2016, a busy happy year.

Heres a few videos off my YouTube channel "SebastiansAnimals" from 2016
https://www.youtube.com/user/SebastiansAnimals
In no particular order I've added these clips of animals or events that I've recorded this year.

Gulper cat fish, Asterophysus batrachus First feeding on a large roach, then a few minutes later showing the large extended stomach.

Aba aba enrichment, Gymnarchus niloticus
Feeding this active inquisitive species using a feeding ball to encourage activity and extend feeding time.

Sexyfish, the resturant.
As part of the Aquatic Design team i help maintain these two large tanks in a Mayfair restaurant.

Target feeding the pinecone fish, Monocentris japonica
Using a tube to ensure the food gets down to this slow feeding species, I've been told by a few people that they are hard to keep, but websites say different so I think it may just be they don't get enough food and like seahorses they don't deposit fat due to thier hard body and need to feed often? Just my thoughts

London April 2015

Sebastian Grant on work and home life in London.

So!

How green is my best friend?*

Although keeping animals is not the "greenest" thing you can do for your planet, a lot of studies have shown that people around animals tend to have better health, or feel they have a better quality of life.

In which case;

I expect to live for a very long time.

I work around some of the most amazing animals on the planet, and at home I keep a few other amazing animals.

What we call, a win, win.

A few montages of life at Grant Towers so far this year.

April

March

Obviously works great, loads going on as always, including the recent arrival of Professor Wu, the Chinese giant salamander. 

Andrias davidianus

Here's me offering him food soon after he arrived.

With thanks to Cat1 for photography.

Rinca and Raja

 Komodo dragons

Varanus komodoensis

The two dragons were put together, and they didn't get on too well.

Rinca

Varanus komodoensis

A Komodo dragon walking around Central London
(Don't panic, it's in his outdoor paddock!)

One of the many things in my day to make me stop and feel grateful.

king cobra

Ophiophagus hannah

Here the king cobra is moved into a temporary enclosure while his old one is re-themed.

Amazing.

*There has been a lot of talk has been about a recent article in NewScientist

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20427311.600-how-green-is-your-pet.html

Although keeping animals at home is certainly not the greenest thing you can do, I do feel this paper doesn't cover the whole issue.

To see a slightly less biased view on this issue please read this.

http://www.ethicalconsumer.org/buyersguides/food/dogfood.aspx

Another update, October 2014

Due to increased social and work demands I'm afraid I have been rather slack on the news from

 Grant Towers lately. 

I realize it may be better to get some of my videos onto the world wide web, rather than risk them being lost for prosperity if my home computer crashes from looking at dodgy sites!

A few clips of Grant Towers and ZSL animals.

Possibly chytrid infection on mossy frogs.

This clip shows my Theloderma corticale with what I believe to have been a chytrid infection (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis also known as Bd). The frogs had been more active during the day, including one seen sitting in the water when they are normally sleeping higher up.

They also seemed to have more problems walking on the glass, as though their feet wouldn't stick as well. 

Some of the frogs in the clip seems to have a thickening of the skin and a wet appearance, which I have taken to mean the possible infection.

I treated with the athletes foot treatment "Lamisil" and within 3 days noted a marked improvement., after 5 days all "symptoms"  were gone. I continued the treatment for a further 5 days.

However, as I didn't swab the frogs I can't be sure the infection was Bd.

I would like to thank Christopher Micheals for his very quick and helpful advice.

Pipa pipa, the Suriname toad.

Australian swamp eel
Ophisternon gutturale

A new addition to a tank I've started for Anableps anableps, amazing tunnelers, they act a bit like a brackish garden eel! 

Not aggressive and feeding on Tetra discus, live Tubifex and frozen bloodworm.

Mainly uploaded because there's not much on them here. They seem easy to keep, slightly brackish, hence the Anableps. 

The main interest is about 40 seconds in and near the end, about 2 minutes in.

This doesn't show their amazing burrowing ability, they dig in and seem to be able to go forwards or reverse with equal ease!

Kew Gardens

The Princess of Wales Conservatory

Zone 8

Carnivorous plants.

Mainly Nepenthes and a few ferns and amazing Selaginella, this is a lovely addition to the Kew glass houses.

Lithobates catesbeianus
Albino American bullfrog

Not to everybodies taste, but I really like these frogs.

Very nervous and skittish when young, bold during the day but flighty when the lights are off. 

They will eat pretty much anything they can overpower but seem to do OK with feeder insects (not the live mammalian prey other people post them feeding on, small penis syndrome perhaps?)

I use an Arcadia T5 12%  with a reading of around 1- 1.5 UVI above half  the tank, hopefully this will stop any developmental issues but is low enough to not cause eye problems.

Top frog.....
And isnt it funny how everybody loves red eyed tree frogs, but not red eyed bullfrogs....

Work, Rest and Film...

More clips taken at ZSL London Zoo.

Its been a busy few months here at Grant Tower's, with working super hard, checking things at home (staff can be soo difficult) and living La Vida Loca (dancing like your dad) that this account of my antics has been quiet.
Fear not, here is a clip from the ZSL website showing my colleague and I, Luke Harding with our
second male Komodo dragon, Rinca.
Our first male Raja has been at the zoo for around 10 years and is amazing, beautiful, calm and could kill you.
Rinca is stunning, alert and probably would kill you....
Here we go into the exhibit with Rinca to show how careful training and professional skills (Luke's obviously) can help the staff management of the animal while spicing up Rinca's life.

Not too much of me, probably a good thing as I look quite chubby.

These are of the caiman lizard, Dracaena guianensis a specialised snail eater from South America.

Here's the official zoo video of the caiman lizard, rather better put together than mine, the only down side?
Mr Grant in view...

Easily one of my favorite animals at the zoo (although i do seem to say that a lot..) 

Watching this animal feed, the way it takes the snails and delicately rolls them around in its mouth always makes me stop and remember how amazing the world is,

unless your that snail.

Here you can see him hunt underwater, using his tongue to search out the prey which is then taken on to land to eat.

(Please excuse the music, it was either dodgy YouTube tunes or loud kids screaming in that mix of delight and disgust they do soo well.)

Its thought in the wild this species eats crayfish as well as various mollusk species, and very possibly a wide range of other things too. However, from what we know snails appear to be the primary food and this should be mimicked in captivity where possible, and if not possible, they probably shouldn't be kept until we know more about their nutritional needs and how to substitute them
As snails are difficult or expensive to obtain, many keepers offer a range of other foodstuffs, from other invertebrates, turkey meat, eggs and even cat food!
If this is harmful or not is difficult to assess, but the specimen I saw that was fed on cat food was obese and was a dull grey color, not the vibrant red and green of our specimen.
Snails brought for a supplier who caters the the human food trade normally starve the snails before selling so they are ready to eat. This means that before use you should offer them a range of good quality vegetables before feeding to the lizard.
Frozen snails are available but again will have been starved before freezing so less useful nutritionally, while snails collected from the wild may harbor parasites so it may be worth keeping for a while to help shed any possible problems.

Here is the same animal finding crayfish underwater.

The year so far... January 2014

Not a happy time overall at The Towers, a major shock has been the loss of the two Australian lungfish Neoceratodus forsteri last year to an apparent bacterial infection.

Neoceratodus forsteri ; A fish caught in time. The first fish had a raised scale with the flesh showing white and puffy, I wasn't overly worried because if a fish with large scales loses one it looks much worse that a smaller fish with a graze and this fish continued to feed well. Two days later the area of damage had grown as more scales appeared to have been knocked off. I worried that something may have been rasping at them so decided to separate and treat. That evening the caudal fin had red streaks through it, the following morning the fish was dead. Two days later the other fish had lighter patches appear on its skin, none having fungus or obvious breaks but obviously not right. I started to treat and the infection faded within a day but in the 10 days the fish was separated it didn't feed and was obviously unhappy being in the much smaller hospital tank. It was moved to a larger but bare hospital tank in the hope of starting to feed again and after 3 days looked like it was taking interest in some earthworms. Two days later, raised scales with white puffy flesh appeared in a patch on its lower body and it appeared to have trouble with buoyancy as its tail was at an angle in the water. Back in the smaller tank for treatment but I'm afraid it too died within 24 hours.  I talked to someone who looks after more of these fish from the same import. I had originally thought that something in my tank was causing the infection, possibly mechanical damage at first then a pathogen within my animals. Now it looks like it’s a longer term problem, inherent either in the fish themselves or with the husbandry that both separate tanks have…. The cause of the death seems to be a Mycobacterium infection, and although Myco is probably found in lots (possible all tanks?) its not normally a problem with young animals. As these fish are a CITES appendix 2 species they were micro-chipped before being sent to the UK, one possible cause of infection was contamination when this was done although this is just a speculation. So I've lost both of these specimens and 6 more from the same import died the same way, luckily 2 other fish are doing well. It's a species I've wanted to be around for around 30 years and no change of getting more due to the cost. You win some, you lose some, but it tends to be the one's you loose that stick in your mind the longest....

       South American water snake, Helicops angulatus. 

The short painful story of when I got a reaction from a Helicops angulatus bite! 

As we learn more about what species may have venom, our awareness when servicing our captives will become ever more vigilant, this obviously wasn’t what I was thinking when I took out the female  Helicops angulatus to assist her slough. The large female was sloughing and had some retained skin so I thought I'd help...
Even though I’d see papers saying these snakes could cause envenomations and of course the work done to highlight the anti-coagulant venom in the Komodo dragon Varanus komodoensis spring to mind. (Although if you’ve a 60KG lizard trying to tear your arm off I'd not be thinking, “ooh! This is soo going to bleed tomorrow!” but maybe that’s just me?)

I had handled this species and this individual on many occasions and had previously had a minor bite but never a reaction, or worried about one.
And then… she had started to slough successfully but the skin on her head was still there so I decided to “help her out”. I removed her from the tank and started to try and peel back the skin but although the body slough was coming off, the head area was difficult so I restrained her by “pinning” her . This went well and I managed to remove some of the skin but then let her go so I could assess how it was going. Although you frequently see people pinning snakes on tele, its not something that should be done lightly as if carried out wrongly damage can easily occur to the snake's vertebrae (or gets you bit...)
I decided to remove some skin from her body so using the towel that I had her in I allowed her to slide through, taking the slough with her, I noticed a small patch of skin on her head and decided to take it off before putting her back. 
With a venomous species or particularly aggressive species I would have then pinned her again, but as these aren't on the DWA I just reached forward, she suddenly flipped back and managed to get hold of my thumb. So, rather than take her off and pin her, I let her hold on while I removed the shed skin.
Not very painful and much better to get the job done in one go. I thought as she chewed away…
After putting her back I carried on my usual evening routine, within an hour I noticed my thumb had started to ache, then to swell. This could obviously be a symptom of mechanical damage so I didn't take much notice.
When it spread to the knuckles I realised something (writeable) was going on. As the hand became swollen I started to wonder how bad I should let it get before seeking advice, I quickly read up the few papers I could find to confirm its not considered life threatening, but still contacted someone I was planning to meet the following day so they were aware I may be indisposed.

The swelling went down over night, but the next day while walking around it swelled across the thumb and all the knuckles, to stop this I held the hand high and this reversed the swelling.
Did I think my life was in danger? No, never, I did think work the next day was going to be difficult (I couldn't cut my dinner and did get a few stares as it looked like I'd punched a wall or similar, not that I do that, but I must look the type?)
The moral of this story? Read up, and dont get bit...

Work, rest, and play.

ZSL London Zoo 

 Clips I've taken at work at ZSL London Zoo over the last year or so.

Either from behind the scenes or from the visitor's side.*

 Xenopus longipes in ampexus

Xenopus longipes are a poorly know frog of the Pipidae family, these frogs are currently housed at the Herpetology department of ZSL London Zoo which is one of the only collections to hold them. Although seemingly easy to care for very little is known about their breeding. We are getting set to trial different sex ratio groups, different temperatures and water levels. Watch this space. 

This was one of the few times we have seen them in amplexus, and look at little Sebby hang on!!

 Scheltopusik

These scheltopusik or European glass lizards Pseudopus apodus have been in the zoos collection for years, soo much character and soo interesting a story.

Nothing too exciting in the clip, just hunting crickets and showing how surprising it is that they manage to catch anything.

Philippine crocodile Crocodylus mindorensis

The pair of Philippine crocodile Crocodylus mindorensis at the zoo are going to be introduced for breeding, and as they've been kept separately we wanted to house them near each other so we could judge their behavior.
The slightly larger female is very bold and we were worried she may dominate (i.e. try to kill) the male.
 The male, seen here on the right, asserts himself straight away giving us more confidence in a successful outcome.

You can just hear me using my radio to call my colleagues to come and see as I'm soo pleased at his behavior.

Varanus komodoensis, the Komodo dragons at the zoo.

Raja and Rinca have been put together for breeding a few times now but with no success. This time we tied a carcass to a tree to hopefully get them used to being together.

My colleague Grant and I enter to get a better view, it's without a doubt the closest I'll ever get to
Jurassic park!

"And at that point"...

 Grant and I re-enter the paddock to see how they are getting along.

As we get near they have had their fill and start the mating ritual again,
(basically chasing and biting, we've all been there.... )
And its at that point, discretion becomes the better part of valour and we beat a hasty retreat.

 Puff adder, giving birth.

The Bitis arietans at the zoo recently gave birth on exhibit. We have planned to move them that day so we could monitor the female but as always, things go faster than planned and the call went out the the female was giving birth.

You can see the first youngster cruising around the enclosure but then at 53 seconds in, little Sebby makes his appearance.

 

 

*On my Kodiak play-sport, the screen is a bit cracked so I cant always see what I'm filming, so you may see more knees and walls than you'd expect.....

Mr Grant, in person.

Here are a few work videos of me taken over the years at my job at ZSL London Zoo.

Here you can see some of the fantastic animals I've worked with, and the super cool hair cuts I've had during this time.

The first clip is of the giant anteaters Myrmecophaga tridactyla. Here with my short "silver fox" hair,
 (grey..) 
I chat about something that doesn't really need any words.

 

 The next clip is of the two rheas we had, Lefty and Bert. The same hair, the same day. 

Naked mole rats Heterocephalus glaber are possibly one of the most complex species you can get. The more you know about them the less you feel you understand. This is the colony I worked with at the BUGS! exhibit at the zoo.

The Galapagos tortoises are one my favorite animals, and I think my enthusiasm, and hair stand out.

    

This is the annual stocktake we make of all the animals at the zoo each year, I'm only in a few seconds of the film (not worth watching you cry? Well check out 34, and 115 seconds in) but theres lots of other fantastic animals and amazing people to see.
(But dull hair cuts...)

And lastly, for now, here's the two newest additions to our tortoise group, Polly and Priscilla,

as for the hair? Well, I'm now wearing a hat a lot....