Nature’s Layers Unravelled – Encounters with birds, beasts, and relatives
Meet a shy and secretive felid of the Indian deserts In January, the Banni grassland of Kutch rustles like a tinderbox. The tussocks of grass are dry, the soil is powdery and fine, and mirages turn the horizon into a kaleidoscope of illusions. You can, therefore, be forgiven for…
On the eve of the 20th anniversary of one of the world’s great ecological catastrophes – the Exxon Valdez oil spill – The New York Times has carried a telling editorial. Excerpt: More than $2 billion has been spent on cleanup and recovery. Exxon has paid at least $1 billion…
The winter of 08-09 has now packed away its woollies and headed off into the southern hemisphere to cool things off. But while we argued about the patterns of bird migration, the late arrival of migrants (some entirely absent) and blamed global warming for our frustrations, a biologist I know…
Light, especially of the artificial kind, is a no-no for nesting Olive Ridley turtles. In fact, artificial light distracts young hatchlings, which make their way to the sea at night, and attracts predators. However, metaphorically speaking, the turtles need a guiding light. Sahyadri Nisarga Mitra, a non-governmental organisation based…
A study among North American birds shows that more and more species are moving their winter migration grounds further north as a possible outcome of global warming. The Audubon Society has published a report (download) that clearly shows that species such as the Purple Finch (top), Wild Turkey, Marbled Murrelet,…
To the Soliga people, the Indian Black Eagle is known by the evocative name of kaanana katthalu – the darkness of the forest The Mighty Black. For most of my birding career, this majestic forest raptor has been elusive. My first sighting of the Indian Black Eagle (Ictinaetus malayensis) was…
I have just returned from a 7-day birding tour of the Great Rann of Kutch. Seven days, in truth, are hardly enough to explore this vast and varied landscape. The Rann, a salt marsh that is inundated for a few months every year during the monsoon, dries up completely around…
Acting: Let our actions speak, let our words give them wings Warming: Of our hearts, not of our planet Thawing: Of cold wars, not of our polar ice caps Rising: Of movements for sustainable living, not of ocean levels War: Against poaching, pollution and militarism Seeing and believing: May we…
Via The Guardian, I chanced upon this interesting list of the ten men most wanted by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Their crimes range from illegally importing polluting vehicles into the US to dumping contaminated grain into the ocean, in addition to releasing harmful effluents. Most of these men…
If Ram Gopal Varma had imagination, he’d make a movie on insectivorous Pitcher plants. One helluva motion picture, that’d be
Do all birds possess an instinct to flee predators? Or is this behaviour a result of conditioning? Research on some island birds has shown their inability to recognise mammalian predators. This may offer an explanation into how native species in island ecosystems that have evolved in the absence of mammalian…
As someone said, if you are not part of the solution, you are part of the problem. The last place to look for solutions is probably right where the problem lies. PhysOrg reports on how the early inhabitants of the Amazon basin boosted crop productivity by enriching their fields with…
For over ten years, researchers have toiled away in the Greater Mekong region, uncovering its secrets. A WWF report describes the region as the “richest waterway for biodiversity on the planet, fostering more species per unit area than the Amazon”. Quantitatively speaking, in number of species, that’s 20,000 plants, 1,200…
Crows are among the hardiest of our planet’s birds. Most species of corvids, a group that includes choughs, jays, treepies, magpies and nutcrackers, are intelligent, adaptable and aggressive. They dominate their environment and make the most of available resources. Of all corvids, crows are particularly fascinating. They are extremely vocal…
When I was a child, the Brain Fever Bird was one of my mystery birds. Its plaintive call, rising to a feverish crescendo, kept me awake on many moonlit nights. I was to encounter the bird again, and again, and again, and each time the story wedged itself deeper in my imagination
