Our latest Book on the Bird Table is The BIG Around-The-World Animal Adventure by author illustrator Vicky Woodgate, which was published this month by Hodder.
Here, she shares how she came up with the idea for the book, which is a hop around the world, fun, fact-packed, search-and-find journey!
“While searching for pictures of cats on the internet (obviously), I came across a curious photograph of hundreds of ginger and white cats staring at the camera, the frame literally filled with felines. Where was this mythical magical kitty kingdom? Japan!
To my delight, I discovered that Japan has 11 cat islands. These places are packed full of fluffy felines. Fed by locals and adored by tourists, each place’s history is varied, from cats being brought in to control rodents munching on the silkworms used in the silk industry, to also keeping the rodent numbers down for the local fishermen; the results – more cats than people!
So, this got me thinking, are there any other places with animals that all look the same in surprising numbers? And what a great book that would make featuring other amazing places ruled by animals.
Snake snakes everywhere
Just off the coast of Brazil is a very small island full of deadly snakes called Iiha da Queimada Grande. It’s home to nearly 4,000 very poisonous golden lancehead vipers. It’s so dangerous it’s illegal to visit.
Full of crabs
Smack bang in the middle of the Indian Ocean is a tiny island full of pincers. Bright red pincers. The island has a very festive name, Christmas Island. It is not renowned for housing lots of Christmas elves but millions upon millions of small bright red crabs. They take the perilous journey en masse to the beach from the forests to mate – stopping traffic in their wake!
Cute quokkas
In Western Australia off the coast of Perth is a little island called Rottenest and it’s full of friendly marsupials called quokkas. When Dutch explorers came across this island in 1658, it was full of the little hopping critters. The explorers thought they were rats, hence the name Rottenest (rat’s nest) but, really, they are related to kangaroos and wallabies and are as cute as can be.
Puffins galore
The Atlantic puffin, the infamous clown of the sea – just look at that beak, live in huge numbers on cliff faces in Iceland. One place that they particularly like is the Westman Islands, there are over a million there. Unlike most birds, they live in burrows in the ground, just like rabbits and little blue penguins!
There be dragonsÂ
On Komodo Island live dragons… Komodo dragons. These are actually a giant heavy lizard with a nasty venomous bite that shocks and leads the victim to experience mass blood loss (its venom stops the blood from clotting). The dragon then tracks its prey until it is just too weak to get away. Sadly, this prehistoric marvel is now endangered due to habitat loss, climate change and hunting.
Snoozing seals
Off the coast of Hout Bay in Cape Town, South Africa, on a big ol’ rock, is a snooze fest of blubber. 64,000 or so Cape fur seals chill out on this rock, having babies and trying not to get eaten by great white sharks!
Penguin party
Little blue penguins, sometimes called fairy penguins, live together in colonies in the southern hemisphere. There is one such group that live on Phillip Island off the coast of Victoria in Australia; it’s the biggest colony in the world and home of the adventurer Leopold who is the star of my book. Fairy penguins spend 80% of their time at sea then group together in ‘rafts’ at the shoreline waiting at dusk for nightfall, then they rush together to their burrows, like a full-on penguin derby. And they really do all look the same! Bonus – fairy penguins have sparkly poo that looks like fairy dust!
Just a few of the many curious places full of animals that all look the same.”
Read The BIG Around-The-World Animal Adventure for a fascinating look at amazing groups of creatures from across the planet. An ideal way both to expand children’s wildlife knowledge and enhance their observational skills!
Buy the book at outlets including Amazon and Waterstones.
The BIG Around-the-World Animal Adventure: A search and find book
£8.55
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