Creature Feature #52: Bear

The Bear Family are characterised by their bulky size; plantigrade walk and (generally) omnivorous diet. Despite their relatively short legs and powerfully built bodies, they are adept climbers, runners and swimmers. Eight extant species are spread throughout the Northern Hemisphere, with only one in the South. This one, the Brown Bear is the most widely distributed having populations across North America and Eurasia, in a number of distinct subspecies. Brown Bears range in weight from a mere 80 kg, up to 680 kg depending on habitat and diet. The Brown is an opportunistic forager, and eats a wider range of food stuffs than any other bear species - which includes scavenging through garbage or raiding cars or tents. Her more natural diet consists of anything she can get her paws of, and when the salmon are swimming upriver to spawn, she will take prime advantage of this tasty addition to her diet. She will catch them in her mouth when the fish jump up the rapids; wade in and pin them with her paws; or even dive to catch them.

Creature Feature #51: Bat Eared Fox

The Bat-Eared Fox is a medium sized canid who makes her home in the savannah of Africa.  She is nocturnal and possesses extremely large ears, measuring approximately 13 cm in length. These ears act to help her keep cool, with a number of blood vessels that help shed the heat. These ears are also very sensitive to sound, and at night she will wander her territory with her nose to the ground and her ears cocked, listening for the sounds of nocturnal insects. Termites make up 70% of her diet, but she also will enjoy the occasional beetle, other invertebrates, lizards, fruit and eggs. She has more teeth than most other mammals, but they are blunter and adapted for crushing and chewing insects.

Creature Feature #50: Bat

Bats are small, generally insectivorous, mammals that have evolved the ability for controlled, sustained flight. Their forearms have modified into wings - connected to their hind legs by a delicate and sensitive membrane. They are also characterised by their nocturnal nature, sharp hearing and the use of echolocation - making high pitched, ultrasonic sounds and listening for the echo - to navigate.

This fellow, the Bulldog Bat hunts for prey over water, using his echolocation to pinpoint water insects or small fish via the ripple disturbance on the surface. Then he pounces, sweeping close and snatching it up. The name "Bulldog" is derived from the fleshy skin around his face, which form cheek pouches and allow him to store food.

Creature Feature #49: Basilisk

Taking its name from the mythological monster, the Basilisk is also sometimes nicknamed the “Jesus lizard”. It startled, it will take off, running upright and actually sprint across the surface of water. Due to its large feet and flaps of skin along the toes, when he is moving fast he can slap his feet down in a manner that creates an air pocket, pushing the water out of the way. He then moves his foot back, propelling himself forward, before bringing his foot up to repeat the procedure. This is effective against some terrestrial predators, but he must always be wary of aquatic ones. Young, or small, Basilisks can manage ten to twenty metres, whereas the heavier adults will sink after only one or two. Once submerged, he will then continue to swim away from the predator.

Creature Feature #48: Barracuda

This elongated, ray-finned fish comes equipped with a mighty array of teeth, and a reputation to match. He can reach over 2 metres long and will eat anything fleshy that he can catch - biting smaller fishies in half and ripping chunks from larger prey. He is also a carrior eater, and may mistaken humans for large aquatic fish, trailing them in the hope that they will make a kill. Actual attacks on humans are rare, but barracuda are attracted to shiny things - they remind them of fish scales - and may be inclined to take a bite out of a ring finger, should it flash silver at them. Therefore care must be taken when swimming in mangrove swamps or the ocean, if barracuda are present.

Creature Feature #47: Barn Owl

The Barn Owl is the most widespread of all owl species, being found in almost every part of the world, except the desert and the polar. She has even recently extended her range to include New Zealand, with immigrants coming in from Australia and breeding in Kaitaia, Northland.

Like all owls, she is a predator, and nocturnal. On silent, ghostly wings she swoops across farmland and open countryside, seeking small rodents on which to dine. To achieve silent flight, she has modified flight feathers, with serrations along the leading edge, which break up the air flow and reduce turbulance, and therefore noise.

She does not hoot, but makes a screeching call. Her ears are positioned assymetrically, with one higher than the other, which allow greater precision in pinpointing a sound and she can hunt entirely by hearing alone, swooping on her prey with deadly accuracy.

Creature Feature #36: Barnacle

Barnacles belong to the crustacean Family and are sessile suspension feeders - which means they stick in one place and collect food from the water using their feathery modified legs. Most species are hermaphrodites and reproduce sexually - this means that they need a means of transferring their sperm to other individuals. For this purpose, the Barnacle has the longest penis in proportion to body size of any animal. The fertilized egg hatches into a nauplius: a one eyed larvae that grows through several phases until finding a suitable place to settle and assume its adult form.

This species, the goose barnacle, is a delicacy. Back before naturalists became aware of migration, it was assumed that when the barnacles dropped from their goose-like stalk, they would transform into the barnacle goose. This was because no one had ever seen a barnacle goose nest.