Episode 19 Roar

Today on ROAR,

a baby anteater is born at the park. The first they've ever had.

The keepers must weigh and measure it,

but how will Mum react?

And will she accept her baby back?

Hello, I'm Johny.

And I'm Rani.

Welcome to a feathery, fluttering episode of ROAR.

These amazing birds here are African Hooded Vultures.

I've got Moriarty.

And I have the blushing Mighty Mite. Isn't she gorgeous?

Mine's just flown off.

We better fly as we have an amazing episode of ROAR to get on with.

Come on, Mighty Mite.

Coming up today.

They're the biggest, strongest and hungriest predators in the park.

But how clever are the Siberian tigers?

We'll find out why the water hole is a drink stop, a supermarket

and a restaurant for African animals.

And we visit a place 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!

We start today with a gooey moment.

This year on ROAR, we've seen some beautiful babies born.

First, it was the lion cubs.

Four of them, and they don't get much cuter than this.

Then, it was the meerkat babies.

We followed them as they went outside for the first time.

There's been baby Rene, the Californian sea lion,

two baby camels, lots of eland and, of course, the zebra foal.

Now, though, Head of Section Darren Beasley has called,

saying he has some amazing news down at Jungle Kingdom.

This fella here is Bonito. He became a dad this morning.

Maroni, the giant anteater,

gave birth in the early hours of the morning.

We've been allowed in to get these very first pictures

of the new arrival.

We didn't manage to capture the birth on film,

but we do have a camera set up in Maroni's night quarters,

which also gives us a nice top shot of mum and baby.

I am excited.

I was excited when my little boy was born

and I'm just as excited as Maroni's little baby's been born.

Anteater keeper Catriona was on a day off,

but she's rushed in especially to see the baby.

Maroni. Hello, gorgeous.

'I was in my bed'

and Darren phoned me and said

that Maroni, our giant anteater, had had a baby.

Maroni and Bonito are a special pair of anteaters to me.

Here I am to see her and give her a wee treat just to say, "Well done".

(What a clever girl you are).

I'm just over the moon. I think it's awesome.

Mum actually carries the baby on her back,

so, when the baby's born it climbs around and rides on her back

like a little racehorse jockey.

The baby anteater won't touch the ground for at least a month.

It must hang on to Mum's fur from the moment it's born.

They're quite difficult to spot as they have exactly the same

fur colourings and markings as Mum, so they're very well camouflaged.

It's a brilliant way of hiding from predators.

He relies completely on hanging on to Mum's fur for a bit.

But everything else is fully formed.

These come out fully furred.

Their eyes are open, unlike rabbits who come out eyes closed.

They're not like humans who come out naked

and can't do anything for themselves.

They look like they've shrunk in the wash,

like their mum and dad have been put on hot wash.

In the wild, anteaters are solitary creatures.

The male plays no part in bringing up the baby.

So Dad has been separated

so the keepers can keep an eye on his behaviour.

Bonito is doing the normal father thing.

He's been pacing, trying to get in to see the mum.

She's resting now. She has to get some energy back.

It must be quite draining for the female.

You rest now, sweet pea.

(Good girl.)

This is Maroni's first pup,

so the keepers are very anxious to make sure

the baby's developing properly.

The keepers will need to weigh and measure her regularly.

If the baby's not growing and putting on weight,

they may have to hand-rear her.

Hopefully, she's a good mum.

If we see there's been a weight increase and a size increase,

we know in the first week of life it's putting weight on,

getting muscle built up,

getting lots of Mum's milk, which is really important.

To carry out these checks,

the baby will have to be taken away from Mum

for a few minutes, and there's a risk she may then reject her baby.

We're so keen Mum keeps hold of Baby, and Baby hangs on to Mum.

You don't want to break that bond, so we have to get in there,

get it done and get her back.

It's a job that must be done.

But how will Maroni react?

We'll be back later.

In the wild, if a tiger wants to eat,

it must hunt and capture its prey.

They're very fast sprinters over short distances

and are also incredibly strong.

They're the biggest and most powerful hunters on land.

But how clever are they?

Today, we'll try to find out

with the Siberian, or Amur tigers, as they're also called.

Deputy head of the park Ian Turner and I are here behind this van.

We're hiding from the park's four Amur tigers.

They're just over there but are locked away, I've been reassured.

If this was a game of hide and seek,

-would they be able to find us?

-I'm afraid so, yes.

Really? How do they know we're here?

Sense of smell, and they have really good eyesight.

What's the deal today? We have this,

-which looks like some kind of tree stump.

-That's the whole idea.

It's got a little flap here, and the idea is to fill it up with meat.

-OK, brilliant.

-Put it out there.

They've not seen this tree stump yet, have they?

-They haven't before.

-Not ever before.

So we'll fill it with meat,

and I guess we want to test the tigers' sense of smell.

Obviously, they'll see something new.

Then hopefully they'll smell there's food inside it.

Let's get stuffing, then. Put that in there.

We have this hole there.

D'you think that's big enough for a tiger to get its head through?

The whole idea of doing it that size is to get it big enough

to get a paw through, but not big enough for a head to get through.

We've got Turlough, the male tiger.

D'you think he'll be the first over? Is he quite dominant?

Is there a hierarchy here?

There is a hierarchy, but he won't be the first over.

Sundari's the really naughty one.

She'll be the one first over.

That's the last bit.

Excellent.

Just close this little flap.

I guess we need to get this into position.

Where will be put it? Just over there?

Just the other side of the truck.

This is heavy!

Join us later on in the show to see if the tigers win our little game

of hide and seek. Come on, Ian!

There's one place in the park not for the easily scared.

THUNDER PEELS

It's dark, it's creepy

and it's full of bats.

There's a deadly silence.

I can feel tension in the air.

This can mean only one thing.

It's time for Ask The Keeper!

THUNDER PEALS

-OK, Alexa. Are you shaking in your boots?

-Just a little bit, yeah.

We see you wobbling a bit there.

We'll be asking you loads of questions

on the Egyptian fruit bat.

They seem to be flying above our heads at the moment.

-Is everyone all right with bats?

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Everyone else shaking in their boots?

Who'll ask the first question?

Go on, then, Felicity.

Do Egyptian fruit bats just live in Egypt?

They were originally discovered in Egypt,

just over 200 years ago.

They're now widespread across the Mediterranean,

Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa.

How many babies can a female have up to in her lifetime?

That's a lovely question.

These bats can live over 20 years in captivity,

but the female bat will only have one baby per year.

You can look at about 18 or 19 babies in her life.

How long is a fruit bat's wingspan?

These guys, their wingspan is just under two foot.

That's around 60 centimetres.

That's quite long, like two school rulers next to each other.

No wonder a gust of air flies over us every now and again.

OK, more questions, then.

What's their favourite fruit?

They really love bananas

when they're black, squidgy and horrible and smell like vinegar.

Love them. Full of sugar.

-You're good, Alexa. Does anyone else think Alexa's good?

-ALL: Yeah!

You are. I think it's time for the Killer Question.

Let's think of something to really catch her out.

She's playing it cool, you know?

There she is...

MURMURING

-Are you ready?

-ALL: Yeah!

Let's take down Alexa! Hey! Alexa, we got a Killer Question for you.

Some fruit bats can migrate 1,000 kilometres,

travelling about 20 kilometres a day.

How long would it take a fruit bat to travel

from Bristol to the Pyramids in Giza in Egypt?

Just off the top of your head.

That's really evil.

I have no idea. Maths really isn't my strong point.

I will guess...

50 days?

So Alexa, you're saying 50 days.

Let me tell you,

Bristol to the Pyramids in Giza

is 3,660 kilometres,

so it should take them about five hours.

That's if they were to hop on a plane.

Otherwise, it'd be 183 days to fly non-stop.

You failed, Alexa,

on the flying commission,

but how about her bat knowledge? Thumbs up, or thumbs down?

Thumbs up, or thumbs down?

Thumbs up all round. Well done, you!

-Flying colours!

-Thank you!

When people say "blind as a bat", they're actually wrong.

Bats have very good eyesight,

but they also have excellent echolocation.

They use their tongue to make a high-pitched click sound

towards an object.

The sound waves hit the object and bounce back,

allowing the bats to judge how far away it is.

Clever stuff!

ALL: Now you know!

Earlier on in the show,

myself and Ian hid chunks of meat in a tub disguised as a tree stump.

Now it's time to see if the tigers can sniff it out.

I'm ready if you are, Ian.

-We're ready.

-Give the word.

Ian to Emily. Can you let the tigers out?

We've also hidden one of our mini cameras near the meat container

to try and get some fabulous side shots.

-There, she's behind you now.

-And that's Sundori, is it?

Oh, she's coming straight over here.

Did you see the way they ran over?

She obviously can smell something.

She knows something's in there.

Do they argue about food much? Do we see them fighting?

When they see the food...

-Turlough's going over there.

-Look at this...

..the difference in size, look. He's got the flap off.

D'you think they might use their claws to rip that apart?

I reckon now that somebody can see the meat inside there...

I'm amazed they didn't come straight over

and knock that bucket straight over.

They're sniffing and having a think about it, aren't they?

They used their smell, which is the whole idea of the test,

to see if the smell works.

Why are they taking so long to get in at that meat?

I imagine they're hungry and want the meat.

They know it's there.

What's surprising me is nobody's used their brain

and put a paw in there.

She's trying to do now.

You can see his claws on the top.

They're retractable, so they're not out all the time.

-Now he's just taking it off.

-I don't know how it looks at home,

if that looks like a light barrel, but that's heavy.

It took both of us to carry that.

It proves what amazing strength they have.

It was in the door and just carted it off.

What kind of animals would they be hunting out in the wild?

They'd go for deer. Deer would be their main thing.

And some of the deer can get quite a big size, 300 or 400 pounds.

Just grab it, kill it and then drag it off somewhere.

So, they need to have that strength to drag off the animal.

At last! After seven minutes,

Turlough's got a bit of meat out of the hole.

There are some amazing noises going on there.

TIGER GROWLS

Are they communicating, or arguing?

There's lots going on there at the moment.

Turlough's got his meat and saying, "Keep off of mine".

There's also that chuffling sound, which is the happy sound.

He's got some meat, so they're all happy.

They're in a playful mode at the moment.

Everybody's quite happy at the minute.

-There's another chunk there.

-Another chunk starts.

Who's that that's with that?

Watch the other one.

She's been chased off.

Ian, this is working out every part of their bodies.

It's working out their brain and their jaw,

cos they're trying to bite into it.

It's working out their paws.

Is this why you do things like this?

If they took an animal down in the wild,

they have to use their jaw to bite it, kill it and stuff,

and carry it and pull it about.

We struggled moving that barrel and she's moving it like it's nothing.

She's desperate to get that meat in there.

I'm quite surprised she's not worked out she can put her paw in.

Her paw can go in, then the claws can come out

and grab the meat and bring it out.

Once she figures that out, she'll be well away.

The tigers are absolutely loving this.

They're having a good play, really enjoying that stump.

I could just stay here all day and watch her.

What do monkeys eat for dessert?

Chocolate chimp cookies!

Woof! Woof!

Where would you put an injured insect?

In an "antbulance".

CHIRP

Where do old cows go?

To a mooseum.

Back up at the anteater enclosure,

it's a big day for Maroni

and her new baby, who is now one week old.

The keepers need to make sure the baby's suckling properly

and putting on weight.

Today's a pretty nerve-racking day.

We're going to go in and take some measurements from our baby anteater.

The main worry is that Maroni won't take her baby back

after this essential job is done.

There is a concern, but if we do it quickly and do it well,

hopefully Mum shouldn't really notice.

We'll try and blackmail Mum with a few goodies to eat.

There's also a risk Maroni could injure the keepers.

Like all new mothers, she's very protective of her young.

The reason two of us have to go in is that anteaters are

one of the most dangerous animals we have at Longleat.

They've got these huge claws.

They can rip apart anything coming at them.

They're ideal for digging out termites,

but also very ideal as a defensive weapon.

They'll thump you with it and slice you apart

if you're a human or a jaguar, if you're a predator.

-Hey, girly girl.

-It's time to go in.

Keeper Cat is wearing a special ROAR mini camera,

so you can see how everything goes.

She'll try to distract Maroni with avocado,

one of her favourite treats.

Now she's going to take the baby straight away.

(Good girl).

You've got to uncover it.

The baby has really sharp claws

that Catriona's got to mind out for.

Good girl!

(Good girl).

The avocado seems to be doing the trick.

But it won't last long.

Good.

We'll try to measure the nose length now,

which we might be able to do in the bag.

I'll get it out, just hold its claws.

We have a special gauge here.

All I do is measure from between the ears

to the end of the nose.

Darren measures the pup's nose.

It's the only part not covered in long hair.

So it's a more accurate way of assessing its growth.

108.90.

You can see these really sharp claws we try to avoid.

And that's a week-old baby. Look at the size of that.

We'll just have a little check.

Definitely a girl.

That's really good news.

The final challenge is to get Baby back to Mum.

Good girl!

Hello, gorgeous.

Good girl.

Job done, and the whole thing has only taken a few minutes.

You can see how undistressed Mum was there.

She didn't even take her nose out of her avocado.

Baby made a couple of grunty, squeaky noises. Look at that.

Perfect.

An important thing for us is that the anteater baby is back on.

To outsiders it might seem like a simple operation.

You take the baby, weigh it, put it back.

But so many things could go wrong.

Imagine she wouldn't accept that baby back.

Imagine now if we had to take the baby and hand-rear it.

The fact it's gone back on, I'm really pleased.

To make sure the baby's on the right track,

Cat and Darren compare her weight to the recorded weight

of another healthy anteater baby from another animal park.

If we look down for day eight,

16.30, theirs. Ours was 16.50.

Ours is 20 grams heavier than theirs

at the same age.

In fact, that's a quite good benchmark.

You keep a bit of a diary. It's what we see throughout the days.

Seeing if she's suckling, if we've heard any noises or her

being in the right position on Mum's back.

Mum will suckle her baby for around six months.

So far everything's going well.

But mum and pup still face many difficulties.

The next challenge is when she takes baby outside for the first time.

Join us later to see how it goes.

Have you got your own animal park on the ROAR game

on the CBBC website?

If you do, you'll know what to do with this.

gold90.

That's today's cheat code.

If you're not playing the game yet, why not give it a go?

It's easy to get started and good fun.

Happy gaming!

During the dry season in Africa, water holes become very busy.

Every animal needs to drink,

so they're not only refreshment stations, but also supermarkets

and restaurants for the predators, too.

Here at the safari park's water hole,

there are no predators like lions to disturb the giraffe and zebra.

Just the ROAR film team.

They're coming over now. I think that's more to do with the food.

We've used a little bit of bribery to help matters.

We do see this behaviour naturally in the day, anyway.

They will tend to wander round, come over to the water hole,

check it out, and then drift off.

It's amazing to see them come forth.

And the zebs are here, as well. It's a really beautiful sight.

You can only imagine what it'd be like in the wild

to have a watering hole.

This is perfectly natural. You do get to see these animals.

The zebs have amazing hearing,

but the giraffes have the advantage of height,

so the zebras hang around with the giraffes and use them as lookouts.

When the giraffes freeze, and they've noticed something,

the zebs pick up on that and sound the alarm.

-You really see how they work together.

-Clever!

I usually think of giraffes on savanna land.

They usually do live there.

So, why not just hang round the watering hole all day?

It's a beautiful life here.

It is, Johny. In this country, as we have the weather earlier,

they don't need really to hang so near the water hole.

The grass is quite damp, so they get a lot of water from that.

There's not that real instinct as you'd see in the wild.

Still, it's here for them so they can then display natural behaviours.

In the wild, isn't it a problem

to spend too much time by the watering hole?

Isn't it quite dangerous?

It is, especially during the dry season

when you get more predators.

There's more need for water, so you get a lot more crowded.

It's a perfect opportunity for a predator to surprise them.

Really and truly, even lions really go after one of these guys.

They're massive.

It tends to be more youngsters and older, infirm animals

that they'd go for.

Probably not the likes of Doto there, our mature bull.

We have some of the youngsters born last year, some of the little ones.

Certainly a brave pride of lions or hyenas or wild dogs

that work together might think about taking down a giraffe.

Luckily for us, there aren't any predators around here,

so we can relax and watch the animals chill out at the water hole.

Back down with the anteaters,

and new mum Maroni and her baby are doing brilliantly.

Head keeper Darren couldn't be prouder.

The keepers have named her Star,

and Mum's confident enough to bring her outside

for the first time.

She's had a baby. She has to act as normal.

She still has to exercise. Here we go.

You can see the baby right on the back, on the base of the tail.

The baby's hanging on, so all its muscles are quite tense.

It's really important the baby holds on very tight.

It's like the ultimate horse-riding. You have to hang on.

In the wild, giant anteaters mainly eat ants and termites,

using their huge claws to dig out the mounds.

They get bugs here at the park, too.

But Maroni does love the occasional treat of avocado or cream cheese.

It's a little bit of a reward to say. 'Well done for coming out'.

It means I can hold her here and see the baby's OK.

You can see that long, sticky tongue.

We now know these two are good animals together.

They are bonded, they do make good babies,

and hopefully in two years, maybe,

this baby will be having babies themselves. Really nice.

Until then, little Star has a lot of growing to do.

Well, it is the end of the show, so let's say goodbye, Johny.

-OK. See ya!

-Bye.

-Was that a bit flat?

-Yeah, it felt a bit flat.

We need something bigger.

-GoodBYE! No?

-That didn't work, Rani.

Gem, have you got any ideas for us?

The parrot's very talented and noisy.

I'm sure we can get one of them to say goodbye.

Is this the kind of stuff they do in the shows?

-They do parrot shows here, don't they?

-Definitely.

All these guys are used in the parrot shows.

They all do individual tricks.

Who would you say is your most talented parrot here?

-I don't know.

-You haven't got a favourite?

Jake's very, very talented.

What can Jake do?

He drives his car, but never puts enough petrol in

so he always breaks down.

He also does shopping and is very good at his shopping.

Sounds like he's a talented one.

Hang on. Can he talk, though?

He can. He has a lovely talk. He has a lovely goodbye.

Ok, then, Jake. Say goodbye.

Jake, we're going now. Can you say goodbye?

-Gemma, he's not listening to us. Could you do the honours?

-Of course.

Hello, Jake.

SQUAWK

Say goodbye.

SQUAWK

Jake: Bye-bye!

That was brilliant! Well, you heard it from the parrot himself.

It is goodbye for now.

Here's what's coming up on the next episode of ROAR.

JAKE: Bye-bye!

Bye-bye!

Tigers are the perfect athletes.

They're fast runners,

amazing climbers,

and great gymnasts.

But which tiger can jump the highest?

It's boys versus girls.

Our ROAR Rangers have got the boots and the gloves.

That can only mean one thing. It's time to get dirty.

But what animal will they be looking after?

And it's Jessie the tapir versus the film crew.

Can we catch her swimming,

or will she have the last laugh?

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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