Both are large birds with a large, long, colorful bill - superficially very similar, but they are not related to one another at all. However, toucans bear a striking resemblance to a type of bird found in subtropical Africa and Asia called a hornbill. Since toucans like to hang out in the same place their entire lives, you don't find toucan species anywhere other than their native range (unless, of course, they were taken there through the exotic pet trade). "There's a growing awareness now that the bill serves a similar function even in species with much smaller bills, such as sparrows!" says Schulenberg. A study published in the July 2009 issue of Science magazine suggested that, given the surface area of the bill (which accounts for between 30 and 50 percent of the bird's entire body), a toucan's beak receives a lot of blood, which can serve as a good tool for thermal exchange. Toucans bills might also be useful for shedding excess heat. So, presumably the size of the toucan bill owes as much or more to sexual selection as it does to any functional requirement." "And in all species, the bill of the male is significantly longer than the bill of the female. "The larger species of toucans - the genus Ramphastos, the model for the Froot Loops icon - often perch on exposed sites in the canopy and call, while throwing the head back and swinging it from side to side," says Schulenberg. In many toucan species, the bill and head are used in displays - communications with their own kind. So, it must be that the bill of the toucan serves some other roles, aside from chowing down. Initially, Zazu served as Mufasa's majordomo. He currently serves as the majordomo of the Pride Lands. You may be looking for the character from the 2019 film. Of course, a bird doesn't need a bill as splendid as a toucan's to eat fruit - many other avian frugivores have substantially smaller bills. Quotes Gallery 'Do you see any other big, lovable chunk of warthog here' This article is about the character from the 1994 film. Aside from feeding, toucans use the bill to preen the plumage, just like any other bird." Toucans also capture and eat small vertebrates when they find them - mostly small lizards and frogs, and the eggs and nestlings of smaller birds. Much of the fruit that they eat can be swallowed in a single gulp: The bird grabs something with the tip of the bill, then tosses it toward the back of the throat and swallows. "Toucans are primarily frugivorous, so that means they're using the bill to snag fruit. "Toucans use their bills to do all the things that any bird would do, but perhaps the most important function is to grab food," says Thomas Schulenberg, who studies neotropical birds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, in an email interview.
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