Episode 34 Roar

-Hello.

-Today on Roar,

we turn detective when a parrot goes missing.

Is it just a bird-brained escape plan or a bid for stardom?

Hello and welcome to Roar. I'm Johny.

And I'm Rani, and take a look at our tarantulas.

Actually, it reminds me of a great spider joke.

How does a spider check its emails?

Don't know, Rani. How does a spider check its emails?

It goes onto the worldwide web.

Anyway, before Rani gives up her day job,

let's get on with the rest of the show. (Awful.)

You get it, don't you? Funny, worldwide web.

Coming up today, Johny's got a bad case of mottephobia -

-that's a fear of moths.

-I don't like them. They're alien-like.

Can keeper Gemma help cure him with butterflies?

Our Roar rangers head out into a pack of hungry wolves.

It's feeding time but what's on the menu?

And I catch up with the biggest baby in the park, Ebun,

when it's time for her bottle.

We're starting today's show with a mystery -

one that involves jealously, cloak-and-dagger manoeuvres,

closed circuit television... and John, the parrot expert.

Several times a day, John and a few of the birds

fluff up their feathers and take to the stage for the parrot show.

She's going to skate all the way down the table.

'It takes a combination of talent and months of training

'to perform in the show.'

-Hello.

-Very nice.

Give him a nice big clap for that. Nice one.

But recently, one of the newest arrivals at the park

has been making a bid for stardom.

The troublemaker is Mrs Slater.

I was halfway through a show

and I heard a noise which you don't normally hear during a show.

I know all the noises that most of the other guys make

and I looked to the side and she was just sat there, happy as Larry,

watching the show, basically, like the people were.

Mrs Slater is actually being a bit of a rascal at the moment.

She's not quite ready to join the show yet.

She's still getting used to big crowds so when the show's going on

she actually sits on the climbing frame

with our other non-working birds.

It's a ten-metre journey from the parrot perches to the theatre.

So how and why is Mrs Slater joining the audience?

After the show, put her back onto the climbing frame.

Obviously, it's a fair distance for a little tiny parrot

on a fairly busy day, so, luckily,

Big Brother was watching so we basically after the show

went into our office, turned on the screen on the CCTV

and saw possibly the strangest act

that I've ever seen a parrot perform in my entire life.

How did she do it?

Stay tuned because, trust me, you don't want to miss this.

I've held venomous spiders.

I've carried a four-and-a-half metre long python.

I've even hand-fed a pride of ferocious lions,

but now it's time to face my biggest fear...

Butterflies.

-I'm here with Gem. How you doing, Gem? You all right?

-Hi. How are you?

-I'm fine.

-You know a lot about butterflies, don't you?

-I do, yeah.

And should I be scared of them? Because I am, I really am.

No. There's absolutely nothing to be scared of.

I'm sorry, I don't understand, why are you so scared?

-What is it?

-I know they're small,

I know people say they look pretty and everything, but for me,

I think it's more a case of them... They're mindless.

They'll just fly at you and they'll just kind of land on you

and they're like big moths, really.

Moths are horrible as well, I think,

and I just think that they attack you and I don't like them,

I don't trust them, they're alien-like. I'm not a fan.

OK. All right, well, we're hopefully going to get you over this today.

-Yeah. OK.

-I've got a few jobs that I need to do

-so I'd like you to help me if you can.

-OK.

-Yeah?

-Should I be scared right now?

-No.

No, no. Here is the pupa cupboard.

See what I mean? That is just weird, Gem, come on.

No, they're beautiful.

The lifecycle of butterflies and moths is amazing.

First, they lay eggs on their favourite plants.

The eggs hatch and grow into caterpillars.

After a while, caterpillars grow a hard shell around themselves

and turn into a chrysalis or pupa.

Inside the chrysalis they turn into butterflies

and finally emerge with their wings

to start the cycle of life once again.

OK, Gem, it's all fascinating but what have we got to do?

-Well, all these pupa here have fallen off.

-OK.

-So what we need to do is glue them back on.

-Yeah.

Just to make sure that you're OK with that,

if you want to just hold one,

just to see what it's going to feel like.

Are you asking me? Can I answer, "I don't want to?"

Probably not. You're going to make me do it.

You need to, really. I mean, this one, look,

he's wriggling just a little bit.

That's...just weird, man. That is not beautiful.

To all those people who say butterflies are beautiful,

that is not beautiful, that's weird.

-He's actually trying to protect himself.

-Really?

He's saying, "Get off." So just have a hold of that.

Just, you know... He's not going to wriggle on you - look, he likes you.

-Good. OK.

-So are we ready to glue?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, definitely.

OK. Right. So all I'm going to do is pop a little bit of glue...

The keepers use a special non-toxic glue

to attach the pupa to the stick.

-So I've got this one.

-Right. OK. God, that looks like a big one.

You just lay the silk over the glue. Sorted.

And you can just pick him up.

-Really?

-Yeah.

-Is he going to wriggle?

Well, he might, but don't worry.

-Yeah. Just there.

-That's it.

-Is that's OK?

-Yeah.

-I'll just pop that on there.

-Yeah.

And that's it. And just sort of wait for them to all dry.

And then you hang them up.

The pupa stage may last for just a few weeks in some butterflies

to many months in others.

Here at the park,

they keep the pupa in a special warm cupboard to hatch out in.

Do you think that's ready now or a little bit longer?

It's probably ready. If you pick it up, pick the stick up...

-I imagine they're quite delicate.

-They are. It's all right. Try it.

-Oh... Oh... OK.

-That's it.

And just sort of hang it

on this one here, look,

just on the end.

So far so good.

But Johny's next challenge is to try and actually handle a butterfly.

Can he man up? Stay tuned to find out.

What do you call a skunk that can fly?

A smellicopter.

BOTH: Meow.

What's an owl's favourite subject?

Owlgebra.

HE HUMS

What do you call a tyrannosaurus' divorced wife?

A tyrannosaurus' ex.

ALL LAUGH

Now, a few days ago,

the park got a very special delivery -

two new female white rhino,

and one of them is a baby.

Rani and I have been popping up to see them whenever we can

but today, head keeper Andy has invited Rani up for feeding time.

I am very, very excited, Andy.

Oh, Andy, she's gorgeous. Who have we got here?

-This is Ebun.

-Hi, Ebun.

-She arrived a couple of days ago, from Germany.

-Oh, wow.

She's popping out, friendly.

Yeah. She's actually hand-reared.

Her mother rejected her when she was born

and we're just going to continue

the hand-rearing that the guys over in Germany started off.

How come you're not giving her a stroke when she's coming out?

We're trying not to get her into sticking her head through the bars

for when she's a big rhino, but it's lunchtime now

so she's desperate for her milk and she gets a little bit overexcited

and Ryan's just turned up with her milk so he can feed her now.

Have you got a bottle of milk there?

Oh, my goodness, that's the cutest thing ever.

-She'll demolish that in seconds.

-So how much milk are you giving her?

She gets about three litres at dinnertime

and about four-and-a-half litres morning and evening.

But she's eating hay now, she'll take solids now.

12 litres of milk each day?

That's enough to feed 24 human babies.

Ryan, I've got to ask,

what's it like with a baby rhino sucking on a bottle?

Has it got a bit of pressure on it?

Yeah. She's pretty strong in the mouth, like all rhinos,

so it doesn't take long, Rani, for it to disappear.

-In fact, that's just about gone now.

-No way!

Really? She has drunk that so quickly.

That's it. Three litres, gone.

-And you had to tug it out of her mouth.

-She likes holding on.

Ryan's going to have to disappear now because she can see the bottle

and she gets a bit angry when the milk runs out.

-Really?

-Yeah. She always wants more.

Aw, bless her. Why can't you give her more?

It's not good for her. Too much milk isn't good for her.

Her diet has been formulated by the guys over in Germany.

-They know exactly what she needs.

-So she's eating well.

-Oh, she's eating well.

-She's settling in?

-Fantastically.

-Brilliant.

-It's like she's always been here.

She's a real confident little character.

Bit of a timewaster as well

cos you stand there patting her and cooing over her.

I hate to admit it, but you do.

-Thank you so much.

-No problem.

Secretly, I think I'm kind of in love as well.

Back now to our great escape story. Mrs Slater keeps sneaking off

her perch to go and watch the parrot show.

Keeper John is looking at the security camera footage

to see how she does it.

Obviously this is the camera

which is just attached to the parrot house.

Oh, there's me.

As you can see, Mrs Slater is just still sat there,

just underneath the cone shelter.

As you can see, there's not a great deal of people around her,

so she's obviously waiting for it to go a bit quieter

to... Oh! Yeah, to commit the crime. I think that's her just jumped off.

So if we look...

Yeah, there she goes.

Walking like a crab for some reason.

Oh, no, spinning round,

doing a little dance...

Oh, and there she goes, quick.

And there she goes, straight into the bamboo,

just in time before those people spot her as well. Very sneaky.

Parrots aren't birdbrains, they are very intelligent birds,

who the experts reckon have the IQ of a four-year-old child,

but even John, an experienced keeper,

has never seen anything like this before.

I was very surprised when I first saw the footage

because obviously I was wondering

how she got from here all the way round the corner,

especially when there's lots of people.

I think there's probably lots of reasons

that Mrs Slater is probably doing this. As I said,

it can be that she wants to join in the show,

she likes seeing people, showing off to people,

it could be she's in love with me, she wanted to find me, I don't know.

I don't want to sound too bigheaded but it could be...

it could be that as well.

It's not a ridiculous suggestion.

Parrots can get very attached to their keepers.

#I'm crazy for you... #

But although we saw the security camera footage,

here on Roar, we thought we'd try and catch Mrs Slater red-handed.

And very soon she was up to her old tricks again.

# Bird walk

# That bird walk Watch me do that bird walk

# Watch me do that bird walk

# That bird walk

# That bird walk Watch me do that my bird walk

# Watch me do that bird walk Do that bird walk. #

It can be quite a long process

obviously getting them into a routine.

Parrots do like a good set routine.

They like things to happen at certain times.

With a bit of hard work, hopefully, she will stay here

or we'll introduce her into the show, see how she gets on.

Basically, it's trial and error, see what works and what doesn't.

'Back at the butterfly house,

'I'm about to face my fears.'

So, Gem, that's the pupa done.

We can go now, yeah? That's it. Done.

All my tasks finished.

Unfortunately not.

-There's one more thing I'd like you to do...

-Oh, no, what is it?

-Release one of the butterflies.

-And how do you do that?

If I pick him up and put him on your hands...

Or you could pick him up if I show you how. There's a couple in here

ready to come out,

they just need a bit of a push in the right direction.

Right. OK. So who's ready to come out then?

Would you like me to show you and then you release one?

-Yes, please.

-Yeah. If we go to this one here...

All I'm going to do...

So this is the first time he's about to spread his wings and fly.

There you go. Can't damage their wings like that.

-OK.

-Ready?

-Wow. And off he goes.

-Amazing.

-That is quite beautiful, I admit.

That is beautiful, even though they do freak me out.

-So shall I try and hold one?

-Yeah. You can try that one there.

To anyone watching, thinking,

"He's having a laugh, he's not really scared," honestly, I am.

I don't trust these things, so this is quite a big moment for me. Oh!

What you want to do, remember,

is get behind the wings and push them together.

Get behind the wings and push them together.

It's just so the butterfly can't damage itself as well.

-Whoa, whoa, whoa. He's OK. Is he OK?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

-That's it, put him on your hand.

-Yeah.

-OK.

-When he's ready, he'll fly.

And he's off. Freedom.

-Released.

-Released. Yay.

-That was incredible.

-I know.

Gem, I think I need a hug after that.

-Oh!

-Thank you so much.

-You're welcome.

Before this, I have to say, got the butterflies,

but now I get the butterflies.

-They're quite amazing creatures.

-Yeah.

And beautiful. I understand it now, finally,

but it is pretty warm in here

-so shall we get out of here?

-Yeah. Let's go.

If you see a butterfly in the wild,

it's best not to touch it, because, unless you know what you're doing,

it's very easy to damage their delicate wings.

Our Roar rangers today are brother and sister, George and Nicole.

They're keen and a little competitive.

I'm going to be a better Roar ranger

because I'm crazy about animals and my sister isn't.

I am a better Roar ranger than George

because he terrifies animals.

-HE JABBERS

-He's just a big mouth.

-I'm still going to be a better Roar ranger.

-No, you're not.

-Yeah, I am.

At home, George and Nicole are used to animals, with Angel the hamster,

Eddie the dog, and Socks the cat. But what is their challenge today?

-There it is.

-"George and Nicole..."

-Excellent.

-BOTH HOWL

Timber wolves were once common all over the northern hemisphere,

including Scotland.

But hunting and habitat loss has reduced their territories

to wild areas mainly in Canada and Russia.

First job today

is to meet keeper Emily.

-Hi. I'm Nicole.

-Hi. I'm George.

Hiya. I'm Emily. You'll be coming with me today to feed the wolves

and collect the bones from their section.

But before they go out to meet the wolves,

they've got to get their food ready.

-It doesn't really smell of anything.

-Ugh.

-It smells of rotten fish.

-It is a bit slimy, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-You get used to it.

-I'd just like it as a Sunday roast.

With all the meat cut up, it's time to head out to Wolf Wood.

It's one thing to be in a ranger vehicle

but quite another to get out in the middle of the pack.

Very excited. I can't wait.

I am feeling a bit nervous about the wolves, though.

-Yeah. There's one.

-Yeah.

There's one over there, and a white one there and two over there.

-Loads.

-There's loads.

There are 13 timber wolves here at the park,

and the rangers' first job is to tidy up after the pack's last meal.

That means getting out of the vehicle.

In the wild, timber wolves are known

to be one of the most deadly hunters on the planet.

The only reason our rangers are allowed out of the safari truck

is because they are in the safe hands of keeper Gemma.

They've moved the bones to where they want them

so we've got to have a look for them, pick them up.

Some of them will be small and some quite big.

So keep an eye out for them. Let me know if you see any.

There's some there.

It's grizzly work, but someone's got to do it.

With deputy head of big cats, Bob, on safety watch,

our rangers can get down and dirty.

Each week, the pack will eat 150 kilograms of meat.

That's the weight of three Georges and two Nicoles.

Ugh, it's got flies on it.

They eat a lot.

Why don't they take all of the meat off it like that?

They've eaten all the best bits, I think.

It's cos it's quite warm today,

it's dried up a little bit so they've left that bit.

Why is it that they don't chew the bones?

They do. Like this one, you can see that they've chewed on it.

They chew the big bones and get the marrow out of the middle.

That's the tidying-up work done.

The next job, though, is feeding time,

and that's when the pack will get excited.

So our Roar rangers had better watch out.

OK, all you gamers,

it's cheat code time.

Today's secret code is drought500.

Type that in and see what you get.

Treats, new animals, or even a new enclosure.

Happy gaming.

Looking after a pet can be a full-time job so I've enlisted

the help of our expert keeper Bev who's going to give you some top tips

on how to look after these guys. Hiya. You all right?

-I'm all right.

-Can I hold one?

Yeah. You can hold Maria.

This is Maria. Who have we got here?

Smudgeon, eating a bit of grass at the moment

-which they like eating.

-Aw, lovely.

So what do we want to do today?

We're going to do a guinea pig MOT to make sure they're healthy,

which you should be able to do at home with your guinea pigs.

-Where do we start?

-Let's start with the...

-We can do a bit of grooming first, actually.

-Yeah.

-Very important to do

with long-haired guinea pigs - you need to brush them.

With your one, we can give him a brush.

-There we go.

-And it's really important

-to go the way the fur goes.

-So I'm doing this right so far?

You're doing really well.

Don't go too near the eyes when you're brushing -

they might get scared and not like it.

There we are, that's brilliant.

-Am I checking for anything?

-Yeah.

Just making sure there's no knots in the fur,

because if they do get a lot of knots

it's very uncomfortable for the guinea pig.

And also, you know, you've got to be careful of mites and things.

If you notice them scratching a lot or anything in their fur

you need to take them to the vet and get it checked.

OK. I'm grooming and I think I'm doing a good job.

-Am I doing an all right job?

-Yeah.

-A pro at this.

-Brilliant.

-What else do I check for?

We're grooming. Anything else?

Yeah, we can check the eyes. So you're making sure the eyes

are nice and clear. You can see bright and clear.

-No cloudiness, no wetness around the eyes.

-What about the nails?

I'm guessing you need to cut their nails regularly?

Yes, so you have to check the nails

and you want the nails to be nice and short, basically. Not too long.

We trim our guinea pig nails every month

and you just want to make sure they don't get too long,

too curly, cos this again will stop them being able to move around.

Take them to the vet and the vet can actually trim them for you.

It's not good to try this at home?

No. It takes a bit of practice

and it's best to get someone who's trained to do this for you.

Right. OK. But is there anything else you need to check for?

Yeah. We want to make sure the nose is nice and clear.

And also their teeth, because guinea pigs are rodents

so that means teeth constantly grow, so you always have to make sure...

I can try and do it with Maria here. Just gently, just lift up

and make sure there's not a lot of wetness around the mouth.

If there's a lot of wetness around the mouth,

it means the teeth might be too long. To prevent this

you can give them things to chew on, like bits of wood,

like fruit woods,

and also chunky bits of fruit for them to sort of chew on as well.

Well, I guess all that's left to say is have you got one last top tip

for all the people watching when keeping guinea pigs?

Yeah. Just make sure they're able to exercise,

so a secure run for exercise, the right varied diet,

lots of fruit and veg and a dry mix for them.

Just make sure you're able to handle them

-and groom them as often as possible.

-Thank you for that.

I think Maria's looking very pretty.

I think it's time to make me pretty. Come on. Give my hair a brush.

Back up at Wolf Wood, and it's time to feed the pack.

SNARLING

The wolves have already smelt the meat

and have switched into hunting mode.

George and Nicole are safe with keeper Emily

but only if they do as they're told.

OK. There's a few rules, though.

Don't wander off or anything.

Stick by me, all right?

And chuck some meat out for them.

-All right?

-OK. Shall we go?

Yeah. If you whistle, they should come over.

HE WHISTLES

-That's a big'un.

-Yeah.

HE WHISTLES

Do they eat it really quick?

Yeah. They probably swallow this down in one bit, really,

one go. They're quite greedy.

Do they fight over the food?

They squabble a little bit, yeah, cos wolves have quite a strict hierarchy

going from the alphas down to the omega so when they have their food

there's quite a lot of squabbles over who eats first and things like that,

but most of the time, it looks worse than it really is.

Top dog in the pack is Two Tips.

He's the alpha male.

-Second in command is called One Tip.

-OK.

-So can you tell which one Two Tips is?

-Is it that white one there?

It is, yeah. You can tell cos his ears are a little bit shorter.

It's amazing feeding the wolves cos it's different

from feeding your dog at home to feeding a wild animal

that is three times the size of your pet

and it just makes you feel great.

It was a bit weird because...

dogs normally come running up to you and start jumping at you

but the wolves wouldn't because they're shy.

The wolves aren't shy, just cautious.

In the wild, a pack would work together

to bring down big prey like deer.

Wolves have enormous stamina

and will chase their victim for up to 24 hours if necessary -

until it's exhausted,

then the pack will move in.

OK. They're all just coming over to where

we were stood, just to pick up all the meat

and they'll probably have a bit of a sniff around

of our smells from standing there.

Coming up a bit closer now, aren't they, since we got back in?

My favourite one is that one there.

She's the alpha female.

Our rangers have done a fantastic job today

but now it's time to leave Wolf Wood.

The best bit about being a wolf keeper is throwing the meat to them.

I like throwing the meat out and seeing them come and picking it up.

I enjoyed that most.

'I thought Nicole and George were really good wolf keepers.'

They were really attentive, listened to everything I told them,

didn't do anything they shouldn't. I'd definitely give them a thumbs up.

BOTH: Big thumbs up for being a wolf keeper.

HE HOWLS

HOWLING

Dinner time. Johny, dinner time.

Thank you, Rani. I'm absolutely starving but there's not much.

Have you got more? I'm a growing lad.

Johny, this isn't a man-size portion.

This is a marmoset-sized portion.

It is nearly the end of the show

-so we've come up here to meet keeper Jo. Hi.

-Hiya, Jo. You all right?

-Yeah. You?

-I'm quite hungry, actually.

I wish they were for me. What have we got?

-This is a lovely bowl of really yummy mealworms.

-Nice.

My favourite. Who are these for?

These are for the little monkeys behind you, the marmosets.

-We've hardly got any. How many are there?

-There's only three -

you can't get them fat.

-They've got to watch the waistline.

-Can I put them down?

Where do I put them?

Put them wherever you want, on there, in the feeders...

-Do I have to use my fingers?

-You have to.

-Do you want me to help?

-Yes!

-Go on, then.

-All right.

Go and put them down. So you say you've got three.

-Who's in here?

-We've got Mike and Shalamandu.

We're giving them mealworms but what would they eat in the wild?

All kinds of things, things from bugs and blossoms to newts

to lizards to birds to you name it.

-They eat anything? A bit like me.

-They do.

They've got mealworms today

so I think we should continue laying the table

while you guys check out what's on the next episode of Roar.

-Give me a hand here.

-Save them for me.

-Ooh, mealworms.

Next time on Roar -

it's our last show in the current series

so we're bringing you the best bits.

Remember these? The biggest show-offs in the park!

But which parrot won the talent show?

We'll have poo and lots of it when our Roar rangers get down and dirty.

It doesn't smell that bad, really.

And I'll be catching up with my favourite animals, the baby otters.

But how are they doing now? Don't miss it.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]