Animal Camouflage - Now You See Me... Now You Don't

Recently on Cage and Aviary Bird Magazine, I subbed an article from a franchise called Misadventures of a Birdkeeper. (Subbing is ensuring the article is grammatically correct, as well as making sure it is written in a clear, concise way). 

This franchise is all about contributor Bill Naylor's life working in various zoos, bird gardens and museums in the UK and overseas. In this feature he mentioned the camouflage techniques of the tawny frogmouth.

Native to Australia, they live in open forests and woodlands. They are often mistaken for owls because of their appearance and nocturnal habits, however they are more closely related to nightjars. These birds mainly eat large night-active insects and spiders and a male and female will pair for life. 

However, what makes these birds so fascinating is the way they disguise themselves! During the day the tawny frogmouth will roost in bare, sheltered trees, stumps or just on sheltered ground. At the slightest hint of a potential threat or even a disturbance, they will freeze, pack in their feathers and close their eyes to resemble slits. After this, they will look like a broken branch. Only if they are then pushed, will they reveal themselves with a frightening snapping of their yellow bills. 

This act of camouflage is the way an animal can blend in with its surroundings, and this is due either to its body's shape or the colour of its coat/skin to help it match its habitat. It's used for two reasons: to hunt or to hide from predators. 

The arctic fox is a predator that needs to be able to creep up on its prey. The natural hue of its coat acts as an effective winter camouflage because they blend into the snow and ice of the arctic. When food is scarce during winter, they will follow the area's main predator - the polar bear - to eat scraps from their kills. This makes their disappearing act more vital than ever. 

When the seasons change, the fox's coat does too and so in summer it adopts a brown or grey appearance. This helps it to blend in with the rocks and plants. An extremely hardy animal, the arctic fox can survive in temperatures that get as low as -50⁰C. It has furry soles, short ears and a short muzzle, which all help in a cold climate. They live in burrows, and when faced with a blizzard, will tunnel into the snow to create shelter. 

A master of disguise that everyone has heard of is the chameleon. These colourful creatures have transparent skin and special cells that enables them to change their skin colour. It can switch from one colour to another in under 15 minutes, allowing it to escape from any predators. Interestingly, this colour change is involuntary and is caused by light, temperature and reactions such as anger or fear. This change is not related to the colour of any plant that the chameleon is on or near. 

There are about 90 species of chameleon currently known and these are native to Africa, Spain, Madagascar, India and Sri Lanka. Its feet are adapted for grasping hold of branches and other foliage, as each foot has five toes arranged in pincher-like sections of two and three. A chameleon's eyes can also rotate, both together and independently and its tongue is almost as long as its body. 

Another way some animals camouflage is by countershading. This double disguise makes it difficult for  predators or prey to see them coming. 

Sharks use countershading effectively when hunting because they has a light stomach and dark back. Therefore, when sneaking up on a shoal of fish, a shark can approach from either above or below, because its dark and light colouring breaks up its shape, making it harder to be noticed. 

There are an estimated 375 species of shark and they have been around for nearly 400 million years, making them older than dinosaurs! Sharks do not have any bones because its skeleton is made up of cartilage. This gives it more flexibility in water and helps it to stay afloat. Amazingly, sharks do not have scales and actually have teeth-like structures called denticles that cover their body to help protect it. These make the shark feel like sandpaper. 

Colchester Zoo - Happy 50th Birthday!

It's a yearly tradition that for mine and Zoe's birthday we take a trip to one of my favourite places - Colchester Zoo! This year, they were also celebrating their 50th birthday, and on Sunday June 2, I was lucky enough to be there on their official birthday.

I love visiting Colchester Zoo, mainly because all the animals are well looked after and it gives me the chance to get up close to some particularly interesting species.

One of the most fascinating animals, for me, is the Komodo dragon and it was great to see that on January 18, 2013, Colchester Zoo was lucky enough to have a new baby Komodo dragon join the adults.

The largest land lizard in the world, this huge reptile only lives on a few Indonesian islands: Komodo, Rintja, Padar and Flores. Although they can run up to speeds of 13mph, what makes this lizard so deadly is its stealth and power.

These amazing animals can spend hours waiting in one spot for that tasty meal to come along, and while it can see up to 300m away, its main primary food detector is its sense of smell. Using its long, forked tongue to sample the air like a snake, it can smell prey up to two and a half miles away if the wind is right.

That't not all. These cannabilistic dragons also produce a venom and these toxins send their prey into shock. This also prevents the wounded animal's blood from clotting and if the lizard's prey has managed to escape their jaws, this toxin will kill it within a week. Interestingly, their venom has no affect on fellow dragons.

Another great part of Colchester Zoo is that you're able to get up close to the animals. The Lost Madagascar Train takes visitors through their first lemur walkthrough enclosure, and as you can see from this photograph, I was just as interested in this ring-tailed lemur as he was in me!

In the wild, these beautiful primates are only found on the island of Madagascar, just off the coast of Africa. Unmistakable due to their long, striped, black and white tail, they use their hands and feet to move between the trees. However, they cannot grip with their tails as well as some other primates can.

They live in groups, which are known as troops, and these can include up to 30 at any one time. Both males and females live together, but unlike other animals, a dominant female presides over the troop. Sadly, the ring-tailed lemur is currently endangered because the dry forests that they love are vanishing.

Colchester Zoo is well known for its informative and entertaining talks and shows, and all are extremely popular, including the patagonian sealion show at Playa Patagonia.

Home to their five female sealions, Atlanta, Milan, Paris, Sydney and Winnipeg, unlike seals these sealions use both their fore and hind limbs on land and mainly their front flippers for swimming. Mainly feeding on fish, crustaceans and squid, they are widely distributed in the wild, but are prey for killer whales and sharks.

Sealions are also sexually dimorphic, which means that that the males and females have different physical appearances. The males are much larger, weighing between 300-350kg compared to the females who weigh 144kg.

Lastly, as a new member of the Cage & Aviary Bird Magazine team, my day at the zoo was not complete until I had seen one of the various bird displays! I was lucky to view the Serengeti Skies display and come across these white-backed vultures.

This old world vulture has a wingspan of an amazing 6.4-7.4ft (that's longer than me!), which enable them to soar and circle while looking for food. Found in sub-Saharan Africa, they live in groups and have no natural predators apart from humans.

Everyone knows that vultures feed on carrion (the carcass of a dead animal) and are legendary for their ability to find this. Although, their sense of smell is poor, their eyesight enables them to spot food while in the air. They also keep an eye on each other, and if one bird swoops down, the rest eagerly follow.

With more than 260 different species and set in 60 acres, I definitely think that Colchester Zoo is well worth a visit!

The Warner Bros. Harry Potter Tour - An Array Of Animal Actors

To celebrate reaching more than 1,000 page views - thank you so much for taking the time to read my blog, it means so much to me - I thought I'd write a special post about when myself, my boyfriend Conor and my sisters Zoe and Jodie went to the Warner Bros. Sudio Tour London: The Making of Harry Potter.

Apart from seeing all the great props, costumes and sets at the tour - we even sampled a Butterbeer - what particularly interested me was the section on the animal actors that played the parts of Fang, Hedwing, Scabbers, Crookshanks and Mrs Norris.

There, at the studios in Leavesden,  the backlot was home to 250 animals of the wizarding world, which were all managed by the Animal Department. Due to the decade long production of turning the seven books into the highly successful films that they are, this gave the animal trainers the unique opportunity to watch these animals grow and learn many new tricks.

Now one of the most famous owls in the world, Hedwig was played by four different snowy owls, all of which were trained to perform certain actions. Out of all the animals that were trained, owls are the most difficult and can take up to four months to learn  tricks such as retrieve. Depending on the bird, some can even take longer than this.

Some of the animal actors were rescued and the trainers found it was easier to train youngsters, rather than older animals. Playing the part of Hedwig were Gizmo, Wton, Elmo and Sprout, with each bird undertaking a certain trick. Gizmo was trained to pick up letters and carry broomsticks in his beak, Wton was trained for action and did the flying, Elmo was trained to sit in a cage and Sprout was carried around by Daniel Radcliffe. Gizmo, Wton and Elmo were all rescue owls, while Sprout was bought from a private collector.

Nine Neapolitan Mastiffs were cast as the part of Hagrid's dog Fang - the cause of plenty of slobber while on set! Dogs enjoy the whole training process, whereas the wild animals and cats needed breaks in between shoots.

Gunner, Hugo, Luigi, Bella, Monkey Uno, Bully, Vito and Kato all played their parts as the loveable Fang. Three of these were the original Fang actors, with Hugo used in The Philosopher's Stone - The Prisoner of Azkaban, Bella when shooting in the Ford Anglia in the Chamber of Secrets because she was comfortable in cars and Vito was the 'hero' dog in the first Harry Potter and was lent to the film studio by a local family.

Rescue Gunner performed in The Order of the Phoenix, another rescue Monkey was in The Goblet of Fire - The Half-blood Prince and Luigi was in the third film. Kato and Bully were cast as back ups and were never seen on screen, while Uno was never used due to script changes.

Next are some cuddly critters who played Hermione's cat Crookshanks. Four red persians were cast as this part - Oliver, Crackerjack, Bo Bo and Prince. To make Crookshanks look unkempt, the Animal Department attached matted fur to the cats using hair clips.

A rescue cat, Oliver performed in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban while Prince featured in the sixth film. Bo Bo was the baby of the team and was cast in the third-sixth Harry Potter films. He was trained for action scenes like chasing Ron's rat Scabbers. The last red persian Crackerjack, a very clever cat, performed in the third - eighth films and chased Scabbers around for fun.

The three cats that played Mrs Norris, Cornelius, Max and Alanis, were seen in all of the nine films. This trio of Tabby Maine Coon cats are a breed from North America. Meanwhile, more than a dozen rats played Ron's pet rat Scabbers and the Creature Shop even developed an animatronic double.

I had an amazing time at the Harry Potter Tour and it was incredible to see of the different parts of the film come to life in front of my eyes. I would definitely recommend going there as it's so much fun!