A rather un-camoflaged ptarmigan. To be fair it was winter in Tokyo with snow on the ground, just not in this bit of the zoo.
I’m particularly taken by it for two reasons. The first is rather selfish in a sense as the narration is by Professor Innes Cuthill at the University of Bristol who was one of my tutors as an undergaduate and he and I are in the precess of finishing up a paper on dinosaurs with Darren Naish. Secondly though, it is a great example of the media using the expertise available to them. Innes is an expert is sexual selection, signalling and camoflage and assocaited behaviours so a great choice to get in on this. It’s a nice short clear video explaining the very basics of colour patterns and camoflage and (obviously thanks to the BBC) comes across with some excellent photos to provide the examples to match the commentary. As such it provides a great tutorial that will interest and inform and the information is being provided by an authority on the subject so is accurate, succinct and up to date. We could do with a lot more of these kinds of things with the media providing the coverage and facilities and the experts providing, well, the expertise.
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