Episode 11 Roar

Today on Roar, a huge male tiger has come to the park,

he's over three metres long,

weighs over 200 kilogram's and has canine teeth as long as your finger.

Oh, and his hair do's not bad either.

Hello and welcome to Roar, I'm Johny.

I'm Rani, and we are in the vulture aviary.

I thought I was going to be scared because vultures

are meant to be mean, scary meat-eating birds,

but look, they're beautiful. Hello you, want to be friends?

That's not a vulture, that's a vulturine guinea fowl there.

The vultures are actually up there.

Are those big, mean, scary looking things?

I think we should get out of here, get on with the show.

Coming up, the sea lions can swim at 40 kilometres per hour,

but we've never filmed them underwater,

so can the Roar team rise to the challenge?

Will our keeper get beat again when this lot ask some

bird-brained questions about the rainbow lorikeets?

# Beat again... #

# Won't beat again it's killing me... #

And do you know your snood from your wattle,

your gobble from your gizzard? Rani learns to talk turkey.

Close up, a bit creepy looking.

It's all that bobble-y stuff on his face, what is going on?

The production team have asked a lot of me this series.

They've covered me in lorikeets,

sent me to otter birthday parties, introduced me to mean-looking lions,

and have I ever once let them down?

No, I haven't, so now I'm going to ask something of them for a change.

I want to see a shot of a sea lion swimming underwater

and I want to know if they use their front

or their back flippers for swimming.

Is that too much to ask? Well, is it?

-No, Mr Pitts.

-That's more like it. It's not just this horrible lot

that will help me get this shot,

it's also head keeper Mark thankfully.

-How are you doing, Mark?

-All right.

How can we do this? How can we get a shot,

I'm being serious, of a sea lion underwater?

A waterproof camera would be helpful,

but probably should be quite easy

because they swim alongside the boats.

So, camera on a long pole off the side of the boat

and I'm sure you'd be able to get something.

We've not done this before, at least on Roar,

is it something that they'll be wary of, a big camera?

They're really inquisitive animals so I would have thought

something unusual hanging off the side of the boat

and they'd want to come and look.

So, we're going to get an underwater camera and go with the boat.

We don't need to leave it there then go off?

Probably best as the boat's going along and people

are feeding off the side, would probably be your best chance.

Have you ever seen them swimming underwater yourself?

-Yes, because sometimes the lake goes really clear.

-Really?

Certain points of the year it goes clear

and you can see them swimming under really nicely.

That's great. So kind of an obvious question,

but sea lions are uber swimmers then.

Are they specially developed for this?

Amazing swimmers, amazingly powerful,

propel through the water at up to 25 miles an hour.

25 miles... Wow, that's incredible.

-So that's about 40 kilometres per hour?

-Yes.

That's amazing. Who do you think would come up to the camera first.

Buster being the big man and the head guy,

would you think he'd come up to the camera first?

He'd probably be the last one. He's a bit of a chicken on the quiet.

The three girls would be more likely to come up first.

So anything else that we need to know

about capturing this amazing moment?

No, I think like last year when we did it with the hippos,

lots of cameras and a little bit of patience.

We've got a plan.

Join us later on in the show to see if we can get this amazing footage

-of a sea lion swimming, should be simple.

-I'm ready, Mr Pitts.

Although having said that, dude, seriously take a look at yourself.

Sorry about that, Mark.

We're off now up to Tiger Territory

because there's a new kid on the block to meet.

In the last series of Roar we filmed with Svetli, Shouri, and Soundari,

the three Siberian or Amur tigers who live here.

They're all females and up till now they've been enjoying

having the place to themselves and doing the things that

tigers love doing most, playing and sleeping.

But recently the peace and quiet of the tiger house

has been shattered by the arrival of a huge new male.

This is Turlock, he's enormous

and keeper Bob thinks he's fantastic.

If he was to stand up - are you going to stand up, mate?

Now I'm 6' 2" and just in here he towers above me,

that's not full stretch.

From tip of tail to tip of nose, he's got to be in the region

of nine-ten feet long.

Nine-ten feet! That's three metres long.

He's a big gentle giant, really.

I wouldn't want to go out there and walk around with him,

but in the house, he's a breath of fresh air.

It looks like you can go in and give him a big tickle

but you wouldn't be coming back out again.

Siberian tigers are the largest of all the big cats,

but they are critically endangered.

There are thought to be only around 450 left

living in the wilds of the far east of Russia.

Turlock has never been to Russia, he was born in a zoo,

and at 15 he's quite old in tiger years.

He's already mixing well with the girls,

but summer is arriving at the park and as the temperatures rise

the keepers want to make sure that all the tigers

can cool down if they want to.

So today it's Operation Tiger Pond,

getting the new male Turlock to have a swim.

The plan this morning is we're going to fill the tiger pond up,

I'm taking the tractor and the bowser in,

which is going to release gallons of water.

But keeping the tigers' pond topped up

isn't as easy as it sounds.

We have to get out to fill the pond up.

Someone has to get out of the vehicle to get the pipe off the bowser.

And there's another problem, Turlock's hunting instincts

kick in when cars or the tractor come into his territory.

He tends to chase vehicles now and again.

He doesn't actually do anything to them,

he runs after them and then he just stops.

So it causes a little bit of a problem.

But it's a job that has to be done.

You make it as safe as you can.

Will Turlock and the girls attack?

We'll join the big cat team later

to see how Operation Tiger Pond proceeds.

Big cats have big appetites.

An adult male tiger can eat 35-kilos of meat in one sitting.

That's more than 300 burgers,

but since a burger is fast food maybe it'd escape.

ALL: Now you know!

It's time to put our pros on the spot one more time

in another round of Ask The Keeper.

Today, answering all on the beautiful lorikeets,

is the beautiful Amy! Amy, how are you feeling?

I'm all right, I'm a little bit nervous,

-but I think we'll be all right.

-Yeah, you think so?

-I hope so.

Guys, do you think Amy looks confident or quite nervous?

-A bit of both.

-A bit of both!

All right, let's try and catch her out...

I mean, absorb her wonderful knowledge.

Who wants to go first? Go on then, Oliver.

What is their bill made out of?

It's like keratin, so it's like your nails.

It's a very tough beak, which obviously they use

to break open nuts and things.

But these birds mostly drink nectar

so they don't really need a really strong bill.

Can they speak like parrots?

That is a very good question.

They're not as good at copying and mimicking

as the macaws but they can chatter.

They sing songs and they do a lot of whistling,

but very rarely do they actually mimic words like bigger parrots.

Do they have a favourite artist they like to sing?

-Probably JLS.

-JLS, is that the kind of thing?

# My heart won't beat again... #

What's the difference between a lorikeet and a parakeet?

The difference between lorikeets and parakeets.

Parakeets are a little bit smaller than these guys,

and they are part of the parrot family,

but they're different breeds of parrots.

The parakeets are a lot smaller and there's different breeds.

How long do they live, actually?

They can live for about 25 to 30 years,

so they live quite a long time.

Not as long as the macaws, but they quite a long time.

How hot does the climate need to be for a lorikeet to live?

That's a very good question. Well, these guys are from Australia

so it is very warm, but because these have been bred in captivity

they can adjust to the England climate.

When it's cold, they can adjust and they huddle together.

They keep their bodies nice and warm,

and they get a new layer of feathers as well, which keeps them warm.

You lot have asked great questions,

but I think if the lorikeets were a bit closer,

do you think that'd inspire you for a few more questions?

Can we do that? Is it possible to get them closer?

Of course. Here you go,

just make sure you hold the pots nice and tight.

OK, lorikeets, let's see what you look like then up close.

-There you go.

-Woo-hoo, I caught me a bird.

I caught me a few birds!

Amy, you have done fantastically well answering our questions,

but how are you going to be with a killer question?

Come on then, guys,

so we're going to come up with another question, any ideas?

Hah-ha-ha.

Killer question, killer question.

Enough of the dance, let's ask the question. Amy, look scared.

Here it goes, rainbow lorikeets get their names

from their coloured coats,

but can you name all the colours of the rainbow?

Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet.

-Indigo!

-YES! You missed one out! So the answer is, Amy,

"no, I cannot name all the colours."

High five. Thumbs up or thumbs down for Amy?

ALL: Yay!

Hey, Oliver, what does Amy know about lorikeets?

Amy knows a lorra, lorra lot about lorikeets.

RANI LAUGHS

Back up in Tiger Territory and the four big cats seem to know

that something is up.

The keepers need to bring the water tanker into their enclosure

to top up their pond.

Summer's here and the keepers want to ensure

the tigers have somewhere to cool down.

It takes a long time to fill the pond up

so it wouldn't be fair to lock the cats away

whilst they did it.

But Bob knows that the big male, Turlock, can be a problem

because he likes chasing things.

Brian's coming in with a tractor and bowser,

I'm here to put the pipe into the pond.

We also have Stuart in here who's going to guard

the tractor because Turlock does generally take on after it

and try to attack it.

You can bring the bowser in now, please?

It's just a case of waiting now.

As soon as the tractor enters the enclosure,

Turlock starts hunting.

Tigers can sprint at up to 40 miles an hour for a short distance

so this is just a jog for Turlock.

He uses his long tail to balance as he runs.

In the wild, less than one in ten hunts

are successful for tigers so the tractor may still get away.

This is the difficult part.

There's Turlock just coming through there,

and there's a tiger just outside.

A third keeper, Stuart, is keeping a safety watch

on where all the tigers are in the park.

They're all round by the house, Brian.

I'm just going to get out now and do the pipe.

All we've got to do now is wait for that to empty.

Bob and Brian have worked with tigers for over 30 years

so they know what's safe and what's not.

They're always very careful,

but no visitor should ever get out of their car in a big cat reserve.

You've got to be able to read the animal as much as anything else

and these animals are as wild as wild.

They've got their natural instincts

even though they've been born in captivity,

every opportunity they get, they would try and get you.

With the pond topped up Bob now has to get the pipe back on the tractor.

The trouble is Turlock is a little bit too close for comfort.

As you can see he's right here.

So I'm not going to get out and get the pipe yet.

Just in case.

We do need Stuart just to push him off for safety reasons.

-All right?

-Yes.

Phew, Bob's OK.

Everything's now ready, so will Turlock decide to go swimming?

No, it seems he's more interested in chasing the tractor again.

Stay here.

Good boy. No good chasing it, is it?

With the pond topped up,

it's bath time for the biggest of the big cats.

Will the keepers be able to tempt the tigers to take a dip?

We'll be back in Tiger Territory in a short while.

Where do baby cows eat?

"Calf-eteria."

BOTH: Bwok-bwok-bwok. cock-a-doodle-doo.

Why was the cat on the desktop?

-why was the cat on the desktop?

-He was looking for the mouse.

Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-ha-ha-ha-ha whoo-whoo...

What do bees chew? "Bum-ble" gum.

THEY ALL LAUGH

Earlier on in the show,

I set the Roar team the challenge of getting me

some amazing footage of the sea lions swimming.

and now it's time to find out how they did.

-I'm here with Mark, how are you doing?

-Hi, Johny.

Mark, your job's safe, but am I going to have

to sack any members of our crew today?

I'm not sure, you'll have to check some of this and see what we think.

So this is on our small camera and it looks...

Oh it's quite interesting getting close to them.

So they're being fed here now, are they?

That's the thing, the sea lions associate the boats with food,

that's why they're all on the surface and looking upwards.

There's a sea lion there,

but we can't see anything because it's so murky.

Why is that water so murky, Mark?

That's just natural lake water, it actually looks quite clear

when you're above it

looking at it, but it's not as clear as you think.

I'm not that impressed, are you, Mark?

We couldn't see anything underneath the water.

Nothing to be seen, is there?

It's not a good start. Can the Roar team pull something out of the bag?

Hopefully this last bit of footage will give us what we want,

because I've not been that impressed so far.

Let's see what they've got here, this is quite interesting.

-Wow.

-That's more like it.

Now that's incredible, actually.

Do you know where that is, Mark?

Because that obviously isn't out in the lake.

No, that's in our holding pen in the yard.

You've got young Riley and Jaz was in there as well.

Riley was brought up for weaning, to come away from his mum

and be weaned onto fish, and Jaz had an injury

to her flipper so she was in here just while we could monitor her

and give her antibiotics and things.

But they're now both back out in the lake.

This amazing footage shows that Californian sea lions actually use

the front flippers to swim with and the smaller back flippers

are mainly there for steering.

I have to say I'm actually really impressed with this

because can see that the fish are coming in

and we've seen how they eat underneath the water.

-That's great, isn't it?

-How have they adapted

to be able to eat fish underwater, Mark, how do they do it?

It's a valve in their throat where they can close their throat off

and open their mouth to be able to grab the food.

Is there anything to help them eat underneath the water?

Well, obviously the main thing is speed and manoeuvrability

to be able to catch fish.

Obviously, fish are pretty adapted to the water too

and they need to be able to keep up.

You can see from their flippers that they've got immense manoeuvrability.

So how long can sea lions stay under the water for?

A good eight minutes if they want to, so they can stay under a while.

It is incredible to see footage of an animal that we only see

above the water despite them being under the water so often.

I think this is quite good

and I don't think we have to sack anybody just yet.

-We'll let them off.

-They did all right.

-I wouldn't mind a cup of tea.

-Yeah, me too as well.

Tea guys, tea quick, sharpish.

When you come to a safari park you expect to see lions, tigers,

elephants, monkeys, even parrots, but really is that a turkey?

Katie, are you serious, do you have a turkey here?

That is quite scary looking.

This is Terry the turkey

and he lives in Animal Adventure with us, he just roams free.

He likes to stay near the high racks to see himself in the window.

Really? Are you quite vain then, Terry?

-I've got to say close up, a bit creepy looking.

-A little bit scary.

It's all that kind of bobble-y stuff on his face.

What is going on and what's with the horn?

The thing on the top of his beak is called a snood.

It goes up and out when he's displaying and the ones underneath

are caruncles and he fills that with blood when he's displaying.

-When he fills it with blood, does it get big?

-Yes.

-Because we always think of turkey necks.

-Big red bulgy bits.

-Not very attractive at all.

-Oh, bless him.

OK, now I believe you've got some treats here for Terry.

We've got a little bit of food to try and keep him a bit more occupied.

Oh look, look. His nose has just flopped down.

Yeah, that's the little bit he fills with blood, it just flops down.

That's amazing.

The snood starts off looking like a small red horn,

but when it fills with blood, look what happens to it.

It goes long and dangly.

Now we've got John there, he's one of our Roar team,

he's just trying to keep Terry over here.

Has his nose flopped because John is in his way?

Yes, he's just saying you're in my way, I want to get over there.

John, you're in Terry's way and you've made his snood flop.

-Terry!

-Why is he displaying?

He's displaying for female turkeys to try and look impressive to them.

So he thinks John, our researcher, is a female turkey?

Or a threat and he's trying to make himself look scary

so John will go away.

-Now, I've got to say, his feet are quite big and impressive.

-Yes.

Slightly scary, are they weapons?

They can be, he can use them, he can give a good kick

and he's got spurs on the back of his feet as well,

which can do a bit of damage, but he doesn't really ever use his feet.

So what would he use, is it just a pecking action?

Yes, a nice good peck at somebody.

He's pretty nifty as well because he's a big old bird. Does he fly?

Not really, he can fly up a little height to get onto a perch

or something, but they're too heavy to fly any distance.

So what keeps Terry happy, some mealworms?

-Lots of mealworms.

-And what else?

He likes to rummage around in leaves, a lot of dried leaves.

He'll have a good scratch around in. He's very fond of his greens.

Likes to eat nice and healthy does our Terry.

Well, Terry, it's been really lovely seeing you and while your snood

is full of blood I think we're going to get out of here.

Thanks very much, Katie.

Right, all you gamers,

it's cheat code time for the Roar game on the CBBC website.

Type in sand3.

Dream of the summer holidays and see what you get. Happy gaming.

Back up in Tiger Territory the team have finished topping up the pond.

The next challenge it to try and tempt the tigers into it,

but how do you get a tiger to take a bath?

Bob has a plan.

I would just chuck some pieces of meat out around the pond

and then I'll call him up and see if he comes up to play.

Turlock's interested, but he's still not ready to take the plunge.

Just chuck this little play-thing out for him to encourage him over.

Come on!

That's done something, here he comes.

Most cats hate water but not tigers, they love it.

Cats generally try to stay away from water,

if it's raining my cat won't go out, but tigers love water.

A watering hole is an essential part of their territory and they will

guard that against other tigers in that area.

It's also a good ambush point for their prey as well.

Water is a key part of their territory.

Turlock will be able to take a bath as often as he wants now.

He'll visit the pond four or five times a day.

And it's a satisfying sight for the keepers.

I love seeing any animal engrossed in play,

whether it's with balls or amongst each other.

It's really nice to see that because it means they're happy here.

Now there are few animals here at the park that

bring fear to people's eyes just at the mere mention of their name.

We've popped over to meet one of them

-with their keeper Jo. Hello, Jo.

-Hi, Johny.

Jo, I've got to admit, I am one of those people.

I've never been a fan and I don't think anything you could say

could convince me otherwise, but try.

-Who've we got here?

-We will try. These are Leela and Stitch.

Cute names, that's a start. Which is which?

-This is Leela and this is Stitch.

-Is that male and female?

They're girls. Our boys are Bert and Ernie.

-These are two of our Madagascan hissing cockroaches.

-OK.

So you say hissing cockroaches, I'm guessing that they hiss?

-Yes, they can do.

-And why do they hiss?

The males are dominant to each other,

so they would hiss to warn each other off and they would hiss

if they're frightened, but these are used to being handled

so they're probably not going to do much of that today.

So the thing with cockroaches, that I don't like,

is I associate them with being dirty.

Are they dirty, because you're holding them?

There's about 4,000 species of cockroach and only 28 are pests.

They seem pretty chilled on you there,

-might I be able to hold one?

-Yes, of course you can.

I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but they seem so relaxed.

-There you go.

-That's actually not that bad at all, you know?

In fact, once they're on you,

this might sound weird, but they're quite cute.

They're very gentle. Look at their little heads.

Those antennae things that are flicking around,

is that because they've got rubbish eyesight or bad smell?

-Why do they do it?

-They can't see well,

they need to feel where they're going.

You're trying to convince us that cockroaches are great,

-tell me one good thing about them.

-They recycle, very good at recycling.

They are nature's recyclers, they will eat all the rotten fruit

and the rotten litter off of the floor in the forests.

Anyone who likes recycling is good by me, pass her over.

All right, well that's all we've got time for on today's show.

-Check out what's coming up on the next episode of Roar!

-Bye-bye.

The lion cubs must have their last injections.

They may look cute, but they have teeth and claws like knives,

so will the keepers escape unharmed?

Hello, is that King Kong?

Oh, it's only the marmosets.

Our Roar rangers are monkey keepers,

but there's always one show-off who'll do anything to get on telly.

And we meet the two baby oryx who are vital for the survival

of the species because they are now extinct in the wild.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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