Rhinos, elephants and waved albatrosses

Its been a fascinating last few days of TV watching. India lost her T 20 match, Messi is in Kolkata and I have been watching BBC Entertainment, weekdays at 7pm.

And so I learnt that there were four Northern White Rhinos in a Czech zoo, which were successfully relocated back to Africa, by the same person who took them there in the first place! Well, almost. The zoo culture sucks in the 21st century, and I'm glad for these rhinos, which got sedated, shipped in crates and moved by cranes before arriving in Ol Pejeta conservancy in East Africa.

The footage of the BBC documentary with Stephen Fry was amazing and endearing.  But also alarming and depressing.

An article in The Economist on Game Conservation in Africa puts it succinctly,

The problem is not that the rhinos are half-blind, lumbering, and often infertile—which they are. It is economic: the ornamental and medicinal value of rhino horn makes it hard for the rhino to pay its way alive.

The fate of the northern white rhino then, rests with Fatu and Suni, two of the relocated rhinos and their desire to start a family. I wish them well.

And then I learnt about one more large, magnificent creature also threatened by poachers also in Africa.  The forest elephants of Dzanga Bai.  So, these forest elephants found in the forests of the Central African Republic, are different from the regular African elephants, and not much is known about them, supposedly.

The BBC Entertainment episode on these elephants, centred around the amazing work being done by a woman called Andrea, who has been there some eighteen years, and now recognises the elephants one from the other, understands their different calls and has been a reason for the reduction of poaching.  I was just enthralled to see the footage, the low rumbles of a mother elephant to her calf, the high-pitched "lost" call of an errant baby, the intertwining of trunks of family when they emerged out of the forest into the clearing of Dzanga bai. There are calls that the human ear cannot pick up, and a whole social life which is rather complex.

This was the evening of Ganesha chaturthi, and I was pensive at how little I know about these gentle giants, so provoked nowadays by pressures of space and development.  I wonder, do the Indian elephants also have similar social structures and vocalisations?

Today I watched half an episode on the Galapagos islands and caught the bit about the waved albatrosses.  Galapagos has always meant Darwin, island and tortoise!  I was amazed to learn that these large birds with webbed feet, and huge gull-like bills, partner for life, can live up to fifty years and breed on only one of the Galapagos islands, Espanola.  Each year, the pair will raise one chick at Espanola, and it is five to six years before the chick will be ready to mate and breed!  And once the chick is off, the mum and dad go their ways, (hanging out at sea or on the coasts of Ecuador/Peru), and then dad returns next year to Espanola, hangs around waiting for his missus to show up.

And when she does show up, they go through this elaborate courtship dance.

Crazeeee! The wonders of the natural world!

Memories of my childhood

Isn't it unfortunate, when its there you take it for granted, and when its gone you sorely miss it. I was reminded of my maternal grandfather's home when I read this quirky description. The Green Ogre:A tree may be our primary connection with the universe.

Summers spent hanging around under a huge peepul tree there, watching the huge black ants scurry among the roots and fallen leaves. Teasing and getting teased by cousins and my brother, reading a book a day, wandering off to the cow shed to feed the calf. Nungus from the tree in the evening, picking parijatha with my grandmother in the mornings, listening to the never ending koels. Slapping the gigantic evening mosquitoes with irritation and frustration. Mosquito nets, dim lights.

A lifestyle disappeared?

Semmozhi Poonga at last

Sunday Aug 20th. Madras Day Celebrations. Tree walk by Nizhal.

Dr Vijaya retired HOD from Stella Maris led the walk, ably assisted by Chitra.

I quite like the design of the entrance, though the gate could have been wider?
Terminalia arjuna. I have not seen such a magnificent specimen.
Strychnos nux-vomica. Loved by Agatha Christie and ayurveda!
Erythrina indica and the diamond shaped leaves of the kalyan murungai
The light fades as we reach the Brazilian Ironwood

Valley of Flowers - the trip that never was

We bought our trekking shoes
and paid our travelling dues.

We were off to the mountains, we three
From our town in the south by the sea.
But it seems it was not to be
Oh, so woe is me!

No monal pheasant, no whiskered yuhina
No Himalayan Poppy, no Potentilla
Himalayan Griffon I shall not see
Nor the snowy peaks of Badri.

Valley of Flowers, I missed for sure, but dear Raji and Gapi, most of all,
with you two it would have been such a blast, we would have had such a ball!

Valley of Flowers - cancelled

The VOF trip ended even before we started.
Rain & landslides continue.
The trip is wisely called off.
Deflated
Disappointed
Relieved
Our little loss minor in comparison to what those living there must be going through.

Valley of Flowers - the state of Uttarakhand suffers

Uttarakhand tourism, power paralysed by incessant rain

My going (or not going) on the trip is a small matter. People have died.

Valley of Flowers - will the weather gods be kind?

Raji emails that there are landslides in Uttaranchal, and schools are shut until the 18th. I pretend to be blasé, oh we are only travelling after that.

I casually look up accuweather, and oh no, bad idea. The whole of next week has rain forecast fr both mornings and nights. It will be no fun if we get rained out or rained in.

My trekking shoes have settled in well, and gear is falling into place, and what a letdown if we don't go. Raji has her medicine kit all organised, Gapi has picked up a nice indexed book on flowers of the valley.

All we can do is wait and watch.

A Lemon Pansy stops by

It stopped for a while on my bathroom floor

Almost stepped on it, as I walked in the door.

Lemon pansy, did you flee from a foe?

And after a while, where did you go?

Maybe out of the bedroom window,

or protein for my house gecko?

Sunbirds

Mr Ramanan saw these sunbirds as they came seeking nectar to a male papaya tree, at Gandhigram.

As he sat watching their antics, Mr Ramanan also witnessed the resident cat stalk and kill one of a group of babblers that was feeding noisily off some grain. It caught the babbler by its wing, and just like its larger cousin the tiger, bit into the neck with its canines, bringing a swift end to the bird, and resulting in much indignant calling and cawing by the other babblers as well as the crows in the vicinity.

Male Purple-rumped sunbird. Photo by Mr Ramanan
Male Loten's sunbird, with the longer, curved beak. Photo by Mr Ramanan.

The female sunbirds are olive coloured, as seen here, as they picked up nesting material.

This was a sunbird's rather untidy nest I came across at my mother's home some months ago.

Nash and me

You Can’t Get There from Here

by Ogden Nash

Bird watchers top my honors list.
I aimed to be one, but I missed.
Since I’m both myopic and astigmatic,
My aim turned out to be erratic,
And I, bespectacled and binocular,
Exposed myself to comment jocular.

We don’t need too much birdlore, do we,
To tell a flamingo from a towhee;
Yet I cannot, and never will,
Unless the silly birds stand still.
And there’s no enlightenment in a tour
Of ornithological literature.
Is yon strange creature a common chickadee,
Or a migrant alouette from Picardy?

You can rush to consult your Nature guide
And inspect the gallery inside,
But a bird in the open never looks
Like its picture in the birdie books-
Or if it once did, it has changed its plumage,
And plunges you back into ignorant gloomage.
That is why I sit here growing old by inches,
Watching a clock instead of finches,
But I sometimes visualize in my gin
The Audubon that I audubin.

Exerpted from “Up From the Egg: Confessions of a Nuthatch Avoider”

Thank you Sheila, for sending me this!

My apologies, for an adaptation I could not resist:

Bird watchers top my honors list.
I aim to be one, but this tail has a twist.
Since I’m both myopic and astigmatic,
My sightings turn out to be erratic,
And I, bespectacled and binocular,
Expose myself to comment jocular.

We don’t need too much bird IQ, I was told,
To tell a prinia from a pipit, so bold;
Yet I cannot, and never will,
Unless the silly birds sit still.
And there’s no enlightenment in a tour
Of ornithological literature.
Is yon strange creature a common ibis, black-headed
Or an uncommon black migrant in the marsh embedded?

You can rush to consult your Inskipp & Grimmett guide
And inspect the photo gallery inside,
But a bird in the open never looks
Like its picture in the birdie books-
Or if it once did, it has changed its plumage,
And plunges you back into ignorant gloomage.
That is why I sit here writing ghastly verse,
Instead, I should be out looking, for better or worse,
But I sometimes visualize in my dream
The birdwatcher that I became, supreme!

Urban wildlife - Chennai

Welcome to wild wild Chennai - The Times of India

Arun Janardhanan, TNN | Aug 8, 2011, 05.43AM IST
From jackals, rodents and squirrels to black buck, pangolin and even slender loris, residents of the urban jungle of Chennai have spotted all kinds of wild creatures in their backyards. In the last year, forest officials in the city have rescued 3,025 monkeys and 1,200 snakes from residential areas. "Forest officials across the city rescued more than 5,000 animals from April 2010 to March 2011," said wildlife warden V Karunapriya.

Originally a coastal area with thorny bushes, Chennai is the only city with a protected forest - Guindy National Park - within the corporation limits. But as the city expands, the pressure on green spaces, which are also home to several species of snake, gecko and fruit bat, intensifies and animals lose their habitat. Thickly wooded forests and scrub jungles in Guindy National Park, IIT-Madras, Nanmangalam forest, Theosophical Society and Kalakshethra colony still provide shelter to these wild creatures, but they too are coming under threat.

IIT-Madras authorities recently cut several trees to make space for buildings, the Pallikaranai marsh, which is a source of water for the city, is being used as a dumpyard. T Murugavel of the Madras Naturalists' Society says that urban wildlife still survives in the green spots and protected forest inside the city. "What's left of the green belt inside the city surprisingly sustains a wide variety of animals, though we have lost several species, including birds like the white-headed babbler, the purplerumped sunbird and red-vented bulbul," said Murugavel, who has rescued cobras and rat snakes from his neighbourhood. "Last month, I rescued a barn owl that had been injured by a kite string. We set it free after a vet treated it," he said.

Recently, a slender loris was rescued from the terrace of a house. A limited number of this endangered species still lives in the city. Jackals can be seen at the Adyar estuary,while the Indian mongoose is spotted often in busy T Nagar, Shenoy Nagar and Adyar areas. Flying foxes still swoop through the evening skies. E Seshan, a retired chief photographer of the Zoological Survey of India, said the weather also plays a role.

"During the monsoon, animals come out of their habitat. In the city, there is no space for them as everything has been covered with concrete," he said. "The IIT-Madras campus, Guindy National Park and Raj Bhavan campus are an important habitat. But the institution has decided to proceed with major construction projects, which will affect the animals," he said. S Davidraj, forest range officer of Velachery division, said that habitat loss is the main reason for the increasing man-animal conflict. "We have taken all measures to attend to cases immediately. We are monitoring about 997 spotted deer in Alandur, Adambakkam, Velachery and Kotturpuram," he said.