Episode 9 Roar

'Today on Roar, we'll discover what they keep behind locked doors.

'The sinister, the scary and the downright weird.'

'Johnny, what is that?'

'You'll never guess. You'll have to watch the show to find out.'

Hello. Welcome to Roar. I'm Rani.

I'm trying to learn my lines. This goat is getting in the way.

We're in the pygmy goat enclosure.

You do realise that pygmy goats like to eat things?

But I'm in the perfect place to rehearse

and I don't know what to say next.

I suppose all that's left to say is, let's get on with today's show.

What about our lines?

'Coming up today: Lions have a great sense of smell

'to help hunt down their prey.

'But wouldn't they rather sit around sniffing pretty flowers?'

'How do you stop a three-tonne rhino from playing too rough?

'We're going out with the rhino patrol.'

'And we'll be trying to cheer up the pancake tortoises

'because they've been feeling a little flat.'

LAUGHTER

'There are more animals in Animal Adventure

'than in any other area at Longleat.

'But you won't see them all on display at the same time

'because there's a lot going on behind the scenes.

'But now, we're in for a treat.

'Darren Beasley, the keeper in charge of Animal Adventure

'is about to take us on an exclusive through-the-keyhole,

'access-all-areas VIP tour.'

Hang on, hang on. This is a secret area I'm going to show you.

You've got to wait there. Just wait there for a second.

How about this?

This is an Argentinean tegu. He's called Diego.

He's a ground lizard. And he is a bit of a whopper. Look at this.

He's quite heavy. Look at that huge, long tail there.

He's a big, big, strong lizard.

And he's also very friendly.

Can you see this tongue? They grab smells on the end of their tongue,

put it in the roof of their mouth, in the Jacobson's organ.

It sends a message to their brain that says

you smell friendly or you smell like beans on toast

or something to eat, maybe, like that.

Perhaps a nice mouse or a bit of fallen fruit.

So that's our little secret that I brought him out to see you.

I'll put him back in his little cupboard now.

He can go in and have a nice dig. See you in a bit.

The next place I'm going to take you is the Bug Room.

Don't be scared. Come this way.

This is Ruby!

Hello, my darling. Come here, sweetheart.

This is a Chilean rose tarantula spider.

Tarantulas are brilliant.

They've got these special hairs on the back.

They're urticating hairs. It's a brilliant defence.

Imagine loads of arrows that you could flick out with your back legs

and you can fire them into somebody's eyes or mouth,

if you're silly enough to try and eat it.

If you've ever been stung by stinging nettles, that's what it feels like.

Imagine stinging nettles in your eyes. Painful!

She can do that, defend herself and run away to fight another day.

You've seen eight legs, eight legs are groovy.

What about more than eight legs?

Any bids? Six? Ten? Twelve?

How about possibly... 240 legs?

Look at this. This is a giant African millipede.

Imagine having to buy school shoes for that many legs. Incredible!

And these are nature's recyclers.

These ones live on the forest floor in Africa.

And they eat all the fallen vegetable matter,

all the leaf litter and turn it into soil.

It goes in that end as a mouldy leaf, comes out that end as soil,

all nicely composted. Wonderful creatures.

'There are more creatures in the Restricted Zone, including this.

'Though you'll have to wait til later to find out what it is.'

'In the wild, to catch their prey, lions have super-sharp senses.

'Sight, hearing and smell.

'They need speed, power and agility.

'The massive teeth and razor-sharp claws come in useful, too.

'Here in the park, the lions have an easier time,

'but they still like to exercise their talents.

'Their sense of smell, for example.

'Keeper Stuart's called Rani and me down to the lion enclosure

'to help set something up before they're let out for the day.'

-What are we doing?

-Putting in some enrichment for them.

-Right.

-We've got a sack of straw with lavender in it.

-That's mine. Nice, relaxing.

-From this little bottle.

-Very nice!

-I'll take that.

Johnny, I'm afraid you got the short straw

and you add a bag of rhino dung.

Alright, then, what do we need to do?

First of all, I'll give you a pair of gloves each.

-Ooo! Lovely.

-Where there's gloves, there's always poo, Stu.

-So, what are we doing, then?

-We're going to prepare the sacks.

-You are going to prepare the sacks.

-Thanks!

So we need to get that poo into that sack.

-This is rhino dung?

-Yes.

Let's have a little look at this beauty.

-Don't let it put you off your breakfast.

-Very nice!

Eurgh! It's full of hay, as well.

Why are we doing this, please? You open the sack there, John.

Yes, that's the big question. Why are we doing this?

It gives the cats something different in their enclosure.

So they interact, they go out, they suss it out,

they see what the smells are, they're drawn to the smells.

-It gives them something different.

-Are you telling us those lions

are going to want to smell stinky, horrible rhino dung?

-They certainly are.

-Why?

It's something different for them. Something they don't get every day.

And what about the lavender? My mum likes lavender in a hot bath.

But will they like it?

Yes. It'll have the same effect as catnip would on a domestic cat.

-On your pet cat.

-Really?

-Yes.

I do believe that's the dung done. Now we've got the lavender.

-So, what have we got in here?

-Basically, it's just a bit of straw.

We'll just scent it with lavender oil and that will be the job done.

-They'll be attracted to one of these?

-One of these two.

But they are watching us, so shall we just leave it here

and see which one they go to first?

If we hang it up in the fallen tree here,

that will give them something to work for

and climbing up, having a good old look around.

It'll give them something to do and see what scent they like.

Which do you think they'll go for first?

-I think they'll go for the lavender.

-Wise choice.

I think I'd rather go for the lavender, as well.

-I've grown attached to the smell of the dung.

-Yeah?

-Yeah.

Join us later to see what the feisty females make of the funky smells.

Get your dung. Let's go.

LAUGHTER

-What's small, cuddly and purple?

-I don't know.

A koala holding its breath.

Miaow! Miaow! COUGHS

Hairball.

What does a lion say to his friends before they go out hunting?

Let us prey.

Raar!

How do monkeys make toast in the jungle?

They put it under the gorilla.

LAUGHTER

'In Animal Adventure, head keeper Darren is taking us on a tour

'of the parts the public never sees.

'It's very rare to get such privileged access

'to the park's Restricted Zone.'

Right. Come in here, but don't tell anybody.

This... is my reptile room.

This is where we keep the lizards and the snakes.

And you're in for a surprise. Not everybody gets to see this.

These are some of our baby snakes.

They're just about a year old now. Look at these.

These are royal pythons.

A big handful of lovely, beautiful, mouse-eating snakes.

These really, they're nature's pest control.

If you were in a village in Africa

and you've got all the mice eating your corn,

your maize and stuff that is there for you to have for your tea,

snakes live around the villages and they eat all the mice and pests.

They're wonderful creatures.

This is a big no-no, but because you're with me,

I can let you in. So come in here.

Have you ever seen one of these before?

This is an armadillo.

And my favourite thing is - look, they can close themselves up.

That's the head and that's the tail. In a complete ball.

And he's just waking up. Can you see his little eyes here?

Because this is a very special tour today,

I'm going to put him down over here for you

and I'm going to feed him some lovely bugs, which he adores,

and we'll see if we can get him to shuffle around.

You have to watch really quick because he does move fairly fast.

Does he want any? He's off!

'Bye, Armadillo.

I hope you enjoyed this behind the scenes tour of Animal Adventure,

but I really have got a lot of work to do now, so I've got to go.

Earlier in the show, Johnny, Stu and myself were in the lion enclosure.

And we were filling up some Hessian sacks

with some real great odours.

Johnny used rhino dung and I used lavender.

They're hanging up, we're in the safety of the van,

-Stu, can we release the lions?

-We can indeed.

Yes! Will they go for the lavender or the rhino dung?

-I can't wait! They're pacing back and forth, Stu.

-They are.

Six lions in Two Run. It's OK to let them go.

Ooo! Here they come! Look at that!

Straightaway out of there.

Now, they were watching us. Let's see what they go for.

We didn't even ask you which one they'd go for first.

-And that's the poo.

-It is the poo. Why would that be?

Well, it might be that there's more of an animal smell to the dung.

As predators, that would draw their curiosities to that side of things.

But the lavender will have a different effect

because it's not associated with food.

-So the poo was more closely related to their catch.

-Exactly. Yeah.

They look very proud of their poo. Look at that!

-They've got their trophy.

-Look how proud this lion looks.

Is that where the phrase comes from, a pride of lions?

LAUGHTER

Yeah. That's why I'm paid big bucks!

The thing is, we've got rhino dung in there,

would they come across rhinos in the wild?

In their natural zones, they would come across rhino.

Would they take down a rhino?

Are they smelling that dung, thinking, "This is dinner.

"I'll just wait for the animal to come by"?

I think naturally, they probably wouldn't try to tackle

a fully-grown adult rhino because of its sheer size.

If it was injured or lame for any reason

and they were excessively hungry

and they came across that situation, then possibly.

-They would most definitely take down a youngster.

-Wow!

They've got a great sense of smell,

but how do they use it and why is it important?

In the wild, they would use their sense of smell to track food,

sniff out other prides, territory markings.

Is that their primary sense, the best thing they've got,

rather than their eyes or their hearing?

I think their eyes are very good, as well.

Their sense of smell is probably second to their eyesight.

You know what? I'm kind of ponging a little bit -

I didn't want to mention it!

I think we should leave before they turn their attention onto us!

'Our Roar Rangers today are brother and sister George and Nicole.

'And they're raring to go.'

I want to be a Roar Ranger because animals are important to me.

I just love animals. That's my life.

I want to be a Roar Ranger to have a great day

and to spend more time with my brother.

'Maybe they don't see much of each other.

'These are the pets they have to look after,

'Angel the hamster, Eddie the dog and Socks the cat.

'But what will they be looking after today?

'Time to find out.'

George and Nicole, today you are going to be giraffe keepers.

-Yes!

-Yes!

'There's no time to lose because the keeper's waiting.'

I'm Ryan and I work at the giraffe reserve.

We are going to get some browse and hang it for the giraffe to eat.

Why are they called browse?

We call it browse because giraffe browses.

They eat off trees and bushes. They don't graze.

When it comes to animals that don't each meat,

they fall into two different groups, browsers and grazers.

Giraffe being tall with a long neck has to be a browser

because it's hard to reach the grass.

MUSIC

We've got the browse on and the trailer hitched up,

-so if we jump in the truck and go to the reserve and hang it out.

-Okay.

'The giraffes at the park are a special kind.

'They're called the Rothschild giraffe

'which comes from East Africa.

'Sadly, they've suffered badly from habitat loss

'and with fewer than 700 in the wild, it's an endangered animal.'

We'll be in an area where there are animals roaming around,

so you have to stay close to the vehicle at all times.

Do exactly as I tell you, okay?

What we need to do is put the winch on.

-Does this heave the branches all the way up there?

-Yes.

I don't fancy going up a ladder!

We need to let this bundle down.

They just strip off the leaves?

You can see what they've done. They've taken all the leaves.

And the bark as well. That's good for them.

How close will they come up to you?

When we move away, they'll be right here.

I won't let them come any closer while we're still here.

'Ryan's right to be careful.

'Giraffes can run up to 35 miles per hour

'and have a kick strong enough to kill a lion.'

See this one here, this is Doto, our big male

he's the biggest giraffe that we've got.

I think he's about sixteen and a half feet tall.

He's quite a big lad.

'Sixteen and a half feet! That's five metres tall

'which is bigger than a double decker bus.

'In fact, the giraffe is the tallest animal in the world.'

Now we've got most of the giraffes eating away happily

it should be safe to go down the bottom and put more browse there.

We can have a look at the new baby.

'Yes, there's a baby here. Seven week old Kaiser.

'Nicole and George are in for a treat if they can get close.

'We'll catch up with them later to see if they do.'

'Okay, all you gamers, here comes today's G code for the game

'on the CBBC website.

'It's wind5.'

'Have you checked out the feeding time section?

'Just answer a couple of questions to feed today's animal.

'See a special video and earn an extra treat for your park too.

'See you there!'

MUSIC

'We interrupt this broadcast to bring you a special report

'from the big Game reserve.'

MUSIC

Welcome to Longleat Safari Park. I'm Jack and I drive the tractor.

'But Jack and his tractor don't plough fields,

'or tow trailers because they are the rhino patrol.

'Their job is to guide the three white rhinos every morning

'from the house up to the big game reserve and bring them back again.

'While the park is open to the public,

'the rhino patrol must guard the animals at all times

'because these beasts are amongst the most dangerous in the place.'

They fight, they swing around, they might be near road.

They are not small, when they start running

they run pretty quick. We keep an eye on them.

'Weighing more than two family cars and with those horns,

'you can't just walk up to a rhino and put it on a lead.'

'To keep the rhinos and the public safe,

'Jack needs special equipment,

'that's where the heavy metal comes in.'

It's a big tractor. It doesn't have to be this big.

The bigger it is, the better and the more presence for the rhinos.

It has this big piece of steel on the front

to protect the tractor.

It's protection for us more than anything else.

C'mon Dani!

It's just a case of guiding them.

Just rev the engine a little bit. They listen to the tractor.

MUSIC

'At the moment, only two of the three rhinos

'are going to the reserve, the male and female

because the keepers are hoping they'll mate

'and make one of these.'

Oh!

'The third rhino here is Marashi and she is spending time

'in the big yard.

'When he's not patrolling, Jack helps her keep busy

'with an exercise class.'

I run up and down the fence to get her running and blood pumping.

She does seem to like it, but it does make you look a bit silly.

She likes it, that's the main thing.

'A rhino doing PE? This, we have to see!'

Come on, let's go!

Don't stop, that's lazy!

MUSIC

'But as the last cars leave the park, playtime is over

'and Jack is back in his tractor for the final job of the day,

'guiding the rhinos back to the house for the night.'

They can run about 22 mph.

I'm trying to keep up with them. I think they can go faster than that.

'Rhinos can go 30 miles per hour

'which is faster than what any person can run.'

'But now with all the rhinos safely back home,

'the keeper's work is done.'

'It's a bit different to most people's jobs

'but for Jack, it's been just another day on rhino patrol.'

'Back out in the park, our Roar rangers are on their way

'with keeper Ryan to put out food for the giraffes.

'Now, they've got their eyes peeled for the newest edition to the herd.'

-Oh, look at the little baby one.

-Yeah, that's Keiser.

Oh, look how small it is.

MUSIC

'Keiser is the 104th giraffe to be born here.

'He's now just seven weeks old.

'When he was born, he was almost two metres tall

'and he was up and walking by the time he was one hour old.'

Is the mum going to try and drive you off?

We're lucky because the mum, Imogen is really good natured.

She's lovely. She trusts the staff around the baby.

She's happy for us to walk around her baby.

'Keiser is on nothing but his mum's milk.

'But the others are ready for that browse.'

-Do you want this branch?

-Yep.

Put that through there.

'As it goes up, they start coming closer,

'including Imogen and her baby.'

If we'll get back in and let them eat this one.

'As soon as the rangers pull back, the giraffes are in.'

-Did they eat acacia in Africa?

-Yes.

They love acacia trees even with the really long thorns.

They've got a really long tongue and they can deal with long thorns.

It's a very hard tongue.

They pick around all the thorns and pull off all the individual leaves

without getting thorns in their mouths.

Why are giraffe's tongues purple?

Because they spend a lot of time out in the sun.

They use their tongue for browsing for the majority of the day,

and if they had a pink tongue, it would get sunburnt.

It's a nice dark colour to stop if from getting sunburnt.

'But now it's time for the Roar rangers to head off

'and leave the giraffes to finish their food.'

Being a giraffe keeper was a good experience

because they are one of my favourite animals.

They were helpful lugging the browse on the back

because sometimes the staff struggle pulling the browse about.

The best thing I did with the giraffes

was when we put up the browsers,

and we got to see the baby one come close.

MUSIC

It's almost the end of another show but before we leave you,

we've come to meet our cool mates, the pancake tortoises,

and their cool keeper, Jo.

-Hi Jo. I have to say, they really are as flat as a pancake.

-They are.

But they are quite cute as well. They're so soft.

You think they're quite but you haven't seen anything,

until you see these two.

-Oooh!

-Some baby pancake tortoises.

-That's Quanza.

-Hello Quanza.

-And that is Camwee.

-Camwee is tiny!

-I know!

So this is a fully grown tortoise, who's trying to escape.

Yes. This is Stuart. He's a fully grown male.

How old are the little ones then?

The one that you've got there is nine months and that one is six months.

And are these like those tortoises...

I know some of them go to like 200 years or something.

No. These only go until about mid 20s.

-And they only come from Kenya and Tanzania.

-Six months old.

-The shell is really soft.

-It is.

Is it going to harden up? Mum and dad are harder on top.

The reason for them being like that

is that they wedge into tiny nooks and crannies.

-Will it get harder?

-A little but not a lot.

If you feel mum and dad, they're soft as well.

The top is harder than the bottom.

Seeing these guys in action,

I think it's a myth that pancake tortoises are slow.

They're not slow.

These are reportedly supposed to be the fastest tortoises on land.

-Wow!

-Look at that!

While we try and keep up with these speedy dudes,

why don't you check out what's coming up

on the next episode of Roar.

There's big news from Gavin and Stacey. Their eggs have hatched.

We'll be getting the first look at the new ostrich chicks.

Ever heard the expression, don't bite the hand that feeds you?

The pelicans haven't!

Whoa! Who's this fella here attacking me?

And when the baby goats are just one week old,

they must join the rest of the herd.

But those guys have hard heads, spiky horns and no mercy.

So we'll see if the kids are going to be alright.

All that and more next time on Roar.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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