Episode 31 Roar

Coming up, we've been following the hand-reared baby otters

ever since they were born,

but today they're reunited with their parents.

Will they remember them or attack them?

# Like a butterfly... #

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

-And I'm Johny.

-Aren't we a pair of beauties?

-Let's get the show off to a flying start.

The butterflies aren't bad either, are they?

It's all change today on Roar with new arrivals at the safari park.

If you think baby otters are cute,

then just wait till you meet the new baby rhino.

Sally the sea lion is another newcomer,

but how will she get on when she meets the rest of the splash

down at Half Mile Lake?

And it's the first time we've seen these animals.

They're called mara and have just had babies.

We'll be meeting them in a moment.

But first, Half Mile Lake on the edge of the safari park

is probably the wildest stretch of water in the whole country.

Most lakes have ducks and swans on them, but here there are hippos,

a gorilla, and five Californian sea lions, swimming free.

and today, a new resident is about to move in,

Sally the sea lion.

She's come in as part of the park's breeding programme.

I'm with keeper Mark now. Hi, Mark. What's the plan for Sally here?

Well, we've got to know her now, she's been here for a few months.

-Right.

-So she knows us very well.

So now what we're going to do is move her down to another pen

down at the lake so that the others can meet her through the fence,

then she'll make the next transition out with the others.

-She's quite a chatty one, isn't she?

-Yes, mouth almighty, this one.

-Is everything going fine? Is she all healthy, all well?

-Yes, very good.

She's had a very heavy moult, so she's quite patchy.

but that will grow back very soon. Apart from that she's been brilliant.

OK, how are you going to get her from here, down there?

-Are we going to walk her? No?

-No, we've got a box outside

on the end of the pen and we're going to hopefully

sweet talk her into that.

How can I help, because I can't speak sea lion?

If you come outside with Sarah,

she'll have some fish and you two can call her in, hopefully.

And myself and Luke will work the doors and shut her in.

All right, it sounds like you've got everything worked out.

I'll go over to Sarah, then. Sarah, I'm here to help.

It's a big day for Sally, but before she can meet the other sea lions,

first she must be tempted into the travel crate.

I can see Mark and Luke poised with the shutter.

If you hold on to this and if you could waggle it in front of there,

just to tempt her in. That's it. Come on, Sally. Sally, darling.

We're just trying to tempt her over for the moment.

It's not quite working.

So if we have a go at lifting the door up a little bit.

If I lift this up, you hold the fish underneath, so she can get it.

-They do bite, don't they?

-They do indeed.

That's it. Good girl, Sally. Do you want to get another bit?

Just watch out for her bum, just watch out for her bum.

-OK, another bit?

-That's it, door's coming down at the back. That's it.

She's in. Wonderful.

She's gone in nice and calmly, she's not distressed.

Well, she's in there, she seems OK. What's the plan now?

The plan now, if you don't mind,

is we need a hand lifting her onto the back of our truck.

All right, we'd better do it sharpish.

Join us later in the show

and Sally will be sniffing her new pals.

Come on, then. Come on, Mark, you can help, too.

'So far everything has gone swimmingly,'

but how will Sally react when she meets the grown-up sea lions

down at Half Mile Lake? Don't go away.

This series we've been really lucky to film

so many baby animals born here at the safari park.

In case you missed any, here's a reminder.

Deputy head of the safari park Ian Turner

is delighted with all the new arrivals,

but there's one baby he longs for in particular.

A baby rhino is very, very special.

Of all the animals we've got in the safari park,

if I could have one wish for one baby,

it would be a baby rhino, for sure.

But today his dream is about to come true.

After a 24-hour journey, two new females are arriving at the park.

They're part of an international breeding programme

for the white rhino, and one of them is a baby.

Ebon is just one year old and has come from a zoo in Germany.

She might be small, but she still weighs 600kg.

That's the same as eight of me.

Keith Harris is head of the safari park.

We've got to make sure we've got the box as close as possible,

so she hasn't got any gaps either side to stick her nose out.

It's just a matter of manoeuvring.

Inside, the keepers are preparing a nice warm bed for her.

Good girl.

Being young, Ebon is naturally curious,

and is very keen to get out of her crate to stretch her legs

and explore her new home.

Ian is chuffed with the new arrival.

Yeah, it went very well.

I mean, obviously the baby is really cute. That is a mega-cute baby.

We've had a bit of a cuddle with her, she's quietened down.

The other one is being unloaded now, but she'll be fine.

The German keepers have come over to help settle in baby Ebon.

They know her well, since they've hand-reared her from birth.

Ebon came in quietly, but will the other rhino,

four-year-old Cara, be so easy?

She's nervous of her new surroundings.

Suddenly, she changes her mind and walks into the rhino house.

Ian's thrilled with the new arrivals,

and is very excited about what the future may hold.

It's going to be a bit stressy the first few days

with all the noise and bits going on.

Eventually, and it won't be done overnight, it is a long process,

but the plan is they'll grow up in a herd of rhinos together

and they'll get pregnant and have babies of their own.

For now, little Ebon needs lots of love and attention,

and the keepers will have to learn how to bottle-feed her.

We'll follow both the new arrivals over the next few programmes.

Over this series I've been lucky enough to be involved

with the hand-rearing of two of the park's cutest animals,

the baby otters. I saw them when they first opened their eyes.

I saw them when they had their first swimming lesson.

And now I'm here with surrogate mum Bev to see another big day.

What is going on today?

We're actually going to mix Mum and Dad with the baby otters.

I'm going to go in, open the slider and see if they come out.

Wow. What makes you think they're ready?

The babies are about 12 weeks' old now, they're at that stage

where we want to get them back in soon, and hopefully they'll be OK.

What's the plan? How are you going to release them?

-Have you got to go in?

-Yeah, I'm going in.

I'm going to open the slider up.

The babies may come out and follow me out and then I'll come out here.

Because they still think you're Mum? They still see you as Mum and Dad.

-Yeah!

-Go on, Bev, do your work.

'Bev is taking a brush in to protect herself.

'Mum and dad Romeo and Rosie are very territorial,

'and they could be aggressive towards her and the babies.'

-Is he all right, do you think?

-Yeah, I think he's just a bit nervous.

He doesn't know what's going on, so he's just a bit...

-Who've we got who has come out first?

-I think this might be Somali.

I have to try to get out now.

OK, you've definitely won, Romeo, you definitely won that fight!

I'll just get the brush out. Both of the babies are out now.

Look at this, they're meeting for the first time, properly.

BABY OTTERS DRONE

-What's that noise they're making?

-I think that's like a warning sign.

They're a little bit nervous. They've never seen big otters before.

Look at this, they're meeting.

Look, they're OK, at least no-one is attacking anyone.

Just a bit of smelling going on at the moment.

You guys are related, do you know that? They're your children.

The babies, they're trying to stick up for themselves, as you can see.

-So far, so good, Bev.

-It's all to do with smell.

I think it's all to do with smells.

They probably smell a little bit different

because they've been coming home with me.

You know, it's just them. Especially Romeo.

I mean, Rosie's not too bothered at the moment.

She's just letting Romeo come over and do all the investigating.

Yeah. Well, Bev, I think that's gone really well.

They didn't attack each other, at least. What's the next stage?

Where do we go from here?

We'll keep putting them in for short periods of time and eventually,

hopefully, build that time up more.

We'll just keep doing this now until the babies are comfortable

and Rosie and Romeo are comfortable.

Well, Bev, I think that was a success,

it's been incredible to see how you have hand-reared these baby otters,

and if you ever need a surrogate dad for them, I'm your man.

Where do you find deers with no eyes?

-I have no

-eye deer.

HE MIMICS CHIMP

-Why was the dog jealous of the tree?

-I don't know.

Because the tree had a better bark.

SHE MIMICS ELEPHANT CALL

What do you get from pampered cow?

I don't know, what do you get from a pampered cow?

Spoilt milk.

LAUGHTER

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

These two are looking forward to meeting some more wild animals.

They've helped with fierce tigers, snappy pelicans and nervous deer.

But what animal have they got today?

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

-"It's going to be simply amazing."

-Meerkats? Simples.

The first job, though, is to meet their keeper,

who is also head of animal adventure.

-All right?

-Hello, I'm Ricky.

-Hi, Ricky.

-I'm Tanya.

-Hi, Tanya, I'm Darren.

You're going to have fun, but we've got some hard work to do down here.

I'm going to introduce you to the meerkats. Have you got your muscles?

-Yeah.

-We've got a bit of cleaning out to do.

They're a bit messy and smelly, but they are fun.

Meerkats belong to the mongoose family, and in the wild

they live in dry areas like the Kalahari desert in southern Africa.

Your first job is to keep an eye out for the meerkats.

They should spot you before we see them. Are they there waiting for us?

Ha-ha! Hello.

Ricky, Tanya, meet the meerkat gang. You're now in Meerkat Mountain.

The way the meerkat family is set up, is we've got a mum and a dad meerkat.

The rest are their babies, brothers and sisters from different years.

They all build up in this big family group.

If they do come up to you guys, don't go down to touch them

because they are wild.

They look very friendly and cuddly, but they might climb on you,

but don't you touch them.

We'll go round and start digging over,

and I'll show you what I want to you do.

Firstly, put your buggies down.

Can you see how the sand, where they run over it, it's become compact?

So I'm hoping what you guys are going to do...

Who's got the muscles? There's one.

Have you ever seen one of these before?

-No.

-They'll really groovy, these are great fun.

You whack it in the ground like that and you twist like that.

It's breaking up the surface for the meerkats,

just to reveal some of the bugs and help them dig down a little bit.

So, I don't know how tired you're going to get.

You see all this area here where the meerkats are playing?

Get your fork, get your twister, get over there and get digging.

Look at him go! That's great. Do you dig potatoes at home or something?

You've got the action, that's brilliant.

Good job. The meerkats will love you.

They are naturally curious animals.

Everything they find they smell out and they've got to dig up.

But if they find an interesting object, a snake or something,

they've got to investigate it,

so they'll all bark and they'll all have a little go at it.

And the other thing you can probably see they're doing,

-where are they pointing their tummies, what's up in the sky?

-Sun.

So they've got very thin hair on their tummies

so they can warm up really quickly.

They stand up on their back legs and they sunbathe.

Can you see they've got black hairs around their eyes?

Looks like they've got sunglasses on. The idea is they are like sunglasses,

because they spend a lot of time looking up, looking for dangers,

it doesn't dazzle them. So they can look up there

and they don't have to squint like we do when we haven't got sunglasses on.

So they've got furry sunglasses, a brilliant design.

Right, enough chat, let's get on with some more work. Let's get this on.

There'll be no rest for our rangers. We'll join them later

when they have a treat for the meerkats.

The next bit you're either going to love the most or hate the most.

The next bit is the bug bit.

OK, I'm down at Half Mile Lake with head keeper, Mark Tighe.

Earlier in the show we got Sally the sea lion from quarantine

and we're bringing her down here

and hopefully she's going to meet her new family.

We've still got to get her out of the truck.

We've got a bit of work to do. So, Mark, how shall we do this?

We've got to back the truck into the yard here

and then we can take the box off the back and just let her out.

Half Mile Lake looks beautiful at the moment. Really inviting,

much bigger than where she's been for the last few months.

She's not going all the way out, though, is she?

No, she's just going to come into this containment pen here.

So it'll give a chance for the others to come and meet her

through the fence and she's still safe.

Let's get her out, I want to see what she's like in there!

-See if she likes it.

-Right, then. Let's have it.

-I'm just helping here. Look at that!

-Come on, then.

-All right, then.

It is really, really heavy.

That's it. If we just go to there.

-And that's it. Do you want to open the door?

-Can I?

-Yeah.

-Jump up on top.

-Jump up on top? All right. Right...

Then just lift that up and hold it up until she comes out.

-Here we go. Come on, Sally, your new home.

-There she is.

-Good girl.

Oh, bless!

'But will Sally be brave enough to go swimming straight away?'

She has no fear! She is absolutely brilliant.

And we've got one who has come over already to say hello. Who is that?

I think that's Jo-Jo.

How long will this take to get them together and become friends?

Probably weeks. I mean, we've got no rush.

I don't want to scare her, because she is only young.

We'll do it slowly and perhaps when she's comfortable

and they've met between the bars a few times,

we might let one of them in with her

to see their reaction and see how they get on.

Generally they're sociable animals, so it's not too much trouble.

They all look quite interested in Sally

and hopefully soon she'll have some great new pals

and a great lake to swim in.

-Definitely.

-Mark, fantastic, thank you.

Is it a deer? A giant guinea pig? A rabbit on stilts?

Do not adjust your TV set.

These are new animals for us all on Roar. They're called mara.

Keeper Polly is trying to tempt these shy

and strange-looking creatures

over for an introduction.

This one here is Bernice, and the one that's just over there,

that's Bernie, and we've got little Bernard over there,

that's their first baby they've had.

In the wild, mara live in South America

and are the fourth-largest rodent in the world.

Their closest relative is actually the guinea pig,

but an adult mara is much bigger.

In fact, it's the same size and weight as a small dog.

This week, the park's mara family has some very exciting news.

Bernice, we think gave birth on Monday, but we're not quite sure

how many there are. We think maybe two, but we're not sure.

Polly's not seen much of the babies because Bernice has dug out a den.

This is where Bernice went under to give birth.

She felt it was most comfortable for her,

she felt safe and secure there to give birth.

But Polly needs to get a look at the youngsters to check they're OK.

So she's asked the Roar team for help in catching them on camera.

Join us later to see if Mara Cam gets any shots of the little ones.

OK, gamers, it's cheat code time. Today's secret code is...

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

Back at Meerkat Mountain our Roar rangers Rickneet and Tanya

have been cleaning up the enclosure. After all their hard work,

head keeper Darren has got a treat in store.

The next bit you're either going to love the most or hate the most.

The next bit is the bug bit.

Oh, do you think we mentioned the bug word?

Look at that, they're all over! So, one hand over your bucket.

You're going to get some iggly-wigglys on it.

That's cockroaches, look at that.

Well done, shake them in your bucket.

Knock that one off as well. Give it a good mix around. Yeah, go on.

So these are mealworms. Hold your hand over the bucket.

OK, so these are the larvae of a mealbug which you find in flour

and grain and things.

These are a particular meerkat favourite, they love these.

I want this scattered around in all the little holes, nooks and crannies.

I think they're absolutely brilliant, you know.

Being a zoo keeper is not all just about hugging bunnies

and all the cuddly stuff, all the nice stuff,

it's about getting down and dirty and getting your back into it.

In the wild, meerkats would spend a lot of the day digging for food.

They love bugs, but also eat roots, scorpions and even small snakes.

Your knack is now, like keepers, watch your animals,

check they're all eating, nobody's hurt,

check nobody's got any bad toes or anything.

And also, mission for the day, count them for me. OK?

One, two, three...

Erm... One, two, three, four, five, six, seven...

One, two, three, four...

It's really hard to count them because they all look the same

and then every time they move you think it's another one.

One, two, three.. You're one. You're two.

-How many did you get then, guys?

-Five.

-Five?!

I think we'll be here a little bit longer, then.

I'm not surprised the rangers couldn't count them all.

In fact, there are 16 meerkats running about in this enclosure.

It is difficult. They are always on the go.

And to be honest, you know, if you work with them every day,

you begin to tell them apart.

You can tell they have their own little mannerisms. Hey, he likes you!

I didn't notice the meerkats' hands was on my leg.

I turned around and then it just ran away.

Although meerkats look cute and cuddly,

don't let their appearance fool you.

They're very territorial and have big, sharp teeth.

Our rangers are safe, though, since they are with head keeper Darren,

who knows these animals well.

That's brilliant, guys,

thank you very much for your help there, digging that over.

The meerkats appreciate it as well.

Thanks a lot. Well done, let's go.

Being a meerkat keeper was excellent because we got really close to them

and they started to crawl around you and smell and look at you.

To see people, young people like that really interested,

it's heart-warming and a good future.

We've got keepers of the future there.

It was once in a lifetime. I'm really happy that I did it.

Our rangers are done for the day and they've made some new friends.

Back up in the mara enclosure, keeper Polly

has been secretly filming to try to get a glimpse of the new babies.

She needs to check they're OK,

so it's time to take a look at the camera footage.

There's Mum. There's a little baby just coming out of the hole there.

Just one there. There's a second one, so we've got twins.

They both just seem quite happy playing out in the sun.

They look healthy. They look a good size.

They are fully developed when they're born,

so they're fully furred, eyes open and everything.

They'll stay with Mum for a few months.

Generally, I think they're weaned at about four months.

So within a few weeks they'll be out fully,

but they'll probably keep going under the burrow

because they feel safe there.

If something scares them or spooks them,

they'll probably fly back over towards the tunnel.

We're really pleased everything's gone well and she's given birth

and the babies look healthy. So it's really good, yeah.

Really pleased that we've got twins as well, so that's quite cool.

We hope you've enjoyed another jam-packed episode of Roar today,

but sadly it's time for us to skedaddle.

Nearly, because we've found just enough time to pop here

to the beautiful big game reserve to meet keeper Bev

and talk about these beautiful ankole. Hi, Bev.

So, incredible animals here, how many have we got?

We've got 11 here at the moment.

Our oldest is Clarabelle, she's nearly 22.

Ah, so she's the oldest, 22. How old is the youngest, we've got to ask?

OK, he's only little, He's Kenny, and he's four weeks.

-I'm guessing that's this fellow here?

-Yes.

-Oh, my goodness! And little tiny, incey-wincey horns?

-Yes.

When will they grow into big ones?

It normally takes about 18 months to get to quite a big size.

But they won't be that heavy at that point.

But, yeah, they continue growing throughout their lives.

The horns are massive, aren't they?

They're one of the biggest horned cattle species you can get.

Cattle don't normally have horns like that. Where are these from?

These are an African species, but they're actually used

like domestic cattle out in Africa, and people do use them for milk

out there all the time and also for beef.

Well, I think these guys have wandered off

because they know it's time for to us go now.

But check out what's on the next episode of Roar. Thanks, Bev.

Next time, a rare orix must be sedated,

but with metre-long horns and a drug that's fatal to humans,

the team must make sure nothing goes wrong.

I'm doing a spot of housework for the otters, but Romeo and Rosie,

well, they prefer their bedroom to be messy and stinky.

And even the ants are mad about Roar, but just how strong

are these six-legged workers? Don't miss it.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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