much difference at all.

-You've got to explain the black tufts.

-That's his horns.

You can see on all the other adult giraffe, they have these horns,

and him being a male, his horns will one day be even more pronounced

than these females. But because of the way they're born,

when their head comes out, if the horns were developed

the mum would have a lot of pain.

Mum is so protective, isn't she? Having a clean and a sniff.

-Yeah.

-How is mum doing?

Really, really well. We're so pleased with Eliza

-because she's a first-timer.

-We talk about mum and mum's doing well,

obviously very happy. How are you guys? This is great for you!

We're all cock-a-hoop up at the giraffery.

This is the main part of the job, really,

to see the little ones get born every year. When you see the mums

having healthy calves, calves doing really well,

and the size of the group, we've got a lovely group of giraffe,

-so it's just really pleasing.

-They are absolutely stunning.

And even the little hair of the back of his neck and the folds of skin,

oh, I just think he's so cute! I'd love to give him a cuddle

-but I don't think that's a good plan.

-No.

So we can remain cock-a-hoop, I think we should get out of here.

-Cock-a-hoop?

-I don't know where that came from.

-When were you born?

Earlier, myself and Gemma scattered some smelly poo out for the wolves

and now we're back to see what they do with it.

They're having a little bit of a sniff and a roll in it.

They've all come over to investigate what we've been up to

-and they can smell the nice smells.

-It looks like they're indulging

in the poo now. How good is their sense of smell?

Their sense of smell is so good, they can pick up on their prey

-from anything up to three kilometres away.

-That's incredible!

-It is.

-Why do they roll in the poo?

Just to familiarise themselves with another smell

that's entered the enclosure. This is their territory

and it's to familiarise themselves with it and claim that.

They will eat it, as well, because the animal that it's come from

is a herbivore, and because they eat a certain amount of plant matter,

they would be eating it to get rid of it to claim back the territory

and also to ingest some of the plant matter.

-Oh, that's gross. So wolves eat poo.

-They actually eat poo.

And they're weeing on the poo. Why would they do that?

They would urinate on it to claim that it's theirs.

Something's walked across their territory,

so to say to these other animals, "Actually, we live here".

It's a message to other animals.

Once the wolf's picked up on the scent of an animal,

-what would it do then to try and capture it?

-As a pack,

they would try and locate the animal and chase it up to two kilometres.

It has been recorded, a wolf chasing prey for up to 21 kilometres.

Well, it seems the senses of a wolf is nothing to be sniffed at.

Thanks, Gemma.

'OK, all you gamers, it's cheat code time.

'Today's secret code is:

'Type that in and see what you get. Happy gaming!'

'Back up at Pelican Pond and it's treat time for our rangers,

'Rickneet and Tanya. They've already fed the grownup pelicans

'but now a very special youngster is ready for his grub.'

This is our baby pelican.

We had to hand-rear this little guy.

So we have to look after him every day. It's a really long job.

We have to feed them every couple of hours

and they grow really, really quick. Any idea how old that one is?

-Two months?

-Two months?

-Erm, one year old?

-One year old?

You're a little bit closer. He's about six months old now.

'When they first hatch, let's be honest,

'baby pelicans don't look very cute.

'In fact, they look more like dinosaurs than birds.

'He looks a bit more handsome now,

'but he's hungry and ready for his food.'

OK, so, I'd like to think you can come a little bit closer.

If you throw him one fish, Tanya, you throw him his first fish,

and we'll see if we can get him to come over a little bit.

OK, do you want to have a go? Just hold it out to him

and he'll take it out of your hand. That's it.

There we go.

If you hold onto that one ready for when he's finished.

It's like kind of a tray in their mouth

and it slowly slithers down into their tummy.

'The baby has now had all his fish and he's getting a bit snappy.'

SHE LAUGHS

He won't hurt you. There's not much on him that can hurt you, really.

He's pretty safe. Just a little bit grumpy today, evidently.

It was a bit scary when he opened his mouth at me.

He has quite a big mouth and when you see it, it looks small,

but when he opens it, it widens up.

'Keeper Sarah helped hand-rear this baby pelican

'so he treats her like a mum. That's why she can touch him.'

These guys, when they open their beaks and slap it together,

it doesn't hurt at all. The only thing that might possibly hurt

is this little hook on the end of the beak.

It's a nice little hook for grabbing fish out in the wild.

That's all that will hurt. Other than that, they're soft. Aren't you?

OK, that's us done for the day, so shall we head off?

-Yep.

-Say bye-bye to this little fella.

'In a few months' time, he'll be introduced to the rest of the flock.

'In the meantime, he can see them from his own little private island.

'The rangers have done a superb job today.

'What did Rickneet and Tanya think of their experience?'

Being a bird keeper was fun because you could feed them,

you could see all the special features they had.

With the baby pelican, you can feed it with your hands.

And their mouth is huge and a bit scary cos it was flapping at you.

Definitely a big thumbs-up for these guys today. They've done very well.

-They can come back any time.

-BOTH: Big birds rule!

Before we go, we're going to help keeper Katrina

feed one of the park's more extraordinary animals.

-It's the giant anteater. Hi, Katrina.

-Hi.

This is Maroni. She is one of our giant anteaters.

Unfortunately Benito's not out today. He's a bit sleepy.

So I think Maroni's going to have some tasty treats.

It's perfect just to have Maroni here. She's sticking her nose out

-to say hello to us.

-These are one of the park's more impressive animals.

They're just amazing. What makes them so special?

-They might look great...

-You're going to find out.

I've got some bugs for you and you're going to see

-what makes these guys so extraordinary.

-Right.

-SHE SCREAMS

-You could've warned us!

-They're wriggling around!

-You big scaredy cat!

-Look how much bigger you are than these!

-How do we do this?

-Do we just hold the tub here?

-Do a special click for me.

SHE CLICKS

RANI CLICKS Fantastic! Call her name, as well.

-Maroni!

-She must have a good sense of smell. Look at this!

-She has an incredible sense of smell.

-Look at that!

-Is it powerful?

-It is really powerful.

-That's that gone. Go on, Rani.

-No way! She's eaten the lot?

-See what she does with yours.

-Maroni.

-They have a long, sticky tongue.

-An incredible sticky tongue.

Their tongue is about 60 centimetres long,

really, really sticky with all that saliva

and they can eat about 35,000 bugs in a day.

We saw a bit of tongue action there. It was quite long.

It's incredible. It's like a big worm, isn't it?

Are you all right, Maroni? Is that it? They've gone?

She didn't drop any of them on the floor.

How many did you say she could eat in a day?

She can eat 35,000 ants or termites in a day.

It's hard work eating them, but also hard work for you counting them out.

Absolutely! THEY LAUGH

'Only joking. Here at the park, they get fed all sorts of bugs and food

'for a healthy, balanced diet.'

Katrina, thank you so much for letting us come down

and witness Maroni eat her little snack.

She's finished and we are finished for today's show.

Check out what's on the next episode of Roar. Let's see your tongue.

There's some more for you if you want?

'Next time, when the pride of lions go hunting,

'their prey better watch out.

'We show you how strong and athletic these top predators are.

'This isn't trick or treat, it's nature, red in tooth and claw.'

'Meerkat Mountain gets a makeover.

'A giant termite mound.

'But will the super-structure survive when the mob dig in?'

'And will the killer question floor keeper Bev?

'Or will pygmy goat Poppadom floor me?'

I've just been butted! 'Don't miss it.'

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