Size is an advantage to three-ton grass-eaters like the hippo. Their enormous digestive system can hold food longer to extract nutrients. When they aren't grazing on land at night, they forage under water where their specific gravity enables them to walk or run on the bottom as easily as on land. They can stay under water up to 30 minutes.

Green tree pythons look like a bunch of unripe bananas when they coil around a branch in the canopy of a tropical rain forest in New Guinea or Australia. Sensory pits along lips can detect presence of either cold- or warm-blooded prey such as a lizard or small bird. Leathery eggs are incubated about 47 days. Young hatch in brilliant mixed tropical colors, from yellow to brick-red.

Polar bear So well insulated are polar bears by fur and thick blubber that a photograph using heat-sensitive film showed nothing but a puff of air, like smoke, from the bear’s exhaled beath. Their range is circumpolar, from Norway to Russia, to Alaska, Canada and Greenland. Most have a home territory of a few hundred miles, but they trek widely.

Frigatebirds are unmistakable among seabirds, great black cut-outs soaring against the sky— equally distinctive later when males attract mates by inflating throat pouches into spectacular crimson balloons which they keep expanded through much of the breeding cycle. Frigatebirds come to land only to nest, often on coastal and remote islands such as the Galapagos, Ascension and Aldabra, raising a single chick with the same feisty disposition as its parents, able early to protect itself while they’re out foraging—which they notoriously do by pirating other birds’ catches. But there’s a reason: frigates have smaller oil glands, so dropping into water would run risk of saturating plumage and becoming un-airworthy.

Great bustards, more than a yard tall (100 cm) weighing 45 pounds (20 kg) or more, largest birds that can fly, are drab until they go into courtship frenzy. In a visual display aimed at attracting females from thousands of yards away in their flat puszta habitat, males throw heads back and inflate feather-covered neck sacs to soccer-ball-size. Heads entirely disappear, wings turn inside out and tails raise over their backs until what remains is a towering pile of quivering white feathers, which then deflates and re-inflates repeatedly until females are sufficiently impressed to mate. They’re increasingly rare in Hungary and eastern Europe, Turkey, Ukraine, China. Britain has started a restoration program in grasslands around Stonehenge.

Roseate spoonbills like to be with others of their kind. They fly together in long lines or wedgeshaped formations. They build bulky stick nests together in densely leafed trees and bushes on coastal islands isolated from land predators, often together with herons, ibises and other wading birds. They feed together in tidal ponds and sloughs from the U.S. gulf coast south through northern South America to Argentina.

Nilgai or blue bulls—named for dark bluish sheen of adult males—are largest Asian antelopes, up to 4.9 feet (1.5 m) at the shoulder, weighing more than 440 pounds (200 kg)—so it’s a surprise when males in heat of rivalry (perhaps to avoid real damage) drop to their knees before horn-jousting with one another. They are grazers and browsers of lightly wooded grasslands.

Hoopoe Nothing else looks like a hoopoe with its spectacular pink-cinnamon Indian-chief crest, spread like a fan or laid like a striped spike along its forehead, and butterfly-like flight, dramatically opening and closing boldly-barred black and white wings and tail. Nothing, they say, smells like one, either, when nesting, since they don’t remove nestlings’ droppings.

Eastern gray kangaroos are champion jumpers of the marsupial world, able to leap up to 30 feet (9 m) in a single thrust of powerful Z-shaped hind legs and to go 30 miles an hour (48 kph), both a function of rubber-band-like hind leg tendons. Only a little smaller than “big reds,” their tiny one-inch (2.5 cm) babies, or joeys, weigh a half-ounce (15 g) when born, finishing development in the pouch reached only after a laborious climb from the birth canal, there to stay for the next 300 days. Eastern grays are browsers as well as grazers in grasslands and open woodlands throughout Tasmania and most of the eastern Australian provinces.

Rockhopper penguins make up in lively looks and disposition for small size,with bright red eyes, orange-red bills, bushy yellow eyebrows which they shake into wild halos during courtship, and loud “ecstatic vocalizations” with which they re-attract mates and reassert territories of previous years.

Sambars are the most widespread deer in the world, ranging over much of the Asian continent, and also one of the largest, weighing up to 770 pounds (350 kg), standing up to five feet (1.5 m) at the shoulder, with antlers up to a yard (1 m) long. They’re a favorite tiger prey species, since a large sambar can feed a tiger for several days.

Bengal Tigers' apparently conspicuous coloring and markings are perfect camouflage in the brushy undergrowth where they stalk, exploding from cover to bring down prey as large as a young elephant or wild cattle weighing a ton or more in a single 30-foot (9-m) bound. It’s not unusual for a tiger to consume 70 pounds (32 kg) a night.

Purple herons’ extra-long toes let them get a good grip on reed stalks where they stand like statues, with long necks retracted in a tight S-curve until prey comes in range. Then cervical vertebrae, constructed so their necks can hardly move laterally, let go and straighten in a flash, thrusting heads forward like a released spring to stab prey or seize it in the beak.

Hulking European bison, once one of the most numerous hoofed animals the world has known, roamed ancient forests from the Atlantic coast to China Seas. Clearing and over-hunting brought them to the brink of extinction. They were saved in a conservation story similar to that of their U.S. plains’ cousins, American bison, their recovering numbers conserved during World War II by an unlikely protector: a Nazi aide of Adolf Hitler. Now they graze peacefully in Poland’s Bialowieza forest and elsewhere.

Black Stork Black storks—more than three feet tall (100cm) with red beaks, legs and feet and wingspans up to 81 inches (205cm)—nest deep in old forests: silent and retiring they are seldom seen, despite enormous nests. Built by both pair members, near a marshy forest clearing, nests can measure five feet (1.5 m) across and a yard (1 m) deep.

Few animals have survived more human persecution than coyotes—everything from flamethrowers to strychnine—because of real or imagined encroachment on human activities. Such is the adaptability and resourcefulness of these keen-sensed “little wolves,” that they can run almost 40 miles an hour (64 kph), eat anything from small mammals, insects, reptiles, to fruits, berries and carrion, and breed with both domestic dogs and wolves. They not only have survived persecution, but extended their range over much of North America from eastern Alaska and New England, south through Mexico and Panama.

Snowy Owl Dense feathers cover all but sharp, curved claws of snowy owls, maintaining body heat of 100ºF (38–40ºC) when temperatures plummet in their circumpolar tundra habitat to –60ºF (–52ºC). Standing 20–27 inches (50–68 cm) with wingspans more than twice that, they locate prey by hearing—stiff feather discs direct faintest sounds to ear openings—plus overlapping binocular vision with light-gathering properties many times that of humans’.

American Elk Elk males yearly grow ponderous antlers weighing up to 40 pounds (18 kg) used to attract and vigorously defend harems during mating. Zeal to protect harems can so distract them, however, that they inadvertently allow young bulls to sneak in and mate with some females on the side. In Eurasia, North American elk are known as red deer (whereas, confusingly, the species known in North America as moose—also Holarctic are known in Eurasia as elk).

Bald Eagle Bald eagles can see fish swimming in water from several hundred feet up (100 m) and dive on them at speeds over 100 miles an hour (160 kph). If necessary they can swim a butterfly-stroke until they get enough lift to take off again. They return to the same nest yearly, adding to it until it becomes huge— one on record was nine feet (3 m) across and weighed two tons.

Flying Fox Bats Nocturnal flying fox bats may fly 20 miles (32 km) in search of food—fruits of almost any kind, plus flowers, pollen, nectar and sometimes leaves and bark—distance not a problem with wingspans up to four feet (1.2 m). They may eat half their body weight a night. Broad wings wrap tightly around them for protection from rain and cold when roosting head downwards.

Carmine Bee-eaters Melodious carmine bee-eaters are welcomed everywhere (except by bee-keepers). They like to colonize along streambeds where they raise young in burrows they excavate on banks, lining nests with remains of their prey which is 90 percent bees, consumed after they have pounded them violently to de-venom stingers.

Prairie dogs may have most sophisticated of all animal languages, recent studies suggest, for example, they are able to communicate warning calls specifically identifying at least eight different predators. These intelligent ground squirrels—unrelated to dogs—construct complicated burrows extending 100 feet (30 m) or more. Their colonies or “towns” historically spread over much of the western U.S.

Paradise Fly-catcher African paradise flycatchers weave airy, delicate-looking but durable nests of roots and grasses bound together with spider webs, sometimes adorned with lichens, often over water or a dry streambed. Eggs are cream with red and lilac spots. Males lose long, showy rufous tails after breeding.

Baboons are Africa’s largest monkeys, their doglike heads unmistakable. They’ll eat anything— grass, crocodile eggs, even newborn antelopes. They like to drink every day but can survive for long periods by licking night dew from their fur. Main predators are leopards, but even leopards hesitate to take on a baboon’s long, sharp fangs.

Flamingos feed using a method that is shared only by certain whales, first immersing their bills upside-down in shallow water, then sucking in and expelling water through lammellae or membranes which filter out and retain food organisms of appropriate size. Their bright plumage comes from small crustacean and algae which they ingest in saline lagoons.

Bighorn sheep are known for dramatic head-to-head clashes between males in which rams equipped with curled horns weighing 30 pounds or more (14 kg) crash into rivals at speeds up to 20 miles an hour (32 kph) for 24 hours or more, ending when one ram concedes. To protect themselves in these duels males have evolved double-layered skulls supported by bony struts plus massive tendons linking skulls to spines.

Puffin Clownish little puffins with outsize multihued bills nest at the end of tunnels up to 16 feet (5 m) long in rock crevices or on cliffs at the edge of the sea, where they lay one egg—then raise their chick in total darkness. After it hatches, they feed it silvery small fish, bringing as many as 30 at once in bills ridged so when they catch one, they can tuck it back and catch another.

Vervet Green (black-faced) vervet monkeys maintain treetop balance and agility aided by long tails and, in effect, four grasping hands—hind feet as well as forelegs equipped with five long toes, with opposable thumbs and index fingers (useful also in rifling tents for interesting items, as many safari travelers know). They are good swimmers, with coarse hair that traps air, functioning as a buoyant, waterproof wet suit. They are widely distributed in Africa south of Ethiopia and Somalia.

Eurasian kingfishers are a dazzling cobalt-winged blur when bright plumaged males pursue mates with shrill whistles along stream banks where they later nest. Males, able to hold beaksful of fish while still whistling loudly and distinctly, then bring food to tunnels where females incubate round, pinkish-white eggs, sometimes nestled on a litter of fish bones. They are found in Europe, Asia and Africa.

Mule deer are named for their remarkable ears, nearly a foot long and half-foot wide (30x15 cm) which move constantly and independently, working like dish antennae, gathering even faint sounds, helping them detect predators at great distances. They may then perform a stiff-legged bound called “stotting,” bringing all four feet off the air simultaneously in a pogo stick-like leap up to eight feet (2.4m) high.

Flightless cormorants of the Galapagos Islands have lost much of the breastbone keel that supports flight muscles in other birds. They make up for it with heavier, stronger legs and feet that propel them through water with powerful kicks to capture squid, octopus, eels and bottom-living fish in rich upwellings of Cromwell and Humboldt currents off Fernandina and Isabela islands.

Lions are Africa’s largest carnivores and the only cats that live in large family groups—advantageous for their group-ambush hunting style. They’re also the most sexually dimorphic—males are significantly larger than females, with long head and neck manes.

Massive American bison or buffalo once formed the largest mass of animals ever to roam the earth—an estimated 60 million of them, bearded bulls with high humped shoulders and short, sharp upcurved horns standing six feet (2 m) at the shoulder, weighing more than a ton, running 30 miles an hour (48 kph). Within a few decades wild populations were almost gone, many lost to drive-by “sport” shooting by railroad car passengers, their bodies left to rot on the prairie. Luckily a remnant herd was saved and a reserve set aside for them, and they thrive now in Prince Albert National Park and elsewhere.

Gentle-looking painted buntings will battle to the death over territories. Courtship displays combine elaborate feather-fluffing and moth-like flights with deep shuddering quivers—all this seldom seen except by mates due to the bird’s preference for dense understory along streams and forest edges.

Panther Mountain lions, known also as Florida panthers, cougars, pumas—same species—have the largest range of any New World cat, from southern Argentina to southeastern Alaska. Powerful rear leg muscles with proportionately the longest legs of any cat give them extraordinary jumping abilities. Running broad jumps can be over 45 feet (14 m) and vertical leaps up to 15 feet (5 m).

Clouded leopards, named for cloud-like spots that provide camouflage in their forest habitat, are arboreal specialists of the cat family. With short, stout legs and low centers of gravity, thick, furry tails the length of their bodies for balance, and flexible back ankle joints that allow hind feet to rotate so they can descend head-first, like squirrels.

Hartebeest are among the swiftest antelopes, capable of 48 miles an hour (80 kph) when fleeing a predator, and, with greater endurance, able to outdistance most of them. They can make do on the toughest grasses, and go without water except when unable to get melons or tubers.

Hoatzin Crow-sized hoatzins appear prehistoric—with bare, bright-blue faces, red eyes and wild, bristly red-and-black mohawk crests. Indeed, their nestlings carry claws on their wings which they use, along with the ability to swim when danger approaches, plunging from the nest (usually over water), and swimming away, using their claws to climb back up after danger has passed.

Red-necked wallabies are largest of the wallabies, up to 40 inches (l m) plus a 30-inch (75 cm) tail, with deep, soft fur, residents of coastal heath communities and eucalyptus forests with moderate shrub cover in southeastern Australia and Tasmania, where young may graze along with their mothers while still transported about in her pouch.

Wild dogs are noted for altruism. A pack returned from a kill will stand aside for pups and even infirm adults before eating themselves, as compared with the savage free-for-all frenzy at a lion kill. Adults other than parents often stop to feed regurgitated food to youngsters before proceeding themselves. About the size of German shepherd dogs, they live in tightly bonded social groups, no two with the same patterns of black, tan, and white.

Howls of howler monkeys are believed to be the loudest sound of any land animal—achieved by enlarged hyoid throat bones which greatly amplify it—exceeded only by that of blue whales at sea. It’s audible three miles (5 km) away in the open, almost two miles (3 km) in dense vegetation. Howlers call on arising in the morning, at intervals through the day, and just before retiring. One howler sets off another, so when a large troop gets going together, it can seem deafening.

Red-crowned cranes, one of the rarest of a rare family, depend on breeding and wintering grounds that are themselves precarious—Korea’s demilitarized zone and coastal, riverine and freshwater marshes in Russia and northeast China, threatened by dam construction, deforestation, and agricultural expansion. They prefer relatively deep water with standing dead vegetation, signaling location of the right spot with breathtaking courtship dances and unison calls audible for miles.

Leopards compete with larger predators, especially lions, so they like to cache prey in trees where lions don’t go. Powerful leg and neck muscles enable them to carry an adult antelope, chimpanzee or even young giraffe up to three times their weight for hundreds of yards to a safe place.

White pelicans Sociable white pelicans nest together, fly together and even feed cooperatively together, flying low over water in tight V-formation until they find a school of fish close to the surface. Then they flap their 10-foot (3-m) wingspans and dip bills in water, driving fish to shallows where they scoop up as many as they can in expandable bills which can hold over three gallons (11 liters) of food and water.

Red-ruffed Lemur Lemurs’ unblinking gaze, said to be the most penetrating and hypnotic of any animal, is the result of a brilliantly reflective retinal tapetum (mirror) plus extra-large corneas that reveal more eye surface than in most other primates. Set side-by-side in a forward-looking facial arrangement, they stimulate a positive response in humans, activating part of our brain cortex that reacts favorably to any facial structure roughly like our own.

Arctic fox fur has the highest insulation value of any mammal, useful in treeless arctic tundras where they live in Eurasia, North America, Iceland, and Greenland. Soles of their feet are covered entirely with fur—hence their scientific name, LAGOPUS or “rabbit foot.” Small, rounded ears restrict heat loss. Long, thick, bushy tails reach around them like fur stoles when they curl up to sleep, able to endure temperatures of –70ºF (–60ºC).

Mountain gorilla males may stand six feet (2 m) tall, with chests almost that wide, and weigh 500 pounds (220 kg). Known as “silverbacks” for silvery back patches they develop on maturity, they are gentle vegetarians unless provoked. Then they may erupt in fearsome roars, beating cupped hands on barrel chests, sounding like the low-pitched rumble of large drums.

Jacanas are known for long toes and claws that spread their weight so they can trip lightly atop floating lily pads and watery vegetation, thus exploiting a foraging niche unavailable to others. Young are not hatched with those toes, however—they don’t fit easily inside eggs—and so must grow them later. This immature bronze-winged jacana is just trying to get the hang of it (but not quite succeeding yet).

Cheetah cubs stay with mothers 15 months or so, grooming, purring (cheetahs don’t roar), and learning how to hunt. Fastest of all animals, they are capable of running up to 70 miles an hour (120 kph) in bounds of 25 feet (7.6 m)—but only for 600 yards (550 m) tops. Then the gazelle gets away.

Nile crocodiles, of a family thought to be the most intelligent reptiles on earth, are Africa’s largest, up to 20 feet (6 m) long, and weighing up to 1,600 pounds (726 kg). They can kill whatever comes to water, including wildebeest, pulling them under until they drown—but they can’t chew well, so sometimes don’t eat until victims start to rot and become more easily digestible.

Scarlet macaws are one of the most stunning of the beautiful parrot family, and one of the most dexterous, with zygodactyl feet—two toes in front and two behind—that they use like hands in holding and manipulating objects. Bills are attached to their skulls with special hinges that give them powerful leverage and mobility in performing delicate tasks like preening feathers but also crushing the hardest nuts.

Black-faced langur Hanuman or black-faced langurs are the sacred monkey of India, venerated by Hindus as the form taken by the monkey god Hanuman. Their whooping calls are heard in tropical and dry scrublands, alpine and rain forests through Southeast Asia as noisy troops of up to 125 individuals feed on leaves, fruits, buds, and blossoms.

Flightless ostriches are world's largest living birds, six to eight (rarely up to nine) feet tall, weighing up to 345 pounds (157 kg), with a lion-like roar. Evolution has weakened their wings but strengthened leg muscles so they can run up to 40 miles an hour (70 kph) and savagely kick any predator that catches up, sometimes delivering a single fatal blow. Males share incubation of up to 80 eggs from various females in one nest (tests show females can recognize their own eggs).

Red kangaroos are largest living marsupials, six feet tall (1.8 m) with heavy four-foot-long (1.2-m) tails on which they rely for balance and self-defense, stabilizing them while they kick out with formidable hind legs. With these legs they jump up to six feet (1.8 m), covering up to 29 feet (8.8 m) in a bound, and run up to 35 miles an hour (56 kph) in short bursts.

The great gray owl’s feathery facial discs detect faint sounds which they direct to bony cups surrounding asymmetrical ear openings to triangulate and precisely locate prey, plunging through two feet (60 cm) of snow to grasp in their talons an unsuspecting rodent. Tall, silent, golden-eyed, they range through boreal forests across Russia, Norway, Canada, and Alaska.

Elephants live in highly-organized matriarchal herds of 10 to 50, all related in some way. If separated they can communicate over many miles using low frequency sounds below human hearing range. During drought they use tusks to dig to underground water.

Giant river otters’ metabolism—20 per cent higher than most similarly sized animals—keeps them alert for location of prey, predators, family, and everything else in their world, with quick reactions to match. It makes it possible—also necessary because of high-energy demands—to dart with webbed feet after swiftswimming fish.

Anhingas control air bladders in their bodies so they can ride high in water or low, with only waving heads and necks showing, looking like “snakebirds” which is what they often are called. Hinged neck vertebrae help them strike instantly to spear watery prey, which they toss up to swallow head-first.

Wildebeest give birth to 90 percent of their calves during three weeks early in the rainy season. Young are born looking around and able to run within minutes of their birth—important because herds are constantly on the move, and staying with the group is vital in avoiding predation.

Black-browed albatrosses, like their big cousins, wandering albatrosses, have wings more than twice body length which they can set, face into the wind and then glide literally around the world on a single foraging trip, hardly moving a feather, letting wind do the work.

Porcupines cannot throw their 30,000 quills, as sometimes said, but it can seem they do, so easily do these needle-sharp modified hairs detach at a predator’s touch. Loosely attached to a layer of voluntary muscles, they drive forcefully into an adversary’s skin, where body heat causes microscopic barbs to expand and become embedded.

Squacco herons, inconspicuous when slipping through reed beds with the agility of rails, transform themselves when they unfurl white wings in preening or in flight. Courtship plumage gives them feathered hoods and capes controlled by muscles which sleek them against bodies or flare them dramatically.

Giraffes are the world's tallest animals, up to 16 feet (5 m) tall and weighing about a ton. To maintain blood flow up to the brain their blood pressure is about twice that of other mammals; special circulatory valves keep them from fainting when their heads are lowered to forage or drink.

Mot-mot Lacy-tailed blue-crowned mot-mots work in pairs to excavate elaborate mudbank tunnel nests without seeming to ruffle a feather of gorgeous plumage. Tunnels up to 14 feet (4.2 m) long with spacious nest chambers are finished in early fall, then abandoned until the pair start spring courtship rituals. Decorative tails are not inborn but plucked out by each bird.

Tammar Wallaby Tammars are one of the smallest wallabies, with equally small babies, weighing a minuscule 0.01 ounce (0.3 g) when they leave the birth canal and make their way to their mother’s pouch. So tightly do they attach themselves to their mother’s breasts that the first European who saw these small kangaroos thought the young grew from their mother’s mammary glands.

Whimbrels’ long down-curved bills enable them to make use of a comprehensive diet including worms and mollusks they can find only by probing deep into mudflats, leading to their nickname “elephant bird” in Southeast Asia. Circumpolar, their far-carrying “pe-pe-pe-pe-pe” whistle is heard over breeding grounds in subarctic and Arctic from Iceland across Eurasia, Alaska, and Canada.

Warthogs’ “warts” are fleshy skin-covered projections on each cheek which protect eyes and faces from rivals’ tusks in fights. Molars and jaw hinges are modified to grind toughest grasses which they munch while resting on calloused knees. In dry times they root for tubers, aerating the soil, which aids plant growth.

Indian rollers are often unnoticed perching motionless in open country until a frog, butterfly or large insect is spotted. Then with an explosion of flashing blue wings, purple breast and throat and turquoise crown, the roller takes out in pursuit. Females get a similar show with different purpose when males perform rolling courtship flights.

Cock-of-the-rock males, heads enveloped in scarlet-orange plumage covering all but their eyes, give a show for females on a communal courtship lek where a dozen or more gather in deep mountainous forest and serially perform. One dances, tossing his head, calling, spreading wings and tail, hopping on one foot, then another, posing dramatically for moments at a time, and finally retiring to let another take his turn.

Thomson’s Gazelles are East Africa’s commonest gazelle, major prey species for cheetahs, lions, leopards, hunting dogs, and hyenas. Young ones are vulnerable as well to jackals, baboons, eagles, pythons, and smaller cats. Main defenses are keen senses and speed—they can run 40 miles an hour (67 kph), often for longer than a sprinting cheetah can pursue them.

Rüppell’s Vultures use hooked bills to tear into carcasses which they locate chiefly by sight, soaring high above their territories. These Rüppell’s vultures are world’s highest flying birds—one hit a jet at an altitude of 37,000 feet (11,000 m). A seething, squabbling feeding group like this can devour an antelope in 20 minutes. Afterward, gorged, they may have difficulty getting airborne again.

Gray wolves have the greatest natural range of any land mammals except humans—over northern U.S., Canada, Europe, and temperate-to-polar Russia. Highly social, they form family and hunting packs of two to 12 or more—but only the dominant or “alpha” pair breed, ensuring best survival chance to their pups. They hunt in single file—in snow, stepping in pawprints up to six inches (15 cm) long of preceding animals.

Crested hawk-eagles with short, rounded wings and tails are well-adapted to maneuver skillfully through dense forests of India, Sri Lanka, and continental Asia as well as Indonesia and the Philippines. They are equally at home scouting out open areas and rice fields.

Chinkara Diminutive chinkara or Indian gazelles survive in woodlands or desert, going without water for long periods if necessary, eking out moisture from herbage and dewdrops. Standing just 25 inches (65 cm) at the shoulder, they seem constantly on the lookout for danger, nervously flicking their tails, glancing in all directions. Uncommon over much of their range in Iran, Pakistan, and India.

Painted stork nestlings summon parents with raucous cries which they lose later. Mature storks entirely lack syrinx or voice box muscles—but they make up for it with large multifunctional bills which clatter in rattles to serve all their communications needs, in courting, mating and nesting. In feeding, these bills swing back and forth, snapping shut instantly on touching a small fish or frog in freshwater swamps from the Indian subcontinent through Southeast Asia.

Jaguarundis move like shadows in scrubland and forest they inhabit from Texas south through most of South America, their low, slender bodies slipping through vegetation without a leaf stirring. They’re known also as otter cats but more for their appearance—otter-sized, weasel-like, with long, slender bodies and short legs—than for any liking for water.

Great bustards, more than a yard tall (100 cm) weighing 45 pounds (20 kg) or more, largest birds that can fly, are drab until they go into courtship frenzy. In a visual display aimed at attracting females from thousands of yards away, males throw heads back and inflate feather-covered neck sacs to soccer-ball-size. Heads entirely disappear, wings turn inside out and tails raise over their backs until what remains is a towering pile of quivering white feathers.