Episode 17 Roar

Coming up today,

the Roar Rangers will be helping with one of the park's new babies.

Jealous? Don't be,

cos not all ickle fluffy babies are cute.

-Hello! I'm Rani.

-And I'm Johny, and welcome to another fascinating,

fact-filled episode of Roar.

Speaking of which, did you know that ostriches are the tallest bird,

standing up to 2.7 metres high? That is like two of me.

That's not the only way you and an ostrich are connected,

because apparently their eyeballs are bigger than their brain.

-Wow! It's almost like we're related.

-Yeah, yeah.

Better get on with the show before she works that one out.

Hang on, does that mean they've got big eyes or big brains?

Coming up on Roar,

Johny joins the vet to give Joseph the baby wallaby his health check.

-He's so cute!

-Any excuse for a cuddle!

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?

SHE WHISTLES

And something tells me

the marmosets aren't taking their whistle training seriously.

Oh, look at his cute face!

'But we're starting off with Joseph the baby wallaby,

'who was abandoned and had to be hand-reared by the keepers.

'If he was with his mum, he'd still be in her pouch,

'so his foster carers, Bev and Polly,

'take him round in a cosy backpack instead.

'I've met Joseph a couple of times now and in our last show

'I saw how he was getting on with his hopping lessons.

'Today, it's Johny's turn.

'He's joined Chris the vet who's come to give Joseph

'his regular check-up.'

Wow! Here he is.

Oh, my goodness! Look how cute... This is Joseph, is it?

This is Joseph, yeah. He's a little red-necked wallaby.

Why is he all on his own?

We found him. He must have fallen out of the pouch overnight.

When we found him, he was very cold,

-to be honest, a little bit near death's door.

-Really?!

We waited to see if Mum would come and get him, but she didn't.

He probably wouldn't have had the energy

to get back in the pouch anyway, so we had to step in

and start hand rearing him.

What are we going to be doing today, in terms of a health check?

We've just got to get him out and have a little look at his eyes,

his teeth, his nose, and just check he's all right.

Can I be the one to hold him?

-I'm sure you can.

-That's fine, Johny. That's fine.

If I just get him out of the pouch.

Sometimes he's a bit sleepy.

He's all legs, so if you just hold him close to your body.

Hold him underneath his bottom. That's perfect.

He's so cute.

Chris, over to you.

I'll just have a little look at his head.

So nice, clean, shiny eyes.

A nice clean nose, no snot or anything coming out of it.

Let's see if we can have a look at the teeth without getting bitten.

Quite interesting teeth, they kind of meet like a scissor.

Oh, wow!

A scissor edge for nibbling and stuff,

and these amazing feet.

Just going to have a little listen to his heart.

He looks great. Clean bill of health.

-Brilliant.

-Can we see him moving around?

-That's fine.

I normally see him in his pouch. It'd be nice to see him moving.

Johny, if you put him down. I'll move his pouch away.

-Does he jump yet?

-He does. He's very good at hopping.

-He's not going to hop off anywhere?

-No, he knows where his pouch is.

He'll spot that and normally he'll hop about or hop towards his pouch.

There you go, Joseph.

He's having a little look around. He's so cute!

This is the stage that you'd be looking for him

to come out of his pouch now so I guess it's good

that he's comfortable out of it and not dashing back.

Definitely. Sometimes he gets himself a bit spooked,

if a bird flies over or he gets a bit too close

to something he's not used to.

But as long as he knows where his pouch is and where he can bolt to,

he's normally fine.

Look at that. Wow! He's jumping already. That's good.

There you go!

Home sweet home, hey?

Chris, it looks like he's bouncing around.

Is there anything that you're looking for in particular

in the way he's moving?

Like you say, he is bouncing around brilliantly.

He's confident, he's moving well, we've seen a few good hops from him

and he forward rolled straight back into his pouch so I'm pleased.

He's doing well.

The guys are doing a great job so we'll see him next week.

-So it's thumbs up all round?

-Definitely.

Brilliant. Our work here is done.

Thank you so much for letting us meet Joseph.

Last year was a real triumph for the park's flock of Chilean flamingos.

For years, keeper Mark had been trying to get them

to breed with little success.

The flamingos would build their nests out of mud

and lay the eggs and that's when things kept on going wrong.

What happens is someone will make a nest and lay an egg

and will be quite happy with that.

Someone else will think, "I like the look of your nest.

"I don't care that you've got an egg in it. I want it out."

So they'll kick the bird and the egg out to lay their own egg in there.

So Mark hatched a clever plan. He swapped their eggs

for dummy wooden ones, incubated the real ones

and then swapped them back when they were just about to hatch.

And they soon had 15 new chicks in with the flock.

We're really happy the way things have gone.

It will be great to repeat that success again this year,

but so far, the flamingos haven't rebuilt the old nests.

And without the nests, they won't lay the eggs.

So once again, they're going to need a helping hand.

Every year, we have to redress the nest site. Mud gets washed away

so we have to put some fresh soil in.

Without the mud, they can't build the nests.

We have to provide them with plenty of nice soil

and then they can build nice nests.

And they need quite a lot of it.

A whole trailer of the stuff.

Still, it gives Mark an excuse

to play with the park's earth-moving machines.

Boys and toys. Of course I like tractors!

Yeah, this is my thing.

But the tractor can't get all the way to the nest site.

To do that, Mark needs reinforcements.

I'm waiting for my two, Luke and Sarah,

to come with wheelbarrows and shovels and then we'll crack on.

The sort of job everybody hates, shovelling mud in wheelbarrows.

This should be enough mud, but Mark is still worried.

Maybe the flamingos will need more encouragement

to get them to breed. So don't go away,

cos he's about to hatch another one of his cunning plans.

Every single giraffe has a different pattern on its coat,

so each one can be identified from its markings

in the same way that the police can identify people

by their fingerprints.

So if a giraffe ever tried to become a master criminal...

..they'd never get away with it.

Common marmosets live down at Monkey Temple.

It's an open enclosure with no bars or cages

and relies instead on the marmosets' natural instinct

to stay in their own territory.

But just in case they ever wandered off,

the keepers have trained them

-to associate a whistle with food.

-WHISTLE BLOWS

So when they hear that, the marmoset should come running back

looking for treats.

Of course, all training needs practice

and you've got to keep up the drills.

BLOWS WHISTLE

Left, right, left, right, turn, turn, turn, turn,

left, right, left, right.

Officer Rani reporting for duty, ma'am-oset.

SHE LAUGHS

I love it! The marmosets are really loving you today.

So is this why we're here, to train the marmosets,

cos they're being a bit naughty?

Yeah, what we're going to do today is patrol them.

As you can see, they need to be kept in control.

That one down there is very naughty so we'll need to keep an eye on him.

-How can you tell the difference?!

-You just get used to them.

-There's Mum, Dad and eight children.

-Ah.

Two of the youngest ones are ten weeks old.

-We'll put some food out for them.

-OK.

We've got some feeding platforms over there too,

which we'll take the food over to.

-But if you want to put some food in there for them...

-A bit nervous!

-That's OK.

-I've got my camo-hat on, I'll be disguised!

-That's fine.

There's one in there. Do they bite?

No, he should be fine. He's just exploring...

-But look! He's hiding under the...

-If you just put the food in there.

-What am I giving them? Carrots.

-This is just their morning vegetables.

They have quite a few feeds, so they have vegetables,

and their fruits and this afternoon they get their bugs as well,

so they have quite a varied diet.

-Let's get more food out there.

-OK.

But I am still curious - the fact that they don't just run away.

Yeah, I know. It is pretty amazing.

Like I said before, these are a large family group

so they won't leave the babies. They're very social

and they kind of work together as well.

-Last bit here, shall I just throw it all out here?

-Yeah, that's fine.

So how would you make sure, apart from putting food out,

that they behave, cos you said one of them was quite naughty!

ONE of them is naughty. Well, obviously...

-Cos I have my whistle.

-Yeah.

-Do I need it with marmosets?

The whistle encourages them, lets them know we're feeding them here,

so every time we blow the whistle we feed them -

they relate that to having food in a moment.

So we'll blow the whistle and you just do two short, sharp blows...

SHE BLOWS SHARPLY

..and hopefully that will encourage them to come over.

We have fed them over there as well

so they'll probably stay where it's nice and warm, under the heat lamps.

-Well, we'll try it anyway.

-WHISTLE SOUNDS

They're looking. They know that sound. You can see them up there.

-That's how to call them over.

-It's great looking at them

-but it does sound a tough job if you've always got to be here.

-It is.

-Is that what you do?

-Yeah, all the staff take it in turns,

so we'll be swapping over quite shortly with another staff member

so they can look after the monkeys too. So I'll go and do some cleaning.

-Well, Amy, you do look a bit tired.

-I am! Exhausted!

Why don't you go and put your feet up? Why don't I take over?

-I just whistle twice, clap my hands...

-That's it!

-Give me a ring if you get any problems!

-I'll do that.

You go and rest. Thanks very much. OK, then, marmoset!

-WHISTLE SOUNDS

-Left, right!

All go in the basket! All of you, right now, swing in the basket!

They're doing exactly as I say. Look at that! All of them.

There you go! Wonderful!

Our Roar Rangers today are cousins...

THEY GROWL

I really want to be a Roar Ranger because I absolutely love animals.

But what animal will they get? Furry or frightening?

They've got two clues to figure it out. Clue one, some glue.

Clue two, the number eight.

Eight.

It could have eight legs.

Spider.

Yes. Spiders do have eight legs as well as bug eyes and big fangs.

I'm not too keen on them. It kind of depends on what size they are.

Well, they've got some real whoppers here.

-But what about the other clue?

-Glue.

That's got Lucy and Chloe stuck.

We'll find out what that's for later.

But right now, let's put them out of their misery.

"Animal Adventure keepers."

Animal Adventure keepers - they look after loads of species!

So it could be anything.

Animal Adventure is where they keep the creatures

you really need to see close up. From the cutest...

to the creepiest.

-Good morning, guys. How are you?

-Good.

-Welcome to Animal Adventure.

-My name's Kim and you're going to be keepers with me. All right?

-Yes.

With all the different creatures here, what does Kim need help with?

Oh, dear. She's taking them to the bug room.

In here in the boxes on the counter,

I've got some of my baby Chilean Rose Tarantulas.

Chilean Rose Tarantulas come from the dry deserts of South America.

They can grow up to 12 centimetres across.

But Kim did say these are just babies.

We're training them, getting them ready to go out and meet the public.

Visitors to the park are invited to challenge their fears

and hold the spiders. So the keepers need to get the young tarantulas

used to meeting people.

It takes lots of practice handling sessions.

I don't like spiders.

Lucy's not alone.

It's thought that almost a third of the population is scared of spiders.

The fear of spiders is known as arachnophobia.

One of the best ways to overcome it

is to get used to them a little bit at a time.

You don't have to be nervous about anything.

These guys are used to being picked up already.

I've been doing it for a little while.

You're just going to help me do a little bit of the handling.

It's time to meet the spiders.

Why has Scarlet got a pinky tinge

and the others haven't got quite so much of it?

Yesterday, she shed her skin.

Spiders have a hard skin called an exoskeleton.

It can't grow, so to get bigger they need to shed that covering,

which leaves behind a complete hollow skin.

This is Scarlet's skin. Do you want to have a touch?

Both of the Roar Rangers really don't like spiders,

but Lucy is going to give it a go.

It looks strange.

It looks like it's actually a spider. But it's just skin.

Handling the shed skin is a good way to start getting used to spiders,

but now, how about the real thing?

Here comes Scarlet.

It looks fluffy and...

Yeah.

Can you see where her eyes are?

Having a close-up look also helps overcome that fear.

-Is the spider making you go all sweaty?

-Yeah.

But the biggest challenge will be to actually hold this giant spider.

Can Chloe conquer her fear?

Keep your hands nice and still, nice and flat.

Fantastic, well done. There we are.

She just sits very still.

She doesn't need to move around.

Nervous still, but kind of fun.

It's really weird. Because I'm nervous, I'm shaking,

which is making her shake which is making me nervous.

But already it's getting easier.

They're kind of like little fluffy things.

Hmm. Though I'm not sure you could ever say they're cute.

You guys have been an absolutely fantastic help.

I'm going to put Scarlet back in her box here.

The Roar Rangers haven't finished yet. Kim has another job for them -

one that's going to take steady nerves and skilful hands.

Are they up for it? We'll find out soon.

What do you get when you cross a camera and a crocodile?

A snapshot.

-Miaow.

-Miaow.

-Miaow.

-Miaow.

-Miaow.

-Miaow.

-Miaow.

What do you get from old cows?

Wrinkle cream.

Boing! Boing!

What animal should you never play cards with?

A cheetah.

ALL LAUGH

The flamingos have been really slow to get things ready for breeding,

so Mark, Sarah and Luke have brought them a load of fresh mud.

That's what they use to build

the strange nests they lay their eggs in.

But the flamingos are so far behind schedule,

Mark and the team have decided to help them one stage more.

They're building flamingo nests.

Just like a big kid, sandcastles. This is what we are trying to do.

Mud pies, nice, sticky wet mud

and build this lovely sort of tower with a little dip in the top

for them to lay an egg in.

Building flamingo nests, it seems, is a very creative process.

I like to think that I put a lot of time and effort into it.

It's like a Mona Lisa.

So works of art or muddy mess? It doesn't matter,

as long as the flamingos like the look of them.

All the noise and squabbling are good indicators

of getting ready to breed.

We still hope we'll get some eggs - just a bit later than normal.

Everyone's got their fingers crossed that the sight of these nests

will inspire the flamingos to start new families.

Will it work? We'll find out later in the series.

Now, who doesn't love egg and soldiers? Michaela?

-I love egg and soldiers.

-Do you, cameraman? Yes, you see?

But I've heard there's an animal here that loves them more than us.

-Who is it?

-It's the coatis.

-The coatis?

-Yes.

We've got some hard-boiled and a couple of raw eggs as well.

-Raw eggs?

-Yes.

-Do they like to eat raw eggs?

-They eat birds' eggs in the wild and nobody cooks them.

-She's got a point.

Pop the raw eggs on the stumps and if they fall, they might crack.

We've already set up some Roar cameras. Let me do this carefully.

-I'll balance it.

-Do you want a boiled egg next to it?

-OK.

-How many coatis do we have in here?

-We've got four -

-one boy and three females.

-I got them on there.

We'll put these on the floor. We've got another camera here.

With all the yolk coming out,

maybe I could cover it up to make it a little bit interesting?

Yeah, make it harder for them to look for them.

They do whiff and coatis have a great sense of smell.

-They do.

-Those eggs are pretty covered up.

If you stand back, they should come down and forage for their eggs.

-All right.

-That's Zoe.

-(Here she comes down the rope.)

-She's gone straight for one.

-She might try to carry it back up.

But they're raw! They're going to splatter everywhere!

Is she going to go down and lick that up?

-She's getting the other one.

-She's got it! she's sneaking off with it.

She's managed to climb up a rope with it in her mouth. Great balance.

Their tails give them great balance.

You can see, she's eating it in the tunnel.

Is Zoe the leader of the pack?

She's not. She's the lowest. She's the one that's very submissive.

How come it was Zoe that went, "I don't mind. I'll go and get an egg."

It may be that everybody else is asleep

and she's taken a chance to come out and have a look.

Here she comes for another one!

She's on the floor for the raw egg.

That's her favourite. Raw egg is her favourite.

-Because that's what they would eat in the wild.

-Definitely.

She'd a quick lick at the raw egg and now she's got a hard-boiled egg.

It's got to be a high-five for Zoe.

She got herself two treats because she bothered to get out of bed.

OK, gamers, here's what you've been waiting for.

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

You need to get as many of these cheat codes as you can

to really make the most of the game.

Don't forget to look out for them on every show.

Our Roar Rangers Lucy and Chloe have been helping

to get the tarantulas tame,

but now they've got to leave that and move on to another job.

BOTH: Yes!

Keeper Kim has just received a special delivery from the Far East.

These are tropical butterfly pupa.

The pupa, or chrysalis,

is one of the four stages in the life cycle of the butterfly.

In less than a month,

they'll hatch out and live here in the tropical butterfly house.

In the meantime, the pupa need to be stuck to sticks

and kept in a special heated cabinet.

So now you see what the Rangers' glue clue was about.

We must remember to stick it the right way.

Normally, you've got a tiny bit of silk. Can you see that on the end?

This is the end you want to stick.

The glue they are using dries solid in just a few seconds.

You have to be fast and accurate.

Get it wrong and the pupa could be damaged.

We have a little bit of a problem sometimes

when we're trying to stick them on the sticks

because the end wiggles around. They're still alive inside here.

First up is Lucy.

You need a steady hand for this job.

Well done. That's it. Cracking.

Now it's Chloe's turn.

I'm a bit nervous that it might wriggle around.

Gently does it.

Fantastic. Well done. Brilliant.

Just as well they've got the hang of this, because there are lots to do.

You guys are doing really well, actually.

I'm normally covered in glue by this point.

When they're all stuck on, it's time to put them in the pupa cabinet.

Soon, the house will be swarming with butterflies and moths.

Today, the Roar Rangers have tackled tarantulas

and done some advanced gluing. What does Kim think?

Chloe and Lucy were extremely brave, and very light-handed.

That's what we were looking for.

You did really well to hold the skin because I was scared of the skin.

-BOTH: We love butterflies.

-But I hate spiders.

'It's almost the end of the show,

'but before we go, we're going to catch up with keeper Mark.

'As well as the flamingos,

'he also looks after Nico the silverback gorilla.

'At 50, he's one of the oldest gorillas in the world

'and they certainly make a fuss of him here.

'In fact, he's got his own telly.'

I like to watch a bit of telly with a pal.

What about Nico - do you ever stay and watch telly with him?

Maybe have a cup of tea?

I might have watched the odd Grand Prix with him now and again.

Does he like company? In the past, you've said he gets a bit grumpy.

He does like a bit of company, but not too much.

If you're there too long, he's sitting there going,

"What are you doing here? Leave it to me!"

I've got to ask, when you are watching telly,

-who gets control of the remote control?

-That'd be me.

We've given him a remote control before and he tried to eat it.

Nico, you ruined it for yourself!

He might not be able to eat remote controls,

but what was he just eating before, his evening snack?

That's just some scattered feed we put out and then the doors open

and he can go in and watch telly.

Sounds like a good life! I'm going to go home and watch some telly!

Why don't you guys check out what's coming up in the next episode.

Next time, the tigers are right outside our vehicle

and the keeper wants to open the door.

That's the scariest thing I've ever done on Roar!

The mischievous monkeys keep pulling bits off cars.

Are they little comedians or little monsters?

Oh, no.

We're no scaredy cats, but it's hard to keep your cool

when you're dealing with the world's larger scorpion.

It's going to sting me!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

E-mail [email protected]