Asian Water Buffalo: The Original 'Joe Black'

It’s one of those unbearably hot summer afternoons as you walk along a dry riverbed, under leafless trees that can’t offer any shade. Everything is dried up – the rivers, the trees, the earth with its varicose-like cracks… yet, it is humid… there must be water nearby, you keep on saying to yourself.

When you take the next bend on the river, the most inviting sight welcomes you - a pool of water, taken over by a herd of water buffalo, submerged, with only their heads out, not frolicking but sitting pretty, totally blissed-out. No, the mud-splattered creatures have come for neither arthritis nor beauty treatments – they are in their natural habitat.

Such habitats are also breeding ground for insects that bite and plants with stinging thorns, against which the water buffalo protects itself with its tough, armor-like skin. The coating of mud on its skin is a further deterrent to insects. Oh, for those persistent little insects that just don’t understand ‘body language,’ and think that body paint is only made from chocolate, there’s always the bushy tip of the long tail, waving from side to side when the buffalo is out of the water.

If you ever tried treading water in a pond or river with a muddy bottom, you are no stranger to that sinking feeling you get when your feet get stuck in the mud and you have to pull them out, one at a time, in order to keep squelching forward. But the water buffalo is not a stick-in-the-mud (pun intended) – he has broad, splayed hoofs that prevent him from sinking and a specialized joint just above the hoof, which allows extra mobility in such situations. This is one reason water buffaloes are preferred over other draught animals, for ploughing muddy paddy fields in India.

Despite being bulky animals, water buffalo are not predators – they are herbivorous, grazing on floating vegetation and aquatic plants, often low in nutrients. To ensure that they get the necessary nutrients, they eat a wide variety of food by grazing on land as well, eating grass and almost anything remotely cellulosic like bark, twigs, paper and even those disgusting black plastic bags that have found their way into places man has yet to set foot.

In the wild, water buffalo live in herds made up of family clans, each consisting of about 30 related females and their young, headed by an older female. Adult males form small groups of up to 10, while aging males go solo!

Both the male and female water buffalo have horns – the largest measuring on average, one meter, tip to tip. Since they themselves are not predators, they use the horns as defense against their predators; the tiger being the only one that can kill a full-grown water buffalo.

The other use of the horns is during the mating season when a dominant male lays claim to a small group of females and has to compete with the other males. But the toughest part is still not over – the females very often reject the suitor violently, using their own horns, taking the term, ‘horny’ to new heights!

A female water buffalo gives birth to just one calf after about 310 days. If the calf is female, she gets to stay with her mother for life and if male, he is driven away before he is three years old. That ring a bell? No, not the one round the buffalo’s neck. Similar prejudices… different preferences.

The water buffalo is one animal that pauses to look at humans, as if in contemplation, their sad eyes pitiable, yet compassionate at the same time… Yama’s choice couldn’t have been better in choosing this gentle beast of burden, to unburden man of life’s trials and tribulations.

Copyright © 2007 Noël Gama
www.noelgama.com

Great White Shark: Of "Jaws" fame

Say, ‘Great White shark,’ and you think, Jaws – the Hollywood blockbuster. See Jaws, and your own drops open!

However, 25 years after writing Jaws, the late Peter Benchley had said in a 2000 interview, "I could not posit the situation now that I posited then... I attributed to them a kind of marauding ‘monsterism’ that became what Jaws was. Now we know that sharks do not attack boats. The way they decide what to eat is by biting it."

So, the Great White is safe, right? Certainly not! Just remember, it’s a case of mistaken identity rather than fatal attraction. Sharks are not fond of humans – Ugh! Too bony and lean for their taste. Fatty seals suit their palate best. That's why 75 percent of humans attacked by Great Whites are spat out in the split second after it sinks its teeth into human flesh.

The Great White is not white, except for its underbelly. It’s grey or blue-grey on the dorsal side, thus making it inconspicuous as it patrols the reefs just over the seabed, in coastal areas – favourite spot for snorkeling and scuba diving.

This largest of the flesh eating sharks, has exceptionally strong muscles that allow it to clamp its jaws shut with immense pressure. Not only that – unlike humans, its jaws are not hinged, allowing it to open them very wide to swallow big prey.

But the story doesn’t end with jaws! The triangular teeth are deadly, though only about two inches long, with serrated edges, like that of a bread knife. There’s more – they grow in rows and as the outer ones break or fall off, the inner ones are pushed forward. Now, get a bite of this – it is estimated that during its 40-year life span, the Great White uses up to 30,000 teeth – that’s quite a mouthful, indeed!

It uses its heightened senses for detecting prey: excellent eyesight and acute hearing; hypersensitive hairs down the sides of its body for picking up vibration from prey; nostrils that can smell a drop of blood in 100 liters of water; small pores in the snout that pick up electrical signals from the muscles of living creatures.

Having detected its prey, usually from its vantage point in the murky depths, it torpedoes upward, breaking surface with the prey in its mouth, before it dives back in. Just before impact, the shark rolls back its eyes, exposing the whites, to protect the most vulnerable part from damage due to the impact. Therefore, in effect, it does not see its prey up close.
The shark never chews its food - it swallows in chunks. If the prey is large, the shark turns away after swallowing the first chunk and waits for it to die before returning for another chunk. After a big meal, it may be a month or two before the shark will need to eat another.

Using the two claspers below its tail, the male shark injects sperm into the female. In the uterus, the young sharks not only feed on unfertilized eggs, but also on other embryos. When the mother gives birth, the young sharks are already about 5 ft long and swim straight off – their mother never sees them, except as prey!

Copyright © 2007 Noël Gama
www.noelgama.com

Gharial: Say, "Teeth!"

Armed with around a hundred teeth, which it seems to like to display, as if on a visit to the dentist’s, this crocodilian reptile inspires fear in people traveling by foot along certain large rivers in the Indian subcontinent. Human remains and jewellery found in their stomachs substantiate this fear.

However, the gharial has to come out of the water and bask in the sun to keep its body temperature constant. Since it has no sweat glands, it has to keep its mouth open to cool down. And no… it prefers fish, rarely attacking humans. So, how did the human remains come to be found in its stomach? It has been established that the gharial scavenges on corpses tipped over into rivers because of funeral practices in such regions.

The gharial uses its flat paddle-shaped, muscular tail to propel itself with great speed for chasing schools of fish. Its long, thin and streamlined jaws offer least resistance to the water, even allowing its movement sideways.

Another effective ploy it uses is to wait motionlessly with its jaws open in the fast current, for a fish to swim by and when it does, the jaws snap shut, trapping the prey with interlocking, razor-sharp teeth.

After catching the fish, the gharial raises its head above the water and takes care to toss it - like you would an omelette - so that it goes in, head first!

Male gharials are territorial, laying claim to their patch by slapping their snouts on the water. A dominant male has a harem of females during the breeding season from November to January.

During the nesting season, from March to May, the female crawls about 16 feet on to a dry sandbank to dig its nest where she lays up to 50 large eggs and then covers them up with sand in an attempt to keep them out of bounds of predators as well as to maintain them at constant temperature.

When the eggs hatch in about 83 to 94 days, the mother stands guard until the hatchlings are ready to enter the water on their own, as she cannot carry them in her mouth due to the unusual shape of her jaw and the rows of sharp teeth.

Hunted for its beautiful skin, it is not only hunters and poachers who are a threat to the gharial’s existence. Another threat is the damming of rivers, which floods the nesting banks where females lay their eggs.

At a population of less than 3000 in the wild and in captivity, the gharial is an endangered species. However, thanks to the full protection the gharial has been given since the 1970s, there are now nine special reserves in India, concentrating on artificial hatching. Hatchlings raised in captivity are later released in protected areas.

Copyright © 2007 Noël Gama
www.noelgama.com

Barn Owl: On the Night Shift!

It’s close to midnight… swirling fog… deathly silence… not a soul in sight. It’s been like this ever since the old farmhouse fell into disrepair.

Unlikely though it may seem, the feeling that someone’s watching, creeps up on you, making you turn your head to look at the black, gaping mouth of the loft, just over the barn door. What you see makes you cringe.

Not convinced that it could only be the setting playing tricks with your imagination, you hasten your pace, only to pull up short when the eerie silence is shattered by a piercing screech.

But it is not just the setting and your imagination running wild - it was you who startled the virtually harmless and adorable Barn Owl!

Also called Death Owl, Ghost Owl, Monkey-faced Owl, Night Owl and Church Owl, the common Barn Owl is the quintessential ‘home bird’ on the one hand, and a global citizen on the other as it is found on all continents except Antarctica.

With large eyes adapted for seeing in the dark and with acute hearing, it flies low and silently above open land till its ears pinpoint unwary prey in the darkness. The owl then swoops down, swinging its legs forward while spreading its claws to grasp and kill the prey at first contact.

The owl swallows the prey whole but later regurgitates indigestible parts like bones, fur or feathers as smooth, black pellets which accumulate in piles beneath their roosts.

An adult barn owl feeds on as much as three rats a day, obviously making it the farmer’s friend.

The male owl chases the female of his dreams (he does sleep in the daytime!) showing her his flying skills under the stars. He also makes loud wing claps and calls finally feeding her after the show. Once they have their ‘roll-in-the-hay’ (that’s what barns are for – hey, I'm talking about the hay!) they usually remain partners for life.

Well, they don’t build a nest. Why should they, when they have the whole loft to themselves, anyway?

The female lays one egg every two or three days, each of them hatching on different days though within 33 days. Sadly, the older owlets are fed first and so when food is scarce, the younger ones die of starvation only to be eaten up by their older siblings.

Barn owl numbers are declining mainly due to modern farming which has done away with barns or converted them into houses. Also, grasslands are being turned into farmland, thus reducing the number of rodents, their primary source of food. Adaptable birds that they are, they seek out new haunts - unused belfries and church spires, in keeping with their aliases.

Copyright © 2007 Noël Gama
www.noelgama.com

Polar Bear: Ice-ice, Teddy!

The world is going nuts about Knut - a baby polar bear who has his own video pod cast, a song written about him and is being featured on the cover of Vanity Fair with Leonardo DiCaprio.

Born in Berlin Zoo last December, and abandoned by his mother, Tosca, zoo officials intervened, choosing to raise the cub themselves amidst protests from animal rights activists, who insist that Knut be put to sleep by lethal injection! What rights could matter more than the right to live?

The polar bear, the world’s largest land predator, lives in subzero temperatures, where everything is frozen, even time itself – going by the immobile hands of your watch, unless you own one of those Rolex watches sported by famous explorers.

The polar bear is white, right? Wrong! Its skin is actually black - to soak in the sun - and is covered by pigment-free hollow hairs to trap heat. It’s the sun’s reflection off the hairs that makes the bear appear white - a perfect camouflage for the white world of pack ice terrain. And when it gets unbearably (pun intended) cold, the bear covers its black muzzle with a paw to check heat from dissipating.

Sometimes when polar bears live in zoos that are in a warmer climate, they can have algae growing inside the hollow guard hairs of their fur. This lends a greenish tinge to their fur.

Besides being waterproof, the hollow hairs also prevent matting down when they swim in water.

They can cover more than 100-Kilometer stretches without rest, dog-paddling with their head and much of their back above water, their blubber helping keep them afloat.

Polar bears travel distances of up to 40 Kms a day, floating on ice floes in search of prey, using their acute sense of smell and excellent underwater vision for detection. They wait patiently for hours, at seal breathing holes. When one surfaces, they pounce and kill it with a single bite to the head or a blow from the massive, heavy paws.

Polar bears don't drink water. They get all the liquids that they need from the animals that they eat.

Spring is the mating season but the embryo development is put on ‘hold’ till late autumn when mother bear will dig a den in which to give birth to 2 to 4 baby bears.

Cubs are fed by their mother for at least two years. Knut’s mother may have shirked her duties but Thomas Doerfleinwas, his minder, went beyond his. Meanwhile, Berlin Zoo now has 15,000 visitors a day queuing up for Knut’s twice-a-day ‘public appearances!’

Copyright © 2007 Noël Gama
www.noelgama.com

Common Octopus: The Original Ink-jet Artist!

8 arms and as many defenses!

Its first—and most amazing—line of defense is its ability to make itself invisible by using a network of pigment cells and specialized muscles in its skin to change the colors, patterns, and even textures of its skin, so as to match the surroundings. Predators such as sharks, eels, and dolphins swim by without noticing the inconspicuous octopus.

It can also adopt striking colours and patterns as warning signs - bright red shows anger, yellow with blue rings advertises that it’s poisonous, and so on.

If it has to make a fast getaway, it jettisons water from the end of its mantle, to propel itself like a torpedo through the water - headfirst, arms trailing behind.

Since it has no hard parts in its body, it can squeeze itself into tiny cracks and crevices.

If these fail, it can turn itself black just before releasing a blob of black ink which hangs in the water looking much like the body of the octopus. At the same time, the octopus will switch from black to white again and jet away, while the predator remains focused on the black blob, not noticing the white creature making the getaway in classic James Bond style!

Still another weapon is a substance in the ink that dulls the predator's sense of smell.

If all of these fail, an octopus can lose an arm to escape a predator's grasp and re-grow it later with no permanent damage.

And last, its beak-like jaws can deliver a nasty bite and release venomous saliva, though this is used mainly for subduing prey.

During the day, the octopus remains in its den, in the crevices among the rocks on the seabed. At dusk, having spotted crustaceans or fish passing by, it darts out, grabs the victim with its arms, and then brings it up to its jaws located where the arms meet, biting into the prey and flooding the wounds with poisonous saliva that immobilizes it. The pieces of food are pulled into the body by rows of tiny tooth-like structures and then swallowed.

Octopuses can survive out of water for short periods, as long as their gills stay wet. In experimental laboratories, they've been known to climb out of their tanks at night and eat the shellfish from other tanks.

Octopuses only mate once during their short 18-month life. The male octopus attracts a female by displaying a new colour and lifting up his arms to reveal the large suckers underneath. He uses a spoon-like cavity on the tip of his third arm, to transfer sperm to the female's mantle cavity.

A few weeks after mating, the male deteriorates and dies. The female lays clusters of grape-like eggs, attaching them to the walls of a crevice on the seabed. She remains with her eggs until they hatch, not eating all this time, and dies just when the eggs are hatched in a few weeks.

The newly hatched baby octopuses live part of their lives as tiny, free-floating plankton, most being eaten by predators. The few that survive, get big enough to settle into a bottom-dwelling lifestyle.

Considered the most intelligent of all invertebrates, they are said to be as intelligent as dogs. They are known to collect crustacean shells and other objects to construct fortresses around their dens - no wonder they have real blue blood!

If an octopus ever squirts ink at you, don’t even bother to shout out, “Hey! Have a heart!” He’s stone-deaf and it’s just as well… he has three hearts!

Copyright © 2007 Noël Gama
www.noelgama.com

Leopard: Dressed to Kill

The lights dim… there’s a hush. A model sashays down the Parisian catwalk, her perfect figure sinuously moving under the velvety fawn gown, showing off the rosettes –
signature black rosettes. She stops midway down the ramp – for effect. Applause… stifled catcalls… camera flash bulbs pop. The mimic has made a killing.

Thousands of miles away, deep in an Indian jungle, the original beauty has been patiently waiting her turn in the dark, looking down the bough of a tree with mesmerizing eyes - eyes that lend her night vision six times better than that of humans.

The almost inaudible sound of a grazing impala comes within her hearing range – a range twice that of humans.

Suddenly, without warning, the leopard pounces. The impala freezes for a moment as if hypnotized, but it’s already too late. With a fatal bite to the neck, the impala is dead in the blink of an eye. The leopard drags it to the treetop for the feast – the stillness of the night unbroken.

Leopards hunt by night, alone. Males make a kill every three days and females with young, at double the frequency. However, they can live without water for long periods, on prey alone.

With a powerful and compact build, mottled camouflage, excellent hearing and night vision, leopards can silently attack and kill prey more than twice their own weight.

In the day, they rest in trees and sunbathe on rocks - both providing good vantage points.

Though solitary, leopards are territorial, defending a territory ranging from 30 sq km up to 200 sq km. Territories are marked with urine and claw marks on trees as well as by roaring.

The male may have to fight other contestants for claiming his mate, though it’s a one-night stand! Afterwards, the pair breaks up – each going its separate way.

The cubs are born in just over three months and are nursed by the mother for another three months before they are able to eat from her kills. At this time, the cubs start practicing stalking and frequently fight playfully among themselves.

When they are about one and a half years old, they are ready to venture out to stake claim to their own territories.

Copyright © 2007 Noël Gama
www.noelgama.com

Lovebird: Winged Romancer

“Eight days a week, I love you, love you, love you,” goes the Beatles hit song. It could well have been dedicated to the lovebird for whom it’s Valentine’s Day every day of the year!

Lovebirds are the smallest parrots in the world, with a stocky build, a short, blunt tail and a disproportionately large beak - no wonder it is such a smoocher and loudmouth! But it puts the beak to good use too: for cracking open seeds and stripping bark for nesting material.

Also known as Les inséparables in French, a pair will form an extremely close bond for life. For this reason, many people feel strongly that lovebirds in captivity should be kept in pairs.

They show each other their affection by cuddling up together and scratching each other’s heads. And you don’t have to be a peeping Tom to catch them in their cages beak-to-beak, eyes closed, blissfully unaware of the self-imposed restrictions of public display of affection on their ‘free’ captors. Guess that’s what the Beatles meant in their song, “Free as a bird.”

But even lovebirds cannot live on love and fresh air alone - they need to eat too. Since they are non-migratory, they have to find seeds, grains, berries and fruits in their home range itself, sometimes even having to eat insects and grass. But there are at least two species that are very particular about their diet: the black-collared lovebird eats wild figs off treetops while the grey-headed lovebird humbly eats grass seeds off the ground.

These garrulous birds are sociable, living in colonies ranging from 20 to 100, chattering and twittering as they work together in search of food and caring for their young.

Lovebirds breed once a year in trees and cliff faces, building nests or lining tree hollows with twigs, grass, feathers and even bark from trees.

The female lays one egg on alternate days until the clutch of about 3 to 4 eggs is complete. The eggs hatch in 3 weeks’ time.

Lovebirds are popular pets despite legal protection, which is nevertheless helping to increase wild populations. While the lifespan of the lovebird is six to seven years in the wild, it is about 12 in captivity! The Beatles were right - “All you need is love, love, love...”

Copyright © 2007 Noël Gama
www.noelgama.com

Strawberry (Blue-Jean) Poison-Dart Frog: Jewel of the Rainforest

Found along the Atlantic coast of Central America from northern Guatemala to Panama, with the greatest concentration in Costa Rica, it seems as if they are all headed to the land of beauty queens - to find a princess for that spell-breaking kiss that would turn the lucky one into a prince.

But think twice - it could be the kiss of death - you could soon find yourself singing ‘when the saints go marching in’ in strawberry fields, forever!

The strawberry poison-dart frog is no prince in disguise. It gets its first name, ‘Strawberry’ from the close resemblance its body has to a dewy strawberry; its surname, ‘Poison-Dart’ because certain South American Indian tribes rub their blowgun dart tips in the poisonous mucous of the frog’s skin; its middle name, ‘Blue-Jean’ because of its purple-blue legs. It is also known as the ‘Jewel of the Rainforest’ because its vivid colours contrast strikingly with the dull greens and browns of its habitat making it look like a precious gem on the velvet-like mossy floor of the forest – talk about aliases!

The poison glands in the skin of this frog produce one of the most toxic alkaloids in nature. However, it cannot kill by touch alone. The toxin must enter the bloodstream through a cut or by ingestion. This will cause convulsions and ultimately, death.

But the frog does not use its poison for capturing prey – it uses it as a back-up defense mechanism, in case its ‘Red-Alert’ warning colours fail to keep predators at bay. When it spots insects with its sharp eyesight, it sits perfectly still. As the unwary prey passes within range, it shoots out its long, sticky tongue, which retracts into its mouth, insect and all, in the blink of an eye! Oh, and a bad-tasting insect is spat out with as much speed.

Living near water, in leaf litter and moss and on low, overhanging branches, these frogs are highly territorial, sometimes wrestling intruders to the death.

Attracting his princess with elaborate calls, the prince leads her to a site near where she lays 4 to 6 eggs per clutch and he fertilizes them.

After 10 to 12 days, when the eggs are ready to hatch, the female steps into the egg mass to release the tadpoles.

The female carries one or two tadpoles at a time on her back and places them in separate tree hollows so they don’t eat each other.

Besides their diet of insect larvae, the mother lays an unfertilized egg into each of these water filled hollows every few days, for the tadpoles to feed on.

In three weeks, the tadpoles emerge as froglets and disappear into the forest.

Interestingly, when Blue-Jean is in captivity, it loses its lethal toxicity. It has been deduced that something in its diet in the wild, possibly ants, produces the toxins. This in turn has made strawberry poison-dart frogs popular as exotic pets!

Copyright © 2007 Noël Gama
www.noelgama.com

Cheetah: The cat that barks like a dog!

With its exceptionally elongated body and legs, small head, blunt non-retractable claws and flexible spine, this dog-like cat is built for speed. No wonder it is the fastest land animal at sprinting speeds of up to 110 km/h.

Like a Formula One race car, its tail acts as a wind-deflecting rudder for making sharp turns while chasing prey at top speed. Aerodynamic exteriors notwithstanding, there’s more under the bonnet: XL-size heart, lungs, liver and nasal passages for delivering power!

The cheetah though spotted, has a striking ID-mark to distinguish it from other spotted cats - the black ‘tear-streaks’ running from eyes to nose. Also, it does not roar but makes bird-like chirruping noises and high-pitched yelps that can be heard at great distances. Yet, it hisses when angry and purrs when contented just like a domestic cat.

Cheetahs hunt by day either alone or in family groups, stalking their prey to within a short distance before making a 20-30 second sprint. The slashing claws of its front paws make first contact with a leg of the prey, bringing it down for the kill. The cheetah then locks its jaws on the prey’s throat, suffocating it to death.

But after the kill, when the exhausted cheetah pauses to recover from the chase, very often scavengers like hyenas and sometimes even lions, move in for the meal. No match for these competitors, the only growling now left in the cheetah is in his empty stomach as he slinks away.

The female cheetah reaches sexual maturity at two years of age and can breed all year round. A litter of up to six little blind cubs are born after a 3-month pregnancy. Many cubs are snatched away by other big cats and hyenas.

The cubs stay with their mother for about a year and a half when the mother leaves to breed again. However, the litter continues to stay together for several months more.

Adult female cheetahs without cubs, tend to live alone while males often form lifelong bonds with litter-brothers and roam in all-male groups called ‘coalitions!’

Copyright © 2007 Noël Gama
www.noelgama.com

Clown Anemone fish: Of the 'Finding Nemo' Fame

‘Where’s Nemo?’ Nemo as in ‘a-nemo-ne’ fish. Poor Nemo, doesn’t have a name of his own. Even the name ‘anemone fish’ is borrowed from his host, the sea anemone. He is better known as ‘clownfish’ because of his gaudy, clown-like markings and his ungainly swimming motion.

But not only did Nemo inspire writer-director Andrew Stanton to create the animation film, “Finding Nemo,” he’ll get you as well – hook, line and sinker - as you take a peek into his real life.

One, he is called anemone fish because he lives a symbiotic existence among the poisonous tentacles of the sea anemone. He is immune to the poison due to a coating of the anemone’s mucous over his scales, thus tricking the anemone into thinking it is part of itself.

But there’s more - when predators chase the anemone fish, a poor swimmer, he simply takes refuge among the waving tentacles of the sea anemone. However, he does lose his immunity to the anemone’s tentacles when away from it for over a day.

Anemonefish feed on plankton and the anemone’s parasites as well as leftovers of their host. On the other hand, the anemones themselves not only benefit from the food dropped by the feeding fish but also by the increased water circulation caused by the fish’s movements among the tentacles, thus providing the anemone with oxygen.

A family unit of anemone fish occupies a single anemone. During breeding, the males become aggressive and select a nesting site on a bare rock or even inside the anemone’s mouth! You guessed it - the eggs are also coated with the anemone’s mucous.

After the female releases the eggs into the nest, the male fertilizes them and tends over them.

Just because Nemo is a fish and a clown, you may assume that he has an uninteresting life. But this clown wears two masks - all clown fish are born male and can change sex at will!

Anemone fish have dormant reproductive organs inside them to become female when the occasion calls for it. When a female dies, the dominant male changes into a female and a non-dominant male takes over as the dominant male.

Its not surprising that the biggest threat to Nemo is the aquarium trade but not only are they found in abundance in their natural habitat, they breed very well in captivity too.

Copyright © 2007 Noël Gama
www.noelgama.com