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

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

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

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

Indian Elephant: The Gentle Giant

Also known as pachyderms, which means "thick skin" these largest of the land-dwelling animals of Asia are well… very sensitive creatures!

Indian or Asian elephants as they are also called, are distinguished from their African counterparts primarily by their smaller pointed ears, which are networked with blood vessels to regulate temperature - by flapping the ears!

Other differences are: a more rounded back; a flat and tall forehead; a fourth toenail on each of their hind feet; shorter tusks which are really modified upper incisor teeth, with those in females being rudimentary; a single finger-like projection at the tip of its long trunk; a grey to brown skin with a small amount of stiff hair; and a tail with a tuft of hair at the tip - for batting away insects!

Elephants forage for food all day, using their long trunks to reach into trees for tearing off leaves and using their tusks for stripping bark.

They drink a lot of water at least once a day by noisily sucking up the water with their trunks and then pouring it into their mouths. Since they don’t have sweat glands, they bathe often to keep themselves cool. No wonder they are such excellent swimmers, sometimes even walking underwater, using their trunks as snorkels!

Asian elephants are very sociable and live in basic family units of one adult cow and her offspring. Daughters remain with their mothers, but sons leave at puberty, often joining bull groups or remaining solitary. These family units live together in herds of up to 40, headed by an elderly female or matriarch who is responsible for the herd’s safety.

Being more easily tamed than their larger African counterparts, they have been used as beasts of burden for centuries. When ill-treated by their mahouts, they have been seen crying in pain and misery.

In danger of extinction in the wild, due to human encroachment upon their natural habitat and poaching for ivory, they have been classified as ‘Endangered’ by the 2000 IUCN Red List at an estimated population of only 28,000 to 42,000 in the wild.

With an excellent memory and capacity to solve practical problems, they are known to have helped not only their own kind but even rescued humans caught in natural disasters like floods especially.

According to a report in The Economist of November 2nd, 2006, when researchers put a jumbo-sized mirror before three Indian elephants, they tried to look behind the glass! Then, all three appeared to inspect their mouths, and took to moving their food so they could watch themselves eating. One of the elephants even used her reflection to repeatedly touch a mark on her head with her trunk.

That’s no mumbo-jumbo!

Copyright © 2006 Noël Gama

Tiger: National Animal of India

The Sundarbans jungle in South Bengal, is dark, deep and marshy with dense undergrowth of mangrove and thick overhang of trees. The sunlight penetrating the foliage from above, casts patterns of dappled light and shade - perfect camouflage for the Striped One.

As you venture further down the trail and into the gloom, you tend to get an eerie feeling of being watched. No road sign in the world is as effective as a pug mark on a trail. It will make your very heart stop! This is no Hollywood Walk of Fame - you are now in tiger country, home of the Royal Bengal Tiger!

The Bengal tiger has the classic orange coat with black stripes, a color variant being the white tiger which is hardly found in the wild.

Tigers usually hunt at night and rest during the day, often cooling off in rivers and pools.

Tigers hunt alone, stalking their prey or killing by ambush. They use their excellent eyesight and hearing for tracking prey in the dark. They stealthily slink up on the prey unseen till they are at a distance of about 65 feet and then charge with lightening speed using their powerful hind legs for the final leap.

The prey is knocked down with a single blow of the huge paws, lethal claws exposed. The heavily muscled shoulders and front limbs are designed for pulling down prey and the massive jaws with long canine teeth for stabbing the back of the neck and killing it. After the kill, the carcass is dragged into thick cover for feeding. The remains if any, are concealed with leaves for later consumption.

The Bengal tigers are poached for their valuable pelts as well as bones, teeth and penises for use in Chinese medicine. The tiger, at an estimated population of 1,200-1,500, is a gravely endangered species.

When I visited Dudhwa National Park in Uttar Pradesh way back in December 1992, I was not lucky enough to spot a tiger but I did meet Billy Arjan Singh (nicknamed ‘Billy’ - meaning ‘cat’ in Hindi - by his aunt because of his love for the big cats). This octogenarian is the second Indian to receive the prestigious J. Paul Getty Wildlife Conservation Award. A former member of the Steering Committee of Project Tiger, Billy spent his entire life working for the conservation of tigers.

Project Tiger founded in 1973 by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi was an effort at saving the declining population of tigers in the country. The project was launched in the Corbett National Park, the first such sanctuary in the country, which celebrated its 70th anniversary during the National Wildlife Week, October 1st-7th, 2006.

Apparently, all is not well with Project Tiger, going by the spate of recent reports on its performance. The title of an article in the Times of India of 23rd September, 2006 aptly captures the scene at the end of my paper trail - ‘Project Tiger is paper tiger!’

Copyright © 2006 Noël Gama