Episode 18 Roar

Today, on Roar... Anne the elephant has problems with her health,

but can the vet discover what needs to be done?

-Hello, I'm Lady Ranington.

-And I am Lord Johny.

Welcome to another fascinating episode of Roar.

Now, before we start today's show,

we're just having a touch of breakfast.

I'll be starting with some scrambled eggs

and smoked salmon on a sliver of toast, mmm!

Oh, that looks very nice, Rani.

I'm having a bacon sarnie with some brown sauce.

-Johny, we're supposed to be dead posh.

-Right, I forgot about that.

In that case... Let's get on with today's super duper show.

-Chin-chin, lovely.

-Chin-chin, darling. Lovely.

Coming up today, the tigers are right outside our vehicle

and the keeper wants to open the door.

That has to be probably the scariest thing I've ever done on Roar.

The mischievous monkeys keep pulling bits off cars.

So, are they little comedians or little monsters?

Oh, no!

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

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

It's going to sting me! It is, it is!

But we're starting out with Anne the elephant.

For a long time, she's suffered with her health

and today they're going to find out if anything can be done to help.

Anne is, of course, a very famous elephant.

She rose to stardom with the circus in the days before

that sort of animal act was widely banned.

She was with the circus for over 50 years before coming to live

here in the park a few months ago.

But the years have taken their toll.

They think Anne is 58, which makes her the oldest elephant in Europe.

And with age, comes problems.

The park's head of animals is Jon Cracknell.

The biggest concern we have with Anne is that she's an old girl.

She's got arthritis. We think it's in her hips,

but he haven't had a good chance to really assess her yet.

It could be in her knees.

And that's one of the things we've really got to work on.

Arthritis is a disease that affects the joints.

It's making Anne's legs stiff and painful.

When you look at Anne, you can see her walking,

and she's a bit like a pantomime horse. Her front half is fine.

Unfortunately, her back half doesn't really work very well,

and that's her biggest limitation.

So, when she's walking around, you can see her struggling.

She drags her feet a little bit. She has good days and bad days.

Arthritis can't be cured, but it can be treated.

And to make Anne as comfortable as possible,

it's vital to get those treatments just right.

The vet in charge of Anne's welfare is Nick Masters.

He's an elephant expert. And he's about to do a series

of tests to give her a thorough health check.

First, he needs to take a blood sample.

We're taking the blood for a variety of reasons, really.

I mean, the most important thing, I think, is that it gives us an idea

of her general health status that we can't get by just looking at her.

But taking blood from an elephant is no easy task.

Nick will have to get right underneath her and then prick

her with a needle and syringe to take the blood from her back leg.

Doing anything invasive, in veterinary speak,

with elephants is potentially dangerous.

They're big animals. If they don't like what you're doing... You know.

I think it's a pretty simple and painless procedure for her.

Once the needle has passed through the skin, it's just a little shot.

She feels like we do when we have blood taken from us.

And the rest is all fairly simple, really.

It might be simple, but would you crawl under an elephant

and stick a needle in its leg?

Stay tuned to see how it goes.

Now, I'm here in the heart of tiger territory with head keeper

Bob Trollope.

Because it's such a lovely sunny day, we thought we'd try

and encourage the tigers to have a dip in the pool.

Apparently, the new male Turlough likes a bit of a swim.

-Is that right, Bob?

-That's very true. He does like the water.

And so, what have we got here that's going to encourage Turlough

and Co. to have a dip in this pool that we've got?

As you can see, it's lovely day. We've got some meat, small chunks.

I thought we'd try a little surprise.

We've got some balls we normally have in the pond for them to play with,

but we've stuffed them with meat, as you can see, just to give them

something to do, so they don't just grab it and run off and whatever.

It gives them something to think about.

So, how are we going to do this then?

How are we going to get the boys into the pool?

Well, we're going to have to open the back door

and chuck them out the back door.

-Oh, OK, so the tigers aren't in the enclosure?

-They're just there.

So, Johny, if you turn around, you'll be able to see them.

Maybe you could over here.

So, we're actually going to open this door

and the tigers are actually in here.

They're just over there. As you can see, they are watching us.

-Watching our every move.

-This is actually, genuinely, pretty scary.

-Is this safe, Bob?

-We're perfectly safe, as long as we don't fall out.

What's mad is that we're surrounded by tigers right now

and we've got their food.

Right? So this is quite a precarious position.

OK, so, Bob, there's a tiger there. Bob's about to open the door.

-Well, actually, if I open the door, why don't you do it, Johny?

-Do what?

-Just drop it out the door and let it roll in.

-Yeah? OK.

-You ready?

-Yeah, OK.

We interrupt this programme to bring you a vital health warning.

Should you find yourself surrounded by four hungry tigers,

do not open the door or window, even for a second.

What you are about to see is only possible

because Bob has been working with huge, deadly carnivores

for over 30 years, and he knows how they roll.

Be quick, be quick, be quick!

Right. OK, that's... That has to be, probably,

the scariest thing I've ever done on Roar.

Right, so Turlough is going straight in.

Yep. He wants to play with the ball.

He's not too fussy about eating the meat at the moment.

Bob, you've been working with these tigers a long time,

do you think that they'd attack you?

Or do they know you're the source of food, that you give them

food regularly? Are they your friends?

-I doubt they'd attack.

-Oh, really?

Yeah, we have that working relationship.

You have a lot of respect. They are killers, as you can imagine.

And I respect the fact that they would kill me.

So, obviously, we don't put ourselves in that position.

He's faced the other way, should we try and put another one in there?

It's incredible seeing these tigers kind of play with these balls.

Just drop it in there. There you go.

Oh, my goodness!

Oh, my goodness! I can't believe...!

I honestly can't believe I've just done that!

Look at Turlough with his wet head now.

Right, we've got one more to do.

-Am I all right to just put that out quickly?

-Yeah, I reckon.

They're at the other side of the pond.

Yep, OK, we can throw it out. There you go.

-Oh, that's done.

-There you go.

-OK, now. So, I think that's a job well done, Bob.

-I think it is.

-You know, there's only one more thing to do.

-Yeah? What's that?

Get a hair dryer and dry him.

Butterflies have taste sensors on their feet, so they can tell

what kind of plant they've landed on just by standing on it.

Which must be very useful,

though they wouldn't want to touch down where the elephant's just been!

ALL: Now you know!

She can run, but she can't hide. It's time for Ask The Keeper!

Michelle Duffin, would you like a muffin?

-No, thanks, I'm all right.

-OK. Would you like to answer questions

-about the pigs then?

-Yeah, all right then.

-OK. Is it true we're going to get them out today?

-Yes, we are.

-All right then, let's release the pigs!

-Wilbur, Rufus!

-Oh, there they're coming!

-Come on!

-There they come!

-Has anyone been close to pigs before?

-Yeah.

-You have?

-Come on!

SHE SCREAMS

My feet! The pigs are feeding at my feet!

They just get a bit excited.

-How intelligent are they?

-Pigs are very intelligent.

-They're actually believed to be as intelligent as dogs.

-Wow!

So, what kind of things can they do then? Can they sit, roll over?

You can train them, yeah.

You can train them to sit, heel,

any sort of thing you'd train a dog to do, really.

How much do pigs weigh?

These Kunekune pigs can go anywhere between 60 and 100 kilos.

-Do they bite?

-They can get a bit excitable, but you'll be fine.

I fed them before I let them out, so that calmed them down.

What foods should you avoid feeding them?

You're not allowed to feed them any table scraps,

so no meat and nothing from the leftover dinners that we eat.

-And also, parsnips can be quite bad for them, as well.

-Why is that?

It can give them mouth ulcers if they eat too many.

Are you having a little stroke there? What does he feel like?

-A hairbrush.

-Oh, it is, isn't it?

-Yeah.

-It is like a proper hair brush.

We could clean the floor with you.

Pig escaped! Pig escaped!

-Rufus!

-He escaped.

-No, he's over there. Look. Rufus!

-Good boy. Good boy.

-I'm a bit nervous, actually.

-How good is their smell?

-Their sense of smell is actually very good.

These Kunekune pigs can actually smell something

that's buried 15 centimetres under the ground.

We've asked loads of questions of Michelle.

Michelle, we're going to try and catch you up with a killer question.

OK, guys, we're going to huddle up.

-THEY LAUGH

-Little piggies,

-are you ready for this?

-THEY SNORT

Yeah, I think so. OK, Michelle, we have a question for you.

You should look nervous.

OK, in the classic fairy tale, The Three Little Pigs,

what did the pigs make their houses out of?

Oh... Hold on a sec. Wilbur, Rufus!

They're not going to help you with this one, Michelle.

They are, they are. Right.

One was with straw.

One was with brick.

And the third one...

-It's not coming.

-Ah-ha!

What was the third one?

-ALL: Sticks.

-Sticks!

-Sticks!

-That's it!

-Well,

you failed your killer question, but your Kunekune knowledge,

-thumbs up or thumbs down for her?

-BOTH: Thumbs up!

BOTH: Thumbs up! THEY SNORT

-SHE SNORTS

-That's what we think, Michelle.

Thank you!

Back at the elephant house, the keepers have got everything

ready so that Nick, the vet, can take a blood sample.

This could be a very dangerous procedure

and Anne must briefly have a chain on her foot

so that she doesn't crush anyone.

The best place to take a blood sample

is from the inside of her back legs.

First, Nick wipes the area with antiseptic.

Now he's going in with the needle.

When the needle goes in, Anne may feel it for just a second,

so Andy distracts her with some friendly pats.

And the syringe is attached. The blood is drawn out slowly.

Ten seconds or so.

But Anne takes it all in her stride. She's just a perfect patient.

She's great, actually. She's a lovely elephant and she's had

decades of being very close to and handled by people.

So it's probably not that big a deal for her. So, yeah, it's great.

We need the blood samples and it all went very well.

The blood sample needs to be sent off to a laboratory for testing,

but the vet hasn't finished yet.

To help with her arthritis,

Anne gets medicine mixed in with her food.

It's important that she gets exactly the right amount,

and that dosage depends on how much she weighs.

Trouble is nobody knows her weight. So far, they've just been guessing.

What we can do, if we have an accurate weight for her,

is establish exactly what she ought to be getting in her ration.

She should be about 3.5 tons tops.

But how do you weigh an elephant?

With jumbo scales, of course!

And they've just got one specially made,

though they've never used it before.

So the first challenge is to get Anne to stand on it.

But once again, Anne seems to know exactly what's expected.

A few banana treats always help, too.

And now they've got a reading.

Anne weighs 3,690 kilos.

She was very well behaved. I'm very proud of her, bless her heart.

We've an accurate weight for her now.

We know exactly how much drugs we need to use for her body weight.

It helps us out an awful lot.

But there's another issue.

The heavier she is, the more stress is put on her bad legs.

They thought she was 3.5 tons, that's 3,500 kilos.

But she's a little heavier than that.

On the scale, she weighed 3,690 kilograms.

I think that's a little bit over.

I think she's probably about 200 kilograms overweight.

Nothing horrendous, but we certainly want to reduce it to 3.5 if we can.

We'll work out a little bit of a diet for Anne.

See where we can cut some food.

I mean, she's a big elephant. She's a big bulk feeder.

We need lots going through her to keep her stomach working.

That's how elephants go.

So, you know, she doesn't get a huge amount of goodies every day.

She gets a few out in the yard.

So we'll see where we can pare her back

or get her eating more healthy, like we all should.

But the vet hasn't finished with Anne yet.

The most challenging procedure is still to be done.

We'll be back to find out how on earth

you take an X-ray of an elephant.

HE LAUGHS

What do you call a pig with no clothes on? Streaky bacon.

WOOF, WOOF

-Why do hummingbirds hum?

-Because they don't know the words.

OOH-OOH, AH-AH

What do you get when you cross a palm tree and a toad?

A croakanut.

THEY LAUGH

They sound alike.

# Just shake it, shake it Shake it, shake it, monkey

# Monkey, monkey, monkey

# Monkey, monkey... #

There's a troop of over 100 Rhesus macaque monkeys

living in the drive-through enclosure they call Monkey Jungle.

Now, there are two opinions about them.

Some people think they're just great fun,

while others think something I wouldn't want to repeat.

Deputy Head Warden Ian Turner can see both sides.

Monkey Jungle is probably the most popular park in the Safari Park.

Fun to watch. You could watch monkeys all day.

They're just playing, rolling about. They're always doing something.

Monkeys are very adaptable animals.

They're curious, bold,

mischievous and love to play with almost anything,

including cars.

# Here in my car I feel safest of all

# I can lock all my doors It's the only way to live

# In cars. #

Unfortunately, their idea of playing with the cars

means seeing how many bits they can pull off.

I would say, 20% of the cars that go through get damaged.

They just have days when they're in the mischievous mode.

And then can do every car.

So, what's it like to be on the receiving end of monkey mischief?

We've jumped in with the Bugler family to find out.

You haven't got your windows open now, have you?

ALL: No.

Oh, look! THEY LAUGH

There's three on that car over there, look.

It can be quite a battle some days, yes. And it tends to be.

A lot of the new number plates that used to be screwed on,

now they're not, they're Velcro, and they're easy to get off.

The monkeys just love... As soon as they pick the habit up, they know it

and straight away will take them off.

Look!

Squirt, squirt!

We're just going up for a second to where the big log is.

That's where they tend to hang around.

And sort of ambush cars.

THEY LAUGH

You see that red bottom?

The reason why that car's not so bothered is

because it's not their wiper.

It's the wiper off a different car.

They like Daddy's car, don't they?

It's usually the dad's that don't like them.

The kids and the mums love them. THEY LAUGH

-And dad's don't.

-Oh, no!

But it's not just the dads,

the monkeys have managed to wind up some of the keepers, too.

They can be a bit annoying. They're smelly.

We didn't really get off on a good foot, the monkeys and I.

One of my first ever days here, I was one the Monkey Jungle gate

and I left my bag unattended.

They came down and they stole my pack lunch, all my food,

my drink, everything.

Then they sat up on the fence and ate it all in front of me.

It's a great laugh for the kids, the families.

Obviously, for the person that owns a vehicle it's not quite as much fun.

And you do get angry dad syndrome -

a dad that doesn't want to go in there, but the kids force him to.

Every time I saw a monkey, I thought of that day, watching them

eat my dinner in front of me, and it made me bitter for years.

They will pull window wipers and roof trim out

and chew on it for a little while.

And then they'll discard it and onto the next one.

Now that I'm in the situation of being able to sit back and watch them

trying to steal somebody else's lunch, I find them quite amusing.

My car seems to be intact as we're leaving. No hitchhikers on board.

After they've pulled parts off the cars,

the monkeys soon toss them aside.

So, the keepers go around, collect them all up and add them

to their ever-growing pile.

Visitors who have lost something can come and collect their bits.

Yeah, this is an example of the pieces we pick up.

Obviously, the towing hitch off the back of a car.

It will go down there for somebody to pick up tonight.

Number plates they're quite keen on. A mirror and wipers.

The monkeys might be annoying,

but most visitors do go away with a smile.

It's always fun to be in the monkey area. They're always doing something.

Today's cheat code for the Roar game is coral26.

If you've been playing that game on the CBBC website,

you'll know what to do with that. And if you haven't, why not?

It's easy to get started and great fun.

Back with Anne the elephant, vet Nick and the team

are about to tackle a very unusual and tricky procedure.

Today is a bit special because we've been wanting for a little

while to look at her feet in a bit more detail.

And that, ideally, involves taking some radiographs, some X-rays.

So that's what we're going to try and do today.

Since she arrived, the keepers have been filing

and conditioning her over-grown toe nails.

They noticed what could be a problem.

We know now that her feet are all cleaned up

and looked at very carefully by the keepers,

that she's got some little cracks and little holes.

So we want to check, by taking X-rays,

that there's no infection there.

A bad infection behind the nails or in the toe bones would be

very serious, but an X-ray picture will reveal any problem.

The trouble is its not easy to X-ray an elephant.

She's not used to having her feet X-rayed.

We'll have to be careful with the equipment and everybody's safety.

While the team are working right under her feet,

Anne has to have a chain put on so no one gets accidentally crushed.

The X-ray machine sends a beam of rays through the body to a sensitive

plate on the other side, which makes a black and white picture.

That plate fits inside a case, which Anne puts her foot on.

Everyone close by needs to wear an apron made of lead

to protect them from the rays.

And the pictures go straight on the laptop.

All right, good girl.

Yeah.

That was great.

There were some really excellent pictures

under quite testing conditions, so it was good.

-And what have the pictures shown?

-The toes that have got some little

cracks and holes in them, we've got some good images.

There does appear to be some areas where bone is affected.

So that's important that we know how badly...

And see if our treatment is improving things,

certainly not letting them get any worse.

Under the information they've got from all today's tests,

the team can now tweak Anne's medication and diet

to keep her in the best possible condition.

Jon Cracknell reckons they've made good progress so far.

When she first came here, Anne could only walk for a very short distance.

What we've seen over the last couple of months is a slow improvement.

She's been walking farther and farther.

And now she manages a couple of hours out of the paddock.

From where she was and where she is now, it's amazing.

And let's hope that progress continues for Anne,

the oldest elephant in Europe.

Before we leave you today,

we thought we'd pop down and catch up with keeper John.

-Hi, John.

-Hello.

-Hi, John.

It looks like you've got your packed lunch boxes out.

Look at you two getting manly.

-He gives him the fist.

-Yeah.

-Is this your pack lunch?

Not quite lunch time. These are our three Emperor scorpions.

-Well, I wouldn't quite fancy eating those.

-No, I wouldn't dare.

-OK, let's have a look.

-Would you like to hold one?

-No!

What a silly question!

-Here we go.

-Can't scorpions kill you if they sting you?

-Not this species.

This is a very... Not dangerous to us.

-But it might hurt me.

-Get on with it, Rani!

You're just putting off the inevitable. Come on, you can do it.

I haven't held a scorpion before.

-There we go.

-I can't do it! It's going to bite me!

-It's going to sting me!

-It's all right, it's not going to sting you.

There we go. OK?

-Well done, Rani.

-It's going to sting me! It's going to sting me, it is!

I'm actually holding it!

Oh, it tickles.

And it's very light. And it's legs are very delicate.

But it's filling me with fear that it's going to sting me.

Rani, you're being so brave there.

-Unfortunately, we've run out of time for today's show.

-Whoa, Johny, no.

We've still got a couple of minutes and I've got two more scorpions.

No, unfortunately, we're definitely out of time.

-Here's what's coming up.

-No, honestly, I insist!

We've got stinging scorpions.

-You all right there, Rani, for a few minutes?

-No, I'm not.

I can't wait. Thought I got away with not holding one for a second.

Oh, this one is wriggly!

Why do I get the wriggly one?

-He's just waking up.

-Oh! Whoa, whoa!

There's something quite menacing about the name scorpions,

but these are called Emperor scorpions.

Are these like the bosses of all scorpions?

They're the biggest and most impressive type of scorpion.

So they tend to be the ones people would use in movies and things.

-Because, I mean, look at it. It does look pretty mean.

-But you know what?

Actually, now that she's on, she's very gentle.

And it is always the best way of getting over

a fear of something, isn't it? Holding one of these things.

Certain animals always carry that bad reputation.

You know, snakes, scorpions, spiders...

People think that they want to hurt you.

Don't get me wrong, don't go out into the African bush

and pick up every scorpion you find because they're not all going

to be as used to being handled as these guys.

You know what, John? It's been wicked getting to hold these guys.

-This one's quite wriggly. Do you want to hold this one, Rani?

-Sure!

I've got to say, we really are out of time now, so why don't you

check out what's coming up on the next episode of Roar.

And you enjoy your friend, Johny.

Next time...

A baby anteater is born at the park, the first they've ever had.

The keepers must weigh and measure the little one,

but how will Mum react and will she accept her baby back?

We'll be discovering why the water hole is a drink stop,

a supermarket and a restaurant for African animals.

And we visit a place that's not for the easily scared.

It's dark, it's creepy and it's full of bats.

This can mean only one thing.

It's time for...Ask The Keeper!

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