Episode 16 Roar

Today on Roar, 13 wolves must be given medicine

but they'll do anything to avoid it.

The stage is set for an epic struggle.

It's keepers versus wolves, so who's going to win?

WOLVES HOWL

-Hello and welcome to an "ape-mazing" episode of Roar.

-I'm Rani.

And I'm Johny, and just over there is Nico, the incredible gorilla.

Oh, yes. Now we all know he loves watching telly,

but does he like watching Roar yet?

Didn't you know, Nico is MY biggest fan?

Really? You know what, Johny, you'd better go and do some work

so he's got something to watch and I'll just take in the view.

I think he prefers you really.

Coming up today, Joseph, the baby wallaby who had to be hand-reared,

must learn to join in with the others,

but will he stay close to mum or hop along with the mob?

Chameleons have amazing eyes but they can't see still water,

so how do you give one a drink?

And a dream comes true for Ethan, the Roar Ranger.

Absolutely amazing. I can't describe it. I've always wanted to do this.

But we're starting in Wolf Wood

because an epic battle is about to begin.

The park's pack of 13 wolves

is usually left to enjoy their huge enclosure in peace.

But not today.

A special task force has been mobilised...

You've got to surprise them.

..to take on the biggest,

fastest and smartest gang of hunters in the place.

It's man versus beast, I think.

Because today is wolf worming day!

WOLVES HOWL

Once every three months, the wolves need to be given medicine

to get rid of microscopic worms that live in their guts.

It's a common condition. Pet dogs and cats get exactly the same thing.

Most of the time, these worms aren't a problem,

but they can build up and make the wolves very sick.

The keepers tried every possible way

to give them the worming medicine,

but the wolves just never cooperate.

You can't really put it in their feed outside

because it would be a little bit hit and miss

on how many would get worming because of the way they feed at the carcass.

Get the sticks.

So the plan is to herd the wolves back inside their house

where the vet will be able to treat them one by one.

Don't back down from them.

If they look like they're running at you, make yourself look big.

The only way to do that is to get out on foot,

inside the wolf enclosure,

which is not a good idea unless you're a fully trained keeper.

It's one of these jobs that will either take five minutes,

or most of the day.

So, it's 13 wolves versus a team of eight keepers.

I reckon the keepers don't stand a chance.

Go on!

Hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey!

So how DO you round up a wolf pack?

Come on, you silly, silly wolf!

And who's going to win the battle of Wolf Wood?

Find out later on.

Earlier in the series, we followed the story of Joseph,

the baby wallaby who was found all alone in Wallaby Wood.

He'd been abandoned by his mum and no-one knows why.

It didn't look that great. He was shaking.

He was cold and he just was losing strength, really.

But the keepers managed to warm him up and get him fed.

After that, it was up to Polly and Bev to share the role of foster mum.

They had to give him his first hopping lessons.

And to look after him day and night.

Now, the last time I met the adorable wallaby baby Joseph

was when his foster mum, Polly, was giving him a feed.

Well, today, I'm with his other foster mummy, Bev,

and we're taking him to Wallaby Wood for an outing, is that right?

We are, hoping to get him out and about

and hopping around with the other ones.

We say out and about, where is little Joseph?

He's in the pouch, in the rucksack, I am carrying him.

I can't see, Bev, is he awake or is he asleep?

He looks sleepy, but I think he's pretending,

-I'm sure he'll come out for hopping.

-We're taking him to Wallaby Wood.

-Yeah.

-Hey, walls.

-Hey, walls.

-Come, walls.

-Come, walls.

BEV LAUGHS

I like to get into the keeper role, me. Come on, walls.

Now, this one, Bev, is clawing away. I think he's eager to get out.

-Is he? Well, he's been up here a few times.

-Right.

So he does know what he's supposed to be doing.

-Shall I put him down?

-Yeah, that's fine.

-Here we go, then. He's getting a little bit heavy.

-There he is.

(Where is he?) Oh, his little head's popping out. Hello, you.

Sometimes he needs a bit of encouragement.

But if we just let him have a look around first, he can see where he is.

Some of the walls are coming over, so that's good.

Oops! our first hop. He has got big feet, hasn't he?

He has, we think he's grown really loads, absolutely loads.

But the thing that's got the biggest, is his feet.

And his tail's just getting more and more massive.

So, Joseph's, what, 6 1/2 months, now.

-That's right.

-So, what's next for him?

We'll do a lot more getting out, hopping about,

trying to get him onto solids more, whilst cutting his milk feeds down,

which we're going to start to do next week.

And just generally getting up and running, really, and all grown up.

So, hopefully, within the next two, maybe three months tops,

he'll be out here fully.

Do you think he would get nervous if, say, you hid behind a tree

for a bit, to see how he did. Does he always like to come back to you?

To be honest, I don't think so. He's incredibly independent.

-That's what I was thinking.

-He doesn't care I feed him, love him,

wash him. He just does his own thing.

-It sounds like you're going to slightly miss him.

-I think so, yes.

He's causing havoc at my house, he's learned to hop on sofas

and he wees in the most inappropriate places.

But apart from that, you know, you'll miss him when he's gone.

-It's going to be a bit sad.

-You can come and visit.

But I don't think he cares, if I'm honest. He's just hopping away.

Bye, Joseph! Your pouch is here when you want it.

What are you doing? Where are you going?

See, this is Bev being overprotective mummy.

Cos Joseph is just running away. Here's having the time of his life.

See you later, Joseph!

SHE LAUGHS

Ah, you see, Bev, he's absolutely loving it.

You have raised a very confident, very lovely wallaby.

-Thank you so much for letting us pop along.

-That's all right.

And we'll see you again, hey, Joseph?

With their huge feet, wallabies are brilliant at hopping

but they can't hop backwards.

So, if you ever see them doing this,

it's not real.

Somebody's just running the film backwards.

Back in Wolf Wood, it's time to round up the pack

so they can be given their worming medicine.

Come on.

Hey! Come on.

The keepers must guide the 13 wolves,

one by one, into the wolf house.

That area there, is where we want to catch them.

Inside the house are two keepers controlling the gate to let them in.

The other keepers are out in the woods.

Some of the keepers have sticks but they're just to wave about,

not to defend themselves.

Because wolves do run away from galumphing great keepers,

flailing their arms about and making a racket.

Steady.

Come on. Good boy. IN!

As a wolf comes to the house, there are two gates to close.

One for the outside yard

and another for the house itself.

But the wolves are playing hard to get.

-In.

-Come on, you, you so-and-so.

Steve lost count on how many's gone in.

It's happening so fast, you've got wolves everywhere.

Wolves have incredible stamina.

If they wanted to, they could run around all day,

unlike the keepers.

Gets the heart beating, I tell you.

Come on, you! Get in.

WHISTLES

All the wolves and all the keepers

have been through this many times before.

In fact,

it's almost a game.

Get here.

In!

When they've had a few laps, they just think,

"What's the point in carrying on running? I'll just go in,

"cos I'll be back out, shortly."

They know that when they go in there, they're not going to get hurt.

There's one in, Amy.

Almost all the wolves are now inside

but that doesn't mean the keepers are winning,

because the craftiest one of the lot is still on the loose.

Nobby. It's going to be a long day.

ROAR

Where do dogs go when they lose their tails?

The retail store.

THEY MAKE CHATTERING NOISES

There's two cows in a field.

One cow says to the other, "What do you think of this mad cow disease?"

So the other one says back,

"It doesn't really bother me, I'm a duck."

Baa!

-What kind of eggs do confused chickens lay?

-I don't know.

Scrambled eggs.

LOUD LAUGHTER

Ladies and gentlemen,

boys and girls,

before your very eyes,

our Raw Ranger is budding magician, Ethan, who's 10.

He's sharp, but can he figure out what he'll be doing today,

just from these two objects?

Clue number one -

a set of scales.

Scale.

Normally be used to detect how heavy animals or insects are

and it's most commonly used on snakes.

Yes, snakes do have scales. But is he right?

-You'll have to

-weight

-and see.

Here's clue two.

The kind of glove that's called a gauntlet.

Straight away, I already know this involves birds.

Ethan seems to have two very different guesses.

So, will it be snakes or birds?

DRUMROLL

Great!

I've always wanted to be a falconer,

ever since I was in year two.

A falconer is someone who works not just with falcons,

but all sorts of birds of prey,

hawks, eagles, owls, and even vultures.

They use a method of training that allows the bird to fly free

out in the open.

It's called falconry and people have been flying birds this way

since ancient times.

So, Ethan really is in for a treat. He'll be helping falconer, Jimmy.

-Hello.

-Hello.

-How you doing? What's your name?

-Ethan.

-Ethan, you're here to help me for the day, aren't you?

-Yeah.

OK, right, we're going to work with this bird today.

Its name is Mulberry. Do you know what type of owl she is?

-Barn owl.

-She is a barn owl, very, very good.

Barn owls can be found on every continent except Antarctica.

THE OWL SHRIEKS

Because of the spooky sound it makes,

in some countries the barn owl is also known as the death owl.

THUNDERCLAP

Come off it, she's so cute.

Mulberry is seven years old and was hand-raised by Jimmy

and his team.

OK, so this is yours for the day.

This is your own falconry glove.

So, if you hold your arm out to the side

I'm going to get her to step over.

So, we'll get her to take one little step. And then another step.

OK, happy?

-What do you think, have you ever heard a barn owl before?

-No.

-No.

Absolutely amazing. I can't describe it.

I've always wanted to do this.

Mulberry looks ready to go, but first they're going to weigh her

to make sure she's in good condition to fly.

We're going to use, quite simply, the little set of scales, just here.

Go towards the scales like this

and she'll quite happily sit on them.

-Can you read what that says on there?

-0.9 1/2.

Yeah, 0.9 1/2.

There are lots of traditions in falconry,

and they still use the old system of pounds and ounces.

9 1/2 ounces is 270 grams.

That's less than a medium-sized pack of biccies.

But it's a good weight for Mulberry.

Now they're ready to go.

Ethan has never done this before, so, when he lets go,

will Mulberry fly free?

And more to the point, will she come back?

We'll find out very soon.

Back in Wolf Wood, there are now just two wolves on the loose.

Nobby is the omega wolf.

He is the lowest one in the pack's pecking order,

but he is the craftiest.

The wisest one at the moment is that one there. He is the omega animal.

He's just stood there. He's got all his energy left.

Where all the others have been running around,

he's just stood there and watched us.

Come on, you! Come here! Nobby!

Hey! Get in. Nobby! Go on. Oh, you. Nobby!

Go on. Don't do that.

Come on, get in, get in. Go! All right!

Just one left. Go on, go.

But there is still one more.

The last one is always the most stubborn one to come in.

They can't give up because every last wolf must be wormed.

In order to worm them successfully,

you have to worm every single member of the pack.

So we've got to get him in to do it. There's no two ways about it.

But have they got the stamina to catch the last wolf standing?

This game ain't over yet.

Keeper Kim has requested that I come down to an area of the park

I usually try to avoid. It's the butterfly house.

I'm a little bit scared of butterflies,

and it's really hot in here. Kim, you better have a good excuse.

I've got a very good excuse. I wanted you to meet Dante.

-Wow! Who is this?

-He's a panther chameleon.

-A panther chameleon?!

He is incredible.

You know, I think this is the first time I've ever seen

a chameleon in the flesh.

I never knew chameleons had these crazy hands -

-what's that all about?

-He's got very special feet.

He's got two toes that point one side and three that go the other.

It allows him to hold on to branches and stuff.

Can I try giving him a handshake? Look at that.

Lovely to meet you too, Dante! I've just given a chameleon a handshake!

-I love that.

-He might walk on to you now so let him carry on.

Wow. Oh, his hands are really strange.

-Is he going to walk up my arm?

-Possibly. They like to be high up,

so sometimes he does tend to disappear up your shoulder.

-Is there a chance he might drop off?

-No.

I presume you haven't just brought me for a meeting.

You always want me to do something, Kim.

We're going to give Dante a drink today.

We brought him into the butterfly house

because obviously it's nice and warm here. Dante comes from Madagascar,

which is obviously very hot.

So it's quite nice for him to be in here, as it's a bit chilly outside.

So how are we going to give him a drink?

-A little bowl like you give a dog to drink?

-No.

Dante finds it very difficult to see water if it's not moving

or if the light isn't reflecting off it.

So we have to give him water in a special way,

through a technical water bottle!

I'm not going to spray him while he's on you,

cos that's just a bit unfair, so I will take off.

I have a little stick down here and if we put Dante on it,

obviously then we can hold him out and then spray the water.

-Am I going to hold the stick?

-That would be great. Thank you.

So this is just simulating what would happen in the wild?

Yes, he would sit on a branch and wait for the water to drip down.

With spraying his head, will that sink in?

-Is he drinking through his skin?

-No.

If you look at the top of his head,

this shape here is kind of like a funnel.

It funnels the water this way so when it drips off the end of his nose

he can lift his head slightly and it goes into his mouth.

It's been great giving Dante the panther chameleon a drink,

but it's so hot in here I think I could do with a drink myself.

Bit of water, Johny?

Why didn't I see that coming?

OK, gamers. Make a note of this.

That is today's cheat code for the Roar game on the CBBC website.

Don't forget to check your animals, and happy gaming.

Back in Wolf Wood, there is one last wolf still on the loose.

And the keepers are flagging.

We've got to just keep this relentless pressure up a little bit.

The sooner you're in, the sooner you can come back out.

Get in. Get in. Get in! Eh! Oh, you.

Finally, the last wolf goes in.

The whole roundup has taken almost an hour.

Relentless pressure always pays off.

11, 12, 13. Yes, that is 13.

We've achieved part one of our mission. We've got the wolves.

The vet's here. He's just gone in now,

so if we get a move on, we can join him.

But how do you give 13 big wolves their medicine?

Don't go away, cos very soon we're going to find out.

Our Roar ranger Ethan has been learning about falconry

with Jimmy and Mulberry the barn owl.

Now, it's time for Ethan's first fly.

In a few moments, he's going to let Mulberry go and hope she comes back.

To get her to fly, what do you think we need to do? Really easy.

-Let go of her.

-We need to let go of her, yes, we do!

So I am going to take the clip off her ankles,

really carefully.

We're going to take these away, like that. She's free.

It's really tempting, when you call the bird in, to do it like that,

and go, "Wow, look, it's flying straight to me!"

but if it all goes wrong, she'll land on top of your head.

So you stretch your arm out to the side like that

and she's going to fly to the back of your fist, like that.

I can't believe I'm about to fly an owl.

Ethan has wanted to do this for years,

and now he's finally going to get the chance.

-Are you ready?

-Yes.

Keep your arm nice and straight out to the side.

First flight there she goes.

I'm going to give her a little treat for doing that.

Pretty amazing, isn't it?

Mulberry hardly seems to notice she's got a new falconer.

Absolutely brilliant. Amazing.

Second fly.

Here she comes. Well done. Have a treat as well.

I am loving this.

-What do you think?

-Wow.

Mulberry has taken today's outing in her stride,

but for Ethan, it's been a special experience.

I think every single falconer remembers the first bird

they ever flew.

I flew a little kestrel when I was maybe seven years old.

So he did a fantastic job.

I'm still lost for words, it's completely indescribable.

I thought this would take years of practice

but it's literally like, "done"!

It was amazing!

Back at the wolf house,

the safari park vet has started giving the wolves their medicine

to deal with the microscopic worms in their guts.

They've always got a few worms,

and they can build up to quite high levels.

We keep them as low as possible. Good girl.

Pet dogs and cats get worms as well.

But it's easily kept under control by regular treatment.

As adults, they can probably cope with them, but if they have pups,

they can get up to horrendously high levels and kill them.

So the idea is we worm the whole pack

and keep the levels of worms in the enclosure down,

so that when they do have pups, you know, there will be less risk.

There are no nasty injections involved.

The medicine is just a liquid that must be applied under the hair,

where it can be absorbed through the skin.

Go on then, mate.

To do that, they need to have a way of holding the wolves still.

We call it a crush, but it's basically just to restrain them

so it's easier to put this on.

These are wild animals so they have to be restrained sometimes,

and they're only like there for a few seconds anyway.

Everyone works quickly. The whole pack is done in minutes.

Job done.

In no time, the wolves are back in the wood,

while the keepers clean up.

Now their health is protected,

they can just relax and enjoy the peace and quiet out here.

At least until next time.

WOLVES HOWL

In our last series,

we followed a heart-warming story of true love when Gavin met Stacey.

At first they were just good friends,

but, as time went on, their relationship bloomed.

Soon, Stacey had laid a clutch of huge eggs

and they took it in turns to sit on them.

Stacey did the daytime...

Gavin took the night shift.

Six weeks later, they hatched.

Ostrich chicks grow fast, and before the end of the series

they were half the size of their parents, belting around like mad.

Since then, two of the four chicks have moved to other parks

to start families of their own,

but two of the boys are still here with mum and dad.

So before we leave you, we thought we would pop along

to see their keeper Dan to see how they are doing.

-How are they doing?

-Very good, very good. As you can see,

they're a bit bigger than the last time you saw them.

-That is not them there!

-That's crazy talk!

Cos I was thinking, where have the little chicks gone?

That's them, two of them, anyway.

I know Stacey is a bit lighter,

but I can't on the difference between those three there.

We have Gavin at the front.

The easiest way to tell is he still has a red beak and legs,

whereas the others are still juvenile

so they don't have their red colouring.

It's quite nice they're all still hanging around together.

Do ostrich chicks hang around with their folks a lot?

-Do they stay as a family unit?

-They do tend to hang around altogether.

But it's the same as anything, they don't like being alone.

They are more than independent, they're fine by themselves.

The little ones growing up and flying the nest

even though ostriches don't fly!

Do you think Gavin and Stacey will have some more little ones?

Fingers crossed, we are hoping for some more this year.

Well, if there are some new little ones,

you guys will the first to see it.

Now, check out what's coming up on the next episode.

The keepers must take action,

or else the flamingos won't have any chicks this year.

So, how is making mud pies going to help?

And something tells me

the marmosets aren't taking their whistle training seriously.

And the Roar rangers will be helping out

with one of the park's new babies.

Jealous? Don't be. Not all ickle, fluffy babies are cute.

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