Indian Wildlife Club Forum

IVattam Adithya from Bellary, Karnataka State, and administrator in indiansnakes.org& a snake rescuer since 15 years, have rescued more than 6500 odd snakes& released them into safe habitats. I have conducted many awarenessprogrammes on snakes to general public & school children reliving theirminds of the many myths about snakes. Now I have started a program called LIVING with SNAKES. Some of you mightbe perplexed by the context. Instead of rescuing non-venomous like Rat snakes,red sand boa’s, trinket snake, Green vine snake, Wolf snake from humanhabitats, we plan to leave them where they are. This might sound ridiculous andstupid but we have got results by explaining the people about the advantage ofhaving these snakes in their surroundings.

 A week back I rescued an 8 foot rat snake froma rice mill and later asked the mill owner weather I can come back to the millwith the snake & explain the advantageous of having a snake like this inhis mill. He was silent for a moment and then asked me to come over. The verynext day I was there, all the 30 odd workers gathered around me & I startedexplaining the facts & advantageous of the snake. That it is a non venomoussnake, it eats more than 400 rats per year & easy to handle I even showedthem how to identify the snake by showing them some key features about thespecies, one of them came forward & asked me weather he too can handle thesnake I said it’s absolutely safe. He right away took the snake into his hands,later all the 30 odd workers there started handling the snake. There werepresent the Mill owner & his children they too enjoyed handling the snake.

            After sometime I put forth the ideaof releasing the snake in their mill & to my astonishment everyone agreedto my plan took the snake in their hands & released it into stakes ofpaddy. We now want to spread this idea across, to all the other mills in ourplace & hopefully across India.

            They too have the right to livealong side us like all other animals like dogs, pigs, cattle, cats &monkeys. These animals are also potentially dangerous & spread diseases butstill we live harmoniously alongside them. Snakes don’t spread any diseases &we can live alongside some species of snakes. They seldom attack people. Theyonly strike or bite when threatened or cornered when they have no place to fleeor else the first thing the snake does on sight of a human is flee.      

Study author Dr Shermin de Silva from the University of Pennsylvania said: ‘Elephants are able to track one another over large distances by calling to each other and using their sense of smell.

‘So the “herd” of elephants one sees at any given time is often only a fragment of a much larger social group.

‘Our work shows that they are able recognize their friends and renew these bonds even after being apart for a long time.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2019178/Elephants-forget-old-friends-social-network-experts.html#ixzz1UJcpL21q

The red wattled lapwing is a regular visitor to our neighbourhood park. So I was thrilled to see three spotted eggs on the ground on 5th June. The eggs were laid in the centre of the Park which sees morning walkers doing their rounds every day (who would not notice the eggs anyway) and young children playing football and cricket in the evenings. To protect the eggs the bird had laid the eggs underneath a tree-guard.

On 9th June, I went to check on the eggs. There was no one in the Park. But I was delighted to see two small chicks with their mother. The mother noticed me as I was still at the gate and started alarm calls. The pitch went higher and higher as I tried to go close. The chicks scampered in one direction while the mother went in another. Soon the father lapwing appeared on the scene and started shrieking. Then, an amazing thing happened. The chicks suddenly disappeared in the grass and made themselves invisible. Almost simultaneously, sparrows and Indian robins started flying around the area even as the parent lapwings held on to their spots.

I was mesmerised by this amazing act of community feeling! Needless to say I had to return without a photo. I could not help but feel moved enough to write this blog!

Salmon Jumping to Freedom

Down on the fish farm, workers could not understand why the number of brown trout had suddenly taken a dive. But close observation revealed the reason - an aquatic version of the Great Escape.

The resourceful fish are leaping 3ft out of the water and into an eight-inch pipe which brings fresh water into the farm near Alresford, Hampshire. Following their instincts the trout, cousins of the Atlantic salmon, then swim against the flow for 30ft before finding freedom at the other end as they plop into a tributary of the River Itchen. Simon Johnson, director of the Wild Trout Trust, said: “Brown trout do have migratory tendencies and swim upstream, especially in November and December. “The water coming down from the pipe is oxygenating the pond and this could be kicking in their natural instincts. “They might well think it is a waterfall and are trying to head up it to find a place to spawn.”

The Escape Committee were caught in the act by wildlife photographer Dennis Bright, 59. A farm worker said: “It is remarkable how they manage to jump so high and through such a small pipe. “We run a low-intensity farm and like to let nature thrive so we don’t net our ponds. As a result we lose up to 40 per cent of our stock to predators every year. “To see us losing more fish through pipes that are designed to help them is a bit of a blow. But to be honest, if I were them I would be trying to escape too. Good luck to ‘em.” Wildlife photographer Dennis Bright, 59, captured the amazing aerobatic fish earlier this week. He said: “It was an incredible sight. “Swimming against the current is instinctive for trout as they head up stream to spawn but they are doing a remarkable job getting through that pipe.