Creature Feature #112: Cobra

The Spectacled Cobra is responsible for causing the most snake bite injuries (including deaths) within her range of the Indian subcontinent.  Her venom is neurotoxic and paralyses the body, which can result in respiratory failure and cardiac arrest. When threatened, she raises the front of her body and flattens her neck into the characteristic cobra "hood". This hood has a pattern of spots on the back that resemble eyes and give her the "spectacled" moniker. She was popular with snake-charmers, as the swaying motion she makes when roused can appear a little like hypnotic dancing. She is, in fact, deaf to the music but follows the movement of the pipe and reacts to the tapping of the Charmer's feet.

Creature Feature #111: Coati

The Coati belongs to the Procyanide family, making her cousin to the racoon. Like the racoon, she is an ominvore, following a diet of insects and small vertebrates. Her long, flexible snout is a useful tool for scenting and unearthing (with the help of her strong paws) tasty morsels from the forest floor. She is sociable, travelling in a large group, called  a "band", with other females and their cubs. The males follow a more solitary existence. Her long, striped tail balances her as she walks along tree branches foraging for food and also to communicate with her fellow band members when they forage on the ground. Coati are diurnal and quite bold, they can be found foraging around human campsites. At night they retreat up into the trees to sleep.

Creature Feature #110: Clownfish

Popularised by Pixar film, "Finding Nemo", there are actually around thirty different species of Clownfish, all a part of the Amphiprioninae Family. These range in size from 10-18 centimetres and come in a range of bright colours: orange, yellow, red with patches of black and white. They are anemonefish, and have formed a symbiotic relationship with the sea anemone. Clownfish appear immune to the potent poison of the anemone, and make their home within it, keeping it cleared of parasites and cleaning up its excretions. In turn, the anemone protects the fish from the many dangerous predators of the reef -  and sometimes gets a free meal as part of the deal. Clownfish begin life as males, transforming into females as they mature and gain dominance. This female will only mate with one male and if she dies, then the most dominant male will gender-shift to take her place.

Which all in all, makes you really look at "Finding Nemo" in a whole new light...

Creature Feature #109: Cloud Rat

Cloud Rats are also known as Cloudrunners, and they are large rat-like rodents found in the Philippines. Here they lead an arboreal existence, following a vegetarian diet of fruits, shoots, leaves and seeds. This fellow is the Northern Luzon slender-tailed cloud rat and his kind have been successfully bred in captivity, and have also started to enter into the exotic pet trade. He is relatively common on the island of Luzon, where he makes his home both in lowland rain and montane forest, but has also been found on cultivated land - provided there is a plentiful supply of food. Despite this, little is known about these attractive rodents and much of their lifestyle remains a mystery.

Creature Feature #108: Clouded Leopard

The  Clouded Leopard makes her home in the Himalayan foothills, favouring the forested areas. She leads a mostly arboreal existence, and is one of the most skillful climbers in the feline family and can climb downwards, head first and also crawl along underneath branches. She leads a relatively solitary life, coming together with the male for a brief, and quite brutal, mating. With their long fangs, the males have even been known to sever the female's vertebrae during courtship. The female is then left to raise her cubs alone. Once hunted for her pelt, she now enjoys full protection across her range, although she is still threatened by poaching.

Creature Feature #107: Clam Worm

The Clam Worm is a marine annelid found throughout the North West Atlantic, the gulf of Maine and South Africa, at depths of . They spend much of their time scavenging the shallow sea bed for worms and algae, where they also play an important role in the diet of fish and crustaceans.  To protect themselves, they form a sheath of hardened mucus about their body. During lunar phases in the spring and summer, the Clam Worm may undergo a process called epigamy. Here they transforms into a morph capable of reproduction, with the internal digestive organs atrophing and the development of swimming appendages. Their main purpose now is to release eggs or sperm, and after that, they die.

Creature Feature #106: Clam

The Giant Clam is the largest living Bivalve mollusc and can measure up to 120 cm across. Long-lived, it has an average lifespan of over 100 years and can be found at depths of 20m, on a substrate of broken coral and shells. Giant Clams are hermaphrodites and can self-fertilise, but they also engage in broadcast spawning - synchronising with neighbouring clams - releasing eggs and sperm into the water. When the eggs are fertilised, they free float for about 12 hours before hatching into a free-swimming larvae. This trocophore quickly begins to produce a calcite shell and develops a "foot" which it uses to traverse the sea bed, although it can still swim at this point. After the first week it begins to slow down its movement as it seeks an appropriate location to become sessile. Once settled it adapts into the sedentary adult form.