Daily Nature Fix: Roots & Vines & Ivy... Oh My. (Original Photos)

   Sometimes you need to take a minute and appreciate the little things.  I tend to do this a lot... sometimes to the dismay of my travel companions.  I have an excuse though, and that is because it's due to my profession.  I am an exhibit designer for both zoos and museums.  When you go to the zoo and see an animal living in a habitat covered in rocky cliff faces, and massive jungle trees, and waterfalls.... I'm one of the guys who creates those things. I'm basically a professional terrarium/vivarium builder.  So when I'm somewhere in the world that has cool looking rocks and boulders, I take a lot of pictures of them.  When I see big buttress roots in the rainforest, I take a lot of pictures of them.  Same with waterfalls.  I use these photos too.  I print them out and have them right by me when I'm sculpting some rock work or painting a tree, or whatever.  

  Tonight's Daily Nature Fix, is going to be full of what I've taken as reference photos for work.  In this case, it will be neat looking roots, vines, and ivies (which I'm sure you've guessed).  At work, we often make these features artificially using things like nylon, or fiberglass ropes coated with a variety of different materials.  A few of these very photos I've used to replicate in animal habitats.  Lets get started with the slideshow. 

^^^This first photo was taken in the Azores archipelago.  We do a lot of microhabitats with wandering vines and roots, especially for small frog and lizard species.  We saw this section of exposed roots and clumping moss near Lake Furnas and I had to get a few pics!

^^^This is one of my all-time favorite trees I've come across.  It was found in the Arenal Volcano national park in Costa Rica.  I think it may be some type of fig tree, perhaps?  It's roots spread out in all directions from it's massive trunk.  It'd say the roots covered a circular area that spanned 30+ feet in diameter.  This is one of the photos I've used as a reference in some jungle habitats I've constructed.

^^^We came across this tree on a hike in Glacier National Park.  I always think it's so crazy when a well established tree is growing directly on top of rock with no apparent soil around.  The roots on this thing was awesome.  They looked like something you'd see in southeast Asia, but on a much smaller scale.

^^^Here's a photo I've actually used a lot at work.  It's a small piece of a buttress root belonging to a tree in Manuel Antonio, Costa Rica. I took this picture so as to use it as a painting reference for work.  I've modeled a lot of the moss and lichen paint jobs I've done after this photo, including this one:

^^^This was a habitat being built to house a gaboon viper, or green mamba.  I don't recall which one... Everything on this one was made out of fiberglass.

^^^This last one is just one example of the crazy ivy growth we saw all around Ireland.  These were growing all around the remains of a circa 1200's stone cottage.  You can even see the trunk of a mature tree growing in the center of the back room.  The ivy really made all of ancient ruins look especially awesome, if I do say so myself!

    Thanks for reading! I post a nature-themed Daily Nature Fix blog every day. Please upvote if you enjoyed it and resteem if you found it especially interesting! Be sure to follow me @customnature so you'll never miss out on your nature fix!  See you tomorrow.  - Adam

***Daily Nature Fix is a daily blog showcasing the natural world.  It is all original content using photos, stories, and experiences from my own travels.***