This past Friday, our correspondent Maura (of fantasticbeastsmovie.net) attended the launch for Warner Bros. Studio Tour London‘s Feathers and Flight event.  This special feature for the Harry Potter tour will run until April 27th and shows fans how animals were trained for the films.  At the event Julie Tottman and Guillaume Grange, the head animal trainers for the films, answered some questions from those in attendance.  The full Q&A can be read here, and photos may be seen over at fantasticbeastsmovie.net.

What is the strangest animal you’ve ever worked with?

Julie – The strangest animal? Well, I guess, on the third film, Alfonso, the wonderful director, kept coming up with the oddest ideas and we never quite knew what he was going to pick so we had armadillos, we had we had bats, we had baby ostrich, we had whipped scorpions, all kinds of different animals, and we did in one of the films have a baby hippo!

Did the actors who played the owners of the animals get any time to bond with the animal they had and did anyone get close with a certain one that they then had to leave?

Julie – Before we start any filming we have about four months of prep so we can get ready so nothing’s a big surprise for the animals and within that prep I’d say we try have the actors work with us as much as possible – sometimes we can get them one or two times a week, but particularly Daniel had to work so much, cause he was small on the first – he’s still small isn’t he! – he was small on the first film, and it was a big bird for him to learn to carry so we had to spend a lot of time with him with the animals.

Emma loved Crackerjack, the main Crookshanks. She’s a massive, massive cat lover so she was waiting until the third film to have her own animal so as much time as she could spend with him, she was there. She saw him just before Christmas when we were here she came and saw him.

Are any of the animals going to be working on the new movies? The Fantastic Beasts ones?

Julie – Not these particular – well, actually, I can’t say for sure but most of the original Harry Potter ones are retired apart from the birds, so possibly some birds, but haven’t had that call yet, waiting for that!