- From the depths of oceans to the tips of mountain tops,
what are the world's most extraordinary creatures?
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- The white uakari is a quiet and well-behaved, humanlike
creature. It is the only short-tailed monkey found in South America and
lives in a tiny river-bound region of north-eastern Brazil. The uakari
is also known as the "Englishman" by local natives - and it's
easy to see why. It bears more than a passing resemblance to "an Englishman
who has been too long in the sun, or has had too much to drink".
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- This is an observation made by Tim Flannery in his new
book, Astonishing Animals. Illustrated by Peter Schouten, it reminds us
that although world environments might be under pressure, the animals they
often hold are remarkable.
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- Take the satyr tragopan for example. Tragopans are members
of the pheasant family. Five species inhabit the Himalayas and central
China. The satyr tragopan is a mountain inhabitant that lives in the dense
undergrowth of the oak and rhododendron forests of the Himalayas. The bird
got its name from two distinctive features.
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- It has an inflatable bib, called a lappet, and the horns
of the males are erectile organs, which are distended by an increased flow
of blood when the bird becomes excited. Named a satyr for its horns, Flannery
adds, "it's a bit of a showoff, lying in wait, behind a log or rock
and popping up like a jack-in-thebox when the female draws near."
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- In all, the book features 97 of the world's most extraordinary
creatures. The environments represented are from the depths of the oceans
to the rarefied heights of mountain tops. The creatures Flannery cites
are animals that do not often make it to wildlife documentaries. All have
a unique place in what are often bizarre and unseen worlds.
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- The jelly-faced spookfish is just one. It lives in the
deep space of the Indian Ocean. Existing at depths of up to 2.5 kilometres,
it is just 15 centimetres long with a head that appears to be made of jelly.
So transparent is the jelly-like substance that veins and arteries are
easily seen carrying blood to the brain and snout. It is not known why
it has a jelly head and the reason for the three tiny red dots on its snout
remains a mystery.
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- Flannery, the director of the South Australian Museum,
is conscious of the need to educate people about the biodiversity of world
environments. In an earlier book, The Gap in Nature, also done with Schouten,
he says that he wanted to do something different.
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- "After The Gap in Nature, we were depressed by the
number of species that had become extinct. We decided to do something which
had a feelgood factor. We began to look at life in its most extreme forms.
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- "But I also think there is a wider role here. I
hope parents show Astonishing Animals to their children. I don't think
it will give them too many nightmares. I hope we catch a sense of wonder
in the book."
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- Schouten has exhibited extensively in Australia and abroad.
He says the art for Astonishing Animals presented him with particular challenges.
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- "For every single animal in the book, so little
is known about them. It required detective work of tracking them down and
sometimes finding dusty specimens in museum drawers. The more oblique the
animal, the better. I get a buzz out of illustrating something that no
one has seen before. Before I do a painting, I write down on index cards
everything I need to know to complete an accurate illustration."
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- Some are of animals unlikely to ever be seen, such as
the Asian giant soft-shell turtle, which lives on corpses floating down
the Ganges, frogs that resemble tomatoes and West Africa's yellow-headed
picathartes, much coveted by birdwatchers. Schouten says that he and Flannery
had one criteria for the selection of their animals.
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- "We wanted to pick things that, in the main, people
had not seen or were likely to see. The platypus is included as it is an
extraordinary animal. As an artist, I wanted to depict things from environments
that were generally not understood. These days, on television, there are
endless programs about lions and tigers but not so many about the creatures
found at the bottom of the ocean. None of the animals in this book are
extinct but the majority are very obscure."
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- Flannery says that once the animals had been selected,
habits and particular features had to be studied, sometimes from limited
published material or single scientific papers. "For me the real challenge
was finding out enough about their biology to make a story. Some of the
most amazing animals are virtually unknown. In this, biology is still a
frontier science. Take the megamouth for example, almost everything about
this shark remains a mystery."
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- Flannery believes the limited knowledge he was able to
access for the description of the animals only heightened the level of
wonder for him.
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- "I think that (from) animal programs on television
and natural geography documentaries, we can get a jaded view. We may think
that the world's creatures are all known."
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- Another challenge for readers is an invented animal in
the book. Out of the 97 included, one does not exist. Moreover, Flannery
and Schouten are not about to reveal which animal it is. Flannery explains
why they decided to do this.
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- "There are gaps in evolution. We decided to create
a creature that should exist but doesn't. We had to get its history right
and then illustrate it. It was a project that we think shows something
about how animals develop."
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- - Astonishing Animals, by Tim Flannery and Peter Schouten,
Text Publishing, $50.
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- Copyright © 2004. The Age Company Ltd.
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- http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/11/30/1101577487003.html?oneclick=true#
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