Episode 27 Roar

'Imogen the giraffe is one of the park's best-loved animals,

'but now she needs a vital operation

'and there's always the danger it could go wrong.'

Hello and welcome to Roar. I'm Rani.

I'm Johny, I know they say imitation is the highest form of flattery,

but I think these Polish chickens are taking it a bit far.

He's nicked my hairstyle!

I've got to say, Johny, I do prefer theirs.

-Shall we get on with today's show?

-I had it first.

'Coming up today, it's the A Team verses Genghis Khan and brothers,

'so who's going to win?'

They've got some mean tusks on them.

'Why is Johny going all funny?

'Just because he's got to pick up some furry little creatures!

'And Hansel the armadillo is looking for love,

'and is in a hurry to find it!'

He's so fast! Look at him!

'We're starting with giraffes. One of them has a serious problem.

'Imogen's 15-years-old.

'She was born here and has been one of the park's biggest characters.

'Over the years she's had two babies, Henry and Kaiser,

'and she was a great mum.

'It's not surprising that Imogen is a real favourite with the keepers.

'Here's Ryan.'

Imogen's important to the giraffes, not just as a brooding female,

but also just as a sound, steady member.

'There's another reason that Imogen has a place in everyone's heart.

'Years ago there was a time when they thought she was about to die.

'She was pregnant, but there were problems,

'so she had an emergency Caesarean operation to get the baby out.

'The keeper in charge, Andy, was expecting the worst.'

Immy's been through the biggest operation when we did the Caesarean.

We actually thought she wasn't going to make it through.

And, bless her heart, she did. She's a bit of a survivor, old Immy.

'Like everyone else who was there,

'deputy warden Ian never forgot that day.'

All the giraffes are special,

but Imogen is a bit special because of the Caesarean stuff.

We went through all that trouble and she's such a fighter.

'But now she's got a new problem. Andy has called in Chris, the vet.'

Today we're looking at Imogen, who is one of the older giraffes.

She's had bad feet for a while now and one have them is really sore,

so she's not putting any weight on one of her front feet.

'Imogen has had a touch of arthritis for some time.

'That makes her legs ache, so she just doesn't walk around very much,

'which means her hooves don't get worn down

'and that's what has caused the problem now.

The trouble is, once that toe overgrows they rock on the heel.

And you can see the way she's moving is just awkward for her.

'Overgrown hooves are very serious.

'If they don't do something, Imogen will be in agony, unable to walk.'

What we're going to do is we're going to is anaesthetise Imogen

knock her down and trim her feet

because her hooves on her feet are really becoming quite overgrown.

'The keepers have their own slang, so when Andy says "knock her down",

'what he's talking about is sending her to sleep with an anaesthetic.

'And that can be dangerous.'

There's always a risk with anaesthesia.

Whatever you knock down, be it a guinea pig up to a giraffe,

elephant, rhino, there's a risk.

Giraffes seem to be one of the more hard animals to do.

We try to make sure it's as safe and successful as possible.

'The risk is very high because giraffes

'can have extreme reactions to anaesthetic,

'but they've got no choice.'

The procedure's vital because the way her feet are growing

is affecting the rest of her leg.

It's like wearing shoes that don't fit.

If you chiselled half your shoe off, you'd walk funny

and it would affect all the rest of the bones, so it has to be done.

If a wild giraffe had the problems Imogen had, she'd be lion food.

'But now Chris, the vet, is ready.

'A team has been assembled and the procedure is about to start.

'The park's Head of Animals, John Cracknell, is a vet, too.

'He'll be in charge of anaesthetic.

'Imogen is being kept inside the Giraffe House.

'It's vital she's perfectly relaxed

'while they're giving her the anaesthetic.

'If she's stressed because they are strangers around,

'she might try to fight the drug.

'So, our film crew must wait outside

'until after Imogen has been sent to sleep.

'But then we're going in, so don't go away.

'In our last series we met Hansel and Gretel, the armadillos.

'Since then, sadly, Gretel has died, leaving Hansel all alone.'

Now, we all need a bit of care and attention and Hansel here,

well, he's on the hunt for a new mate,

so me and Sarah are going to make sure he's on top form.

What do we need to do for him today?

We're going to give him a health check and weigh him,

make sure he's all right.

How to weigh him? It's too small to put him in, that bowl!

It's quite hard to weigh an armadillo because they just roll around,

so I've got this little bowl to keep him still.

There's no way he's getting in there, Sarah, look at that!

You're not getting in there, are you, Hansel? "I'm not, Rani!" OK.

If you just pop him down on the top, that should keep him...

-He's just going to unravel.

-It should be all right.

-You have to be quick.

-Do you want me to let go?

-Yeah, yeah.

-Really?

-Yeah, go on.

Is that a good weight for an armadillo?

Yeah, that's normally what he weighs.

So he's not losing and not gaining, which is ideal.

Do we pick him back up again or what do we do? He's so warm.

I love him. Oh! And he's strong.

You are strong, aren't you, hairy man? Yes.

What's the next thing we need to do to make sure he's on top form?

We'll just give him a little look over.

check his eyes are nice and bright.

Check his nose that there's no discharge coming out.

Make sure his ears are nice and clean.

Eyes, nose, all good. So, what's the next plan for him?

So, we'll just pop him on the floor and give him

a run around and maybe see if he wants some mealworms, as well.

We're saying a little run around.

We should point out, there's nobody in this room apart from our crew.

We'd all better watch our feet. Is he fast?

Yeah, he is very fast, actually, we'll keep a close eye on him.

Everybody watch where you trod, we're going to put Hansel down.

He needs a bit of exercise.

And off he goes!

It's like we've wound him up and he's off! He is amazing!

Awww!

Is he going to go through? He's going to go through the doors!

-He's going to go through the doors!

-It's all right, it's OK.

He's not trying to escape.

He's really fast.

He's not doing a lot, so it's nice for him to come and run around

and give him something new to explore.

He's so fast, look at him! Look at those legs!

It's almost like they're blurring.

Here he comes, here he comes, here he comes, here he comes, !

I mean, what makes a good armadillo partner for him?

A female roughly his age,

because if you want to breed them it would be important.

He's about two and-a-half, this one. But that's it, really.

As long as the female's in good health as well,

like he is, then they should mix in really well.

But you've got to sell him. So, he's caring, he's playful.

He has got a lot of character. He's a funny little thing.

He runs around, bumps into things.

He can be a bit clumsy sometimes.

So, if you're an armadillo out there and you like the sound of Hansel,

get in touch with Roar and I think we've got you a date.

Come on, let's go and catch him.

'Anteaters don't have any teeth.

'They mainly eat bugs and, instead of chewing,

'they just crush them in their mouths.

'Over the course of a lifetime,

'this must save a lot of time.

'Just think, if an anteater lives for 25 years,

'that would be 26 days, eight hours and 40 minutes

'that they don't have to spend brushing their teeth.'

It's time for another Ask The Keeper.

And looking almost as tough as these lions are their keeper,

big, bad, Bob Trollope.

HEAVY METAL MUSIC

You're looking tough, but are you tough enough to take on this?

Well, I don't know.

Guys, are you ready to ask him some questions?

Yes.

OK, who's going to be first, then?

What's the average size of a newborn baby lion?

They're very, very small, but they grow very, very quickly.

So weight wise, you're looking at, in kilos, maybe a kilo.

Not very big at all.

How old are they when they start hunting?

Mum won't let the cubs go on a hunt for a long time

because they get in the way,

so you're looking at about the age of 18 months

when they will actually join in with the hunt.

Why is mum growling like that?

She's basically just telling us that she's there,

not to overstep our mark and get too close to her and her cubs.

-What do they eat now?

-They're very good.

They're on solids, so they actually eat meat.

We've got some if you want to do some feeding.

What do you reckon, guys, feeds some lion cubs? That's brilliant.

How do I feed them?

Don't hold it in your fingers because,

obviously, it might be dangerous,

so we've got a nice stick and we've just skewered one.

As you can see, this one is already keen to have some meat.

'This really is a rare treat.

'We can feed the lion cubs only because Bob is right here.'

Don't let go of the stick because you'd have to go in and get it!

Look, there you go!

Wow! You fed a lion, Nathan.

How big are mum's teeth?

Well, mum's canine teeth, those are the long ones at the front,

the top ones are about five centimetres long.

-So, that's really, really big.

-What are their names?

There's four cubs here. There are three girls and one boy.

The little boy is called Klaus,

and then we have another female that's called Eva,

one called Tana and one called Kianna.

They haven't actually had a piece yet, have they?

If you hold it out and push it in, they'll grab hold of that.

Ah, you've got it! Do you want to have a go, Johny?

Yes please. I've been waiting for you to say that!

There you go.

Brilliant. I'll give this little one some meat.

Bob, I have to say, this has been absolutely amazing.

I almost forgot that we've still got one more question to ask,

and that one is the Killer Question!

So, we need a question that's going to make it hard for him to answer.

OK, come on. Come on!

Stretch out guys, come on.

It's time for the Killer Question.

Right, OK. Here we go, Bob.

I hope you know your stuff.

Here you have four healthy lion cubs.

They are in captivity.

Out in the wild, the survival rate isn't quite as good.

How many of your cubs would you expect to survive in the wild?

Oh, very good. I would say...

..half.

You are saying half. You're saying about 50%.

50%, I reckon.

You know what, Bob, that's completely right!

About two of the clubs would survive out in the wild.

It's about a 50% survival rate. What do you reckon, guys?

He answered all our questions.

Is that a claws up or claws down for Bob?

Claws up all round.

Let's give him a round of a claws!

APPLAUSE

'If Imogen doesn't have her hooves trimmed,

'she'll soon be in agony and unable to walk.

'And now the team is ready to sort it out.

'Imogen has just been sent to sleep with an anaesthetic drug.'

Immy's gone down a lot faster than we were expecting.

The drug worked really, really quickly.

'Now Imogen's asleep,

'the team moves in and gets straight to work on those hooves.

'Hooves are just like our toenails, they never stop growing,

'and it doesn't hurt to cut or file them down.

'Though, obviously, with giraffes you need much bigger tools.

'While the team press on, Ian is taking pictures.

'It's important to record everything,

'just in case they need to do this sort of operation again

'and right now the vets don't have time to stop and make notes.'

Chris is working away on the feet. One of the front feet is done.

That wasn't bad. Now it's this back foot that's the really overgrown one,

so Chris is sweating away over this one now.

Everybody else is massaging her because you can get problems

when they're down for a long time.

They get muscle damage, so you want blood flow,

so when you get her up she hasn't got dead legs.

Everybody knows what it's like to get pins and needles in your legs.

If you've got legs that long, it's a real nightmare.

'Giraffes can suffer unusual side effects from anaesthetic

'and the longer Imogen is kept under, the greater the risk.

'While she's down,

'they're taking the opportunity to give her a health check.

'The animal dentist is here to take care of her teeth.

'And as the hooves are trimmed, the team takes an X-ray of each foot

'to make sure there are no other problems.'

Everybody is sweating and working hard.

You want everything done as quickly as you possibly can.

'One of the hooves is very tough,

'so Chris uses a wire cutter to get through it as quickly as possible.

'Everyone knows they're working against the clock.'

We've trimmed all four feet now.

The back feet were twisted,

so we've got them back to what they should look like.

And the front feet, which take more weight than the back,

they had some stones and some little abscesses inside so, hopefully,

we've cut all of that out.

'When all the jobs are done, Imogen's given a drug

'that will reverse the effect of the anaesthetic.'

The worry is always with the coming round bit.

We know she's fine at the minute the machine is breathing for her,

but there's always that next bit of time.

'But, very soon, we'll find out

'whether or not Imogen has suffered side effects from the anaesthetic.

'So, now, like everyone else, all we can do is wait.'

What did the rabbit give his girlfriend for her birthday?

A 14 carrot ring!

IMPERSONATES ELEPHANT

-I'm a hamster and my name is Oliver.

-Why are you called Oliver?

Because when the human lets me out of my cage, I'm Oliver the place!

IMPERSONATES MONKEY

What do camels wear to protect themselves?

I don't know, what do camels wear to protect themselves?

Camelflage.

LAUGHTER

'Genghis Khan, Attila the Hun, and Vlad the Impaler.

'You'd think with those names the park's three African warthogs

'would be a little more in your face.

'But, no, these three brothers are really quite shy.

'In fact, it's difficult to get a close look at them.'

Seriously, I'm not having any luck getting close to those warthogs.

-How about you, keeper Ross?

-It's all about your equipment, Rani.

The man's got a point. That's why we've brought in the Roar A Team!

Armed with a camera, a log and, of course,

the trusty carrot, irresistible to warthogs.

Come on, let's go and find us a warthog!

A Team, we're ready.

'To get some close up footage, the Roar A Team have set up an ambush.

'When the warthogs go for the food we've left out,

'our spy cameras should get some clear shots.'

What else do we need to entice the warthogs over?

We need to be quiet and, also, if we could back off a little bit,

hopefully, they can get a bit more confident and they'll come closer.

I can back off, but being quiet has always been tricky for me.

Right, then, let's back up.

-Is about here good?

-Yeah, this is all right.

Look at them all eyeballing us!

'I thought warthogs were supposed to be greedy,

'but these guys are going nowhere near the food we put out.

'In fact, they're actually getting closer to us.'

Ross, I've got to say, them getting closer,

they've got mean tusks on them.

Yeah, they're tough animals and they use them for fighting,

but they usually use their tusks more for burrowing

and getting foliage from underground.

'The A Team's ambush hasn't worked,

'but now the warthogs are getting close enough to get a good look.

'Maybe a little too close!'

I've got to admit, I'm getting slightly wary,

so, I'm going to get out of here and you should get the cameras.

See you later, warthogs!

'There are loads of great games on the CBBC website,

'but the Roar game is the only one

'where you can get an animal park to look after, so why not give it a go?

'But right now make a note of this, crystal674.

'That's today's cheat code

'and you'll see what it's for when you get to the game.'

I've popped down to Animal Adventure to help Kim do measuring.

I've brought my tape measure,

maybe I should have brought a metre rule, Kim?

You don't need that at all, Johny, you need this.

5p? Well, thanks for that, Kim, but what are we doing?

If you come over here I will show you. These are our spiderlings.

I know you've met a few of them before,

but we've got some very important stuff that we need to do today.

If you take a look at this picture over here,

this is when they were only 12 weeks old,

you can see I used a five pence piece to show how big they were then.

-Oh, yeah.

-So, it's just a constant.

Obviously, the 5p hasn't changed, but the spiders have.

So, that's pretty much to scale.

That's tiny and that's at 12 weeks. So, are we going to measure them?

Yeah, we're just going to pop them on the piece of paper next to the 5p,

and then I can take a picture and I've got it then as proof.

Johny, are you going to get one out and pop it on the paper?

This is weird. I've held a tarantula before and I thought I was OK,

but I think it's going into their territory.

It's a bit weird. It's different when you're picking them up, isn't it?

So, if you pop your hands fairly flat in front of her.

Yeah.

I can move her around to an area where she's...

That's it, and then just from behind.

As long as she's got something safe to stand on, she's fine.

There you go, look. There you are.

-It's not as bad as you'd think.

-APPLAUSE

That's chilled out.

If you take her and pop her on the paper next to the 5p.

-So, how am I doing?

-Yeah, just pop her down.

Just move your hand out and we just make sure that she sits still.

So, we can see a good, healthy growth, Kim, but what about weight?

-I see a weighing machine.

-We've got a little scales.

This is the first time I've weighed these baby spiders,

so I've got no idea how much they weigh.

So, literally, if we pick them up and pop them down on to here,

you can see, literally, almost nothing!

She's 10 grams.

That's quite surprising, actually.

When you look at tarantulas they look really heavy and huge,

but when they're on you, they're light, aren't they?

They are extremely light. There's almost nothing to them.

A nice easy morning, we've just got about three more to weigh?

-No, out there we've got 19.

-We've got 19 spiderlings.

We could be here a long time.

Shall we start with that big one first, then?

'Back in the Giraffe House,

'Imogen has just had some vital work done on her hooves

'to save her from going lame.

'And now everyone is waiting for her to wake up from the anaesthetic.

'This is the worst part of the whole operation

'because giraffes can have a bad reaction to the anaesthetic drug.

'It can affect their heart, lungs and muscles.

'But now she seems to be coming round.'

Yeah, she's moving her legs.

'It's been two hours since she was first put under anaesthetic,

'so Imogen must get to her feet as soon as possible.'

Easy. Good girl. Easy.

'She's trying to get up, but her legs are week.

'She may already have suffered muscle damage.

'If she doesn't get up, it's going to get worse and worse.'

Right, everybody out.

'Andy asks everyone who is just watching to leave,

'in case the crowd is causing her stress.

'So now we must wait outside while the vets and her closest keepers

'try everything they can to get Imogen back on her feet.

'They even bring in special hoisting equipment to try to get her up.

'The work goes on as minutes and hours kick by, but nothing helps.

'And, then, Andy comes out with the news everyone was dreading.'

Unfortunately, our worst fears have happened.

The anaesthesia went pretty well.

The actual operation itself went well,

but, as can happen with giraffe, Imogen couldn't get up to her feet

and we decided to put her to sleep and avoid any more suffering.

'The keepers and vets did everything they could to save Imogen,

'and her death has come as a terrible blow.'

None of the animals here are any more or less important than anybody else,

but when you get your old favourite like Imogen go, it hurts a lot.

She was special. She was a pretty amazing giraffe and she's gone.

'Imogen was a big character

'and she made a big contribution to the life of the herd.

'She may be gone, but the herd goes on.

We're in a wonderful position with this giraffe herd.

We've got a lot of young up and coming females.

We're having a lot of calves born.

It's the best group of Rothschild giraffe.

You look a little Leila running around. It's what we do.

You've got to look forward and we've got lots of babies to come

and it's all good.

MUSIC: "Wherever You Will Go" by Charlene Soraia

'It's been a sad day for everyone who knew Imogen,

'but the life of the park carries on.

'The lion cubs are still practising their pounce,

'the monkeys keep getting up to mischief,

'and we're going to carry on bringing you the animal action,

'fun and drama from the park.

'Right now, though, we're out of time,

'so, here's what we'll have next time on Roar.

'Cessna the marmoset was bullied and kicked out of the group,

'but now that Carlos is here, has true love come her way?

We're ready!

'The Rangers discover the downside of being a lorikeet keeper.'

One has pooed on my shoulder!

'And we'll be challenging the tigers to a tug-of-war

'to find out how strong and scary they really are.'

That was unbelievable!

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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