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

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

King Cobra: The Original Face-Off Hood!

The Hooded One has been doing it much before the hood in the Hollywood blockbuster, Face-Off.

Not only that! He has also been doing a far better job than the world’s top surgeons are currently trying to do: the King Cobra peels the skin off his head even uncovering new fangs, teeth and tongue!

What makes him king? He is the longest venomous snake in the world with enough venom to kill 20 soldiers or an elephant, with a single bite.

Unlike other cobras, the King Cobra hunts by day. It detects prey by sight and scent, flicking its tongue in and out. As the tongue slips back into its mouth, it passes over the Jacobson organ which analyzes smell.

On spotting its prey, it makes a lightening-fast lunge and bites it, injecting venom through its two hollow half-inch long fangs. The fast-acting toxin affects the victim’s nervous system, paralyzing respiratory muscles, resulting in death.
It then swallows its prey, dislocating its jaw to help swallow large ones.

When startled or threatened, it takes its classic upright position with about one third of its upper body off the ground, hood flared open.
But the King prefers to flee rather than attack, except when cornered or when one accidentally steps on it or its nest.

During the breeding season, it may seem to the uninitiated that two cobras with necks entwined are mating, when in fact they are just two males wrestling over a female. The winner then rubs his chin along his queen’s body calming her and preparing her for mating. The rest of it is too serpentine a tale to go into!

The queen builds a nest by pushing leaves, grass, sticks and soil together to form a pile into which she makes a hollow and lays her eggs, covering them again and then lying over them.

The king guards the eggs along with his queen during the incubation period of two to three months.
The King Cobra sheds its skin four to six times a year during a two-week shedding cycle.
Laughter will be the thing furthest from your mind should you ever encounter this king-in-invisible-clothes.

Copyright © 2006 Noël Gama