Crying over spilt oil!

Oil spills have had a devastating impact on sea birds. On coming in contact with the oil, the feathers of the birds mat and separate, their waterproofing abilities are impaired, exposing the delicate inner bodies to the extremes in temperatures, and death often occurs by hypothermia. The birds often try to overcome the damage by preening, and unwittingly ingest the oil and this causes lethal damage to its internal organs.

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Armor in need, armor indeed!

Pangolins or scaly ant-eaters are insectivorous mammals which have a scaly armor-like keratin covering to protect themselves from predators. At the sign of the slightest threat, a pangolin curls into a ball, projecting its armor-like covering outwards, which is very difficult to penetrate, and the curled pangolin is also very difficult to unroll by the predator. As pangolins are toothless and very slow, the armor and ‘curling-up’ are their primary defense mechanisms.

Read more about this fascinating mammal- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangolin

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Living the Sloth Life

           
A sloth's diet consist almost entirely of leaves, which yield very little energy. Hence, they have an extremely slow metabolic rate and move only when required (they also are the slowest mammals in the world) in order to use their energy economically. Sloths spend their lives hanging upside down tree branches and come to the ground only once a week to defecate, and when in search of a mate.

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out of ink!

Octopuses have several defense mechanisms such as fleeing off at a high speed and excellent camouflage. When it is cornered by a predator in spite of this, it expels an ink-like substance which blinds the predator temporarily, enabling the octopus to escape. (This ink is also used by the octopus to stun prey such as crabs and lobsters, making them easy to secure)


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Swapping Professions?

On how many occasions have we witnessed relocation programmes back-firing and forest departments failing to tackle man-animal conflicts in spite of all the funds that are sanctioned for the purpose? A lot of these cases have been 'solved' by labelling the animal in question as a man-eater and bringing it down. Are our department officials swapping professions with the great Corbett?

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Big Cats, Big Jokes!

While India's big cats continue to suffer from habitat loss and poaching, there have been plans by the government to re-introduce cheetahs in the grasslands of Western and central India. Does India have the room, resources and the skill to host another beautiful big cat when all its other species are already fighting a losing battle? Also, the continuous decline in the numbers of the Great Indian Bustard, a critically endangered grassland bird proves that grassland conservation has always taken a back seat in India's conservation strategies.

Here's my take on the cheetah introduction issue.

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