WildInfo

From residents to refugees

2012-01-28T23:13:00.000+05:30

Hard to believe it’s been almosta year since I’ve written! Past year was quite hectic but I should havecontinued writing. Sorry folks, for the long gap. I will now be a regular,hopefully! Starting with a bit of a news – I have now moved back to Ahmedabad,and loving it! :)

The past year with The Gerry Martin Project was great with a lot of interesting field experiences. I will bementioning them in the coming articles. Hope you’d look forward to that!

Now back at home, I was rememberingthe days when we had freshly moved in. This was, I think in 1996. There wasjust one mud road from Jodhpur village (1 and a half kilometer away, via acrematorium!) and one trail through the fields coming from Vejalpur railwaycrossing (almost a kilometer away). These were the only access routes to ourhouse. You could see our house from the railway crossing and the houses atShyamal cross roads from our terrace. 360 degrees of lush green fields and alot of native trees. Snakes, monitors, scorpions were regular visitors in ourbackyard. Toads, frogs, centipedes, geckos, and small birds used to live here.Some very smart toads used to live in our bathroom, under the kitchen sink, inflower pots, my shoes, and in my dog’s water bowl!

The 2 Salvadora persica (“Piludi” in Gujarati) in front of our houseaccommodated so many house sparrows, doves and a lot of bush birds. A Shikratrying to catch its favorite prey – a Calotesversicolor (Common garden lizard) was not an uncommon sight. I used to sipmy morning chocolate milk looking at the male peafowls with their impressivelong tail feathers and females teaching their chicks to probe the earth forinsects.

2012 – Almost all is gone!

Gone where? And why?

Welcome to wildlife displacement!Pushing them out of their habitats – in other words. Guess who’s the cause? Us,ALL of us! I proudly mention how there were so many animals before all thesepeople moved in and ‘developed’ this part of the city. But hey, they didexactly what we did! We encroached in 1996, others followed later.

We have stopped living a simplelife several decades ago. ‘Survival’ can no longer be used in to describe our(city dwellers) life struggles. Our life now is comfort and luxury oriented. Westarted moving in with all our ‘needs’. Electricity, roads, vehicles, concrete,pollution, malls… everything! We can’t freakin’ live without everything.

My backyard was my favoriteherping hotspot. Want to see something rare? …just go out a kilometer in thefields! You can’t even walk there safely now without getting run over by amillion cars, ..okay, a few hundred cars! But then, what will you go outlooking for? Buildings, rash traffic (typical Ahmedabad style), noise, what else? …dogs, feral dogs, a few hundred of them. Not exaggerating. I don’t hate dogs.Folks who know me would know. But, I would hate the incident of feral dogsattacking any wildlife. Be it ground nesting birds or large birds like peafowls,small, or even large mammals cannot match a pack of feral dogs. During myprofessional days as a wildlife rehabilitator we used to get around 200peafowls every year. Guess what happened to most?? Yes… feral dog attacks.Reports of feral dogs taking down large antelopes and deer are not unheard of. Theyhave outcompeted jackals, wolves, and many small predators in several places.

"Motu" - our adopted feral dog. She came in as a pup, now 8 years old. It's amazing how they always win their right to stay in your life.

Cats, what about cats? Mustclarify, I’m talking about feral cats. Tremendously sustained populations havewiped off loads of small wildlife. I’m not gonna stretch more on this. There istons of info on the internet. Please exploit google. Again, I do not hate cats.We’ve created these feral cats and dogs. It is our responsibility to controlthem and not allow them to ruin what exist naturally.

My backyard looked empty afterjust 4 cats moved in some 10 years ago. Squirrels often turn in to pests simplybecause they are so adaptive. I did not see a single squirrel for like twoyears. TWO YEARS! That’s when me and Akanksha decided to get our much lovedanimals back. We planted many more trees, put up a lot of nest boxes, waterbowls, feeding stations and cat proofed them. Re-introduction of squirrels wasa great success as there is a sustaining population now in the neighborhood. Wehad practically hand-raised the parent stock when they came in as orphans tous. Some of the birds are also doing well. Lots of them come to roost in thehot afternoons. We’ve also managed to raise our gecko population. Our backyardgarden comes alive with at least 15 species of birds. I feel happy, and sad.They come to us, but then ours is their only resort!

Left to right - Magpie robin nesting in our nest boxes and a pregnant squirrel eating at our feeding station.

I often wonder how these birdswill sustain future populations. One small green patch cannot support all ofthem forever and nothing else is turning greener anymore. Will they meet thesame fate of frogs and toads? There used to be a biggish pond right in front ofour house where Bull frogs and Common toads used to congregate in hundredsduring breeding seasons. Evening rains only stopped to the calling of thesevery loud and impressive males. Freshly metamorphosed, the tiny ones alwayskept us on our toes (literally!) as they were all over. Amazing food source forso many other predators. Half of the same pond got filled up in 2003 and residentialbuildings came, rest got filled up in 2007. I’m yet to see a frog or a toadsince then.

Common Indian toads in amplexus. As a kid I got in to the habit of checking my shoes before wearing only because of a fat female toad at home.

The amphibians were not theonly victims, there used to be a small scrub patch that was used by a family ofIndian brown mongoose. I’ve seen so many litters grow up. The scrub patch wasbought by BSNL, and a wall now envelops the new mobile-phone tower. Fortunately,for some structural reason, they kept a lot of ground level windows on thepond-side wall. The mongooses had their burrows in the compound but had freeaccess to the pond. Sadly, the pond itself was already covered-up withbuildings from all sides.

The pond used to be the open area that you can see plus the building area that you see at the back. The tar road in the front used to be a small mud path. The compound wall with windows on the right is where the mongoose colony was.

Now, the last two mongoosesare barely surviving in the compound, raiding garbage thrown in the nowfilled-up pond. I feel bad for them. I feel bad for all animals that used tothrive here before people started encroaching mindlessly. Whom am I blaming... Istarted it!

CROCODILE TRAINING : THE FINAL CHAPTER

2011-02-11T23:34:00.001+05:30

It took a really long time to write this chapter. I guess it’s not easy to summarize a two and a half year long episode! Plus I’ve now moved to Bangalore, and The Gerry Martin Project keeps me busy. BTW, some fantastic experiences and projects coming up later this year! :)

I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as I enjoyed the croc time!

_____________________________________________________________

I keep on mentioning how I had no clue about training crocodiles before I was introduced to this concept. And now, I don’t miss an opportunity to promote croc training as one of the most efficient tools to manage these magnificent animals in captivity, and provide the best behavioral enrichment at the same time. These are in fact the two most important aspects that are taken in to consideration; management and enrichment. Of course education is another very important component that is often clubbed with croc training, something similar to the croc enrichment shows at the Madras Crocodile Bank.

Demonstrating 'desensitization' during an enrichment show.
Photo by Akanksha Mukherjee.

I am so glad that I was introduced to croc training from the enrichment point of view first (not to forget to thank Ralf Sommerlad again for that!). This gave me a super advantage. Something I didn’t realize in the beginning. In simple words, my job then was to ‘entertain’ the crocs. And it did take some time to figure “how the hell do I entertain them?”

I remember what Ralf told me in the early days.

“If they are coming out of their safe hide (usually water) for a tiny piece of meat that is not worth the energy spent or the risk taken (as per croc logic), that my friend, is a good enrichment.”

I was so totally stunned when I noticed that happen for the first time. I keep giving example of this big male Mugger ‘Rambo’, who would come all the way from the other end of the opposite bank to ‘open his mouth’ and ‘jump’; all for three, tiny, one inch sized meat chunks!

'Rambo' - one of the largest male Muggers performing an "open your mouth" command.
Photo by Ralf Sommerlad.

The idea of developing and running enrichment programs is to keep them mentally and physically engaged. At no point of time should they be getting bored of it. If you see any such signs, you’ve gotta improvise. And yes, that was the advantage! I had to make sure that the crocs don’t get bored of the same thing over and over again. This was actually not so difficult; cuz I get bored very easily! All I’d do is keep myself entertained. The moment I felt the routine was getting rather monotonous, I’d say to myself “If I’m not enjoying this, they obviously aren’t”. I always kept my interest as a parameter to determine when to start something new. This allowed me to expand the domain without restrictions. You know how it works. When you get bored, you do all kinds of crazy stuff with less logic and more curiosity; like a kid would blow saliva bubbles to see how big can they get before bursting!

I started diversifying commands in an attempt to enhance their problem solving capability. End result: ‘Ally’ now follows 16 commands!

"Ally" - the star

It all started with Ally (American alligator) and gradually I tried my hands on 40 individuals in all. I emphasize on the word ‘individual’. I have worked with 40 crocs of 10 species of all ages (American alligator, Mugger, Siamese croc, Nile croc, Saltwater croc, African slender-snouted croc, Dwarf croc O. tetraspis, Morelet’s croc, Spectacled caiman and Yacare caiman) and not two are same. They all have distinct personalities; they are all true individuals.

From left to right: "Johny" - Spectacled caiman (Caiman crocodilus), "Jaws 3" - Saltwater croc (Crocodylus porosus), and "Pintoo" - Mugger (Crocodylus palustris).

Photo by (left to right) Akanksha Mukherjee, Nariman Vazifdar, Shikha Choudhary

This offered me a huge learning platform. There are heaps of things I've learnt through croc training, and I don’t think it would have been possible otherwise. It was all the more interesting for me since I’d never read anything on croc training or how they behave and interact whilst learning. It was like discovering something for the first time! It surely was, at least for me. Truly learnt a lot, especially on the behavior front. My first training group was just perfect for this. Ten crocs of five species (American alligator, Mugger, Siamese croc, Nile croc, and Saltie). Building of the social hierarchy, inter-species interaction, communication, and competition were the highlights. They all have their specific rank, which of course changes with time (growth, hormones and brains!). Interestingly, size does not always matter! Ally was the largest and eldest and hence was dominant. The next rank was open for a long time. I always thought the next ‘big guy’ would earn the second place. Turns out NO! The super smart ‘Pintoo’ (Mugger) always bullied the larger ‘Abu’ (Nile croc), and continues to do the same till date. In fact there is a good chance he’d be the dominant croc soon.

First time readers, please read the earlier ‘croc training’ articles for the above to make sense!

Adaptability is what allows survival. That’s exactly what these crocs are doing; trying to survive in the changing environment. This makes it possible to exploit their willingness to learn new things to adapt better. Crate training, station training, and desensitizing are often used for effective management.

Selective feeding of a Saltwater croc in a moderate density enclosure.
Watch on YouTube

It is natural to compete for food, shelter and mate (We all do it! :)). All animals retain this particular instinct wherever they are; wild or captivity, unless of course they are ‘over-civilized’ like a few of us! Crocs are super competitive, fortunately. I say this because that quality helped me a lot when training 6 crocs in the same enclosure.

I mentioned in the last chapter about the launch of croc enrichment program in the Croc Bank. That evening I was chatting with Janaki after the super performance by the entire croc group. She was curious about how I trained all of them. Logically, it would take a long time and immense patience to do that. Patience yes, but surprisingly, very little time!

I was explaining to her “There is a very healthy competition in this group. They all know that at the end of a routine, they get a reward, and the more they do the more they get. Very often learning new tricks gives more treats since they do the old trick plus the new trick. They are rewarded for every initiative as part of positive reinforcement. So all I have to do is teach Ally a new trick, all the others learn just by watching her and are ready to do the same when they are called!”

That was when Janaki mentioned about ‘Rival training’ or ‘Model training’ method. She had recently read that somewhere, and that was the technique used to train the famous African grey parrot – ‘Alex’!

“Hey, the method is so similar! Wait a minute….. It is exactly the same!”

I never knew the technique I was using had a name! All I did was followed Ralf’s pointers. Basically, you train a ‘model’ to do things using positive reinforcement, and most importantly, let others see that. And because of the rivalry within the group, the others will want to compete by doing the same thing to get attention and treats. Ally, in this case was the model.

So what exactly is the driving force? ‘Survival’ sure, but what else? Not sure if you guessed it, but the word I'm hinting to is ‘j e a l o u s y’! Yes, I’ve been called names for thinking this but that doesn’t discourage me. Crocs apparently aren’t supposed to have those emotions. Well, they weren’t supposed to learn 16 commands either!

Envying a rival is jealousy, right? But how do we know if it is what I think it is?! Let’s look at an example. After a break of about five weeks, I went in for a training session. All of them came out eagerly in the performance area. Ally seemed extremely happy. I did the regular routine with her and then asked her to go back to “water”. The others were called out after that except Thai (the female Siamese croc). Komodo (the male Siamese croc) did not perform as well as he could, so I called him out for a second time. All this time Ally was being a bad girl and kept trying to come out of water. I had to push her back a couple of times. I guess she wanted to spend some more time that day. So what’s so cool about that? Here it comes… After I finished Komodo’s routine for the second time and got out, I hear fast steps on sand. I turn around and see Ally putting up a super aggressive chase. Guess who the victim is? Yep, it is Komodo. It was strange but not strange enough. I assumed the tension will just melt down, but it was strange.

“Let’s wait for a bit and see what happens”

Scott Johnson and Elizabeth Farmer from Texas were volunteering at the time, and were armed with cameras at the moment. They did get some decent shots of the whole incident; I just wish I hadn’t misplaced that damn cd! I hope to find it soon, and will then put up the photos.

Excited Ally.
Photo by Umeed Mistry.

Back to the story: Surprisingly, the chase continued on land and then in water. Komodo rushed out of this pool and entered the other. So now there was no visual contact, and so logically, the tension should be over. But no! Ally enters the other pool looking for Komodo! The chase continues in the other pool for like a minute, before they both disappear underwater. All the other crocs in that pool looked surprised. Ally now surfaces in the northern side and Komodo somewhere south. Ally looks at others, chases everyone out except Thai! Komodo gets chased for third time now and is out and hiding in the farthest corner. Ally comes close to where I was standing in amazement, and looks straight in my eyes..

...it was all silent after that.

Now why would she chase all except Thai, the only one whom I didn’t call out that day? And Komodo in particular gets a double dose. I cannot come up with any other explanations but the theory of jealousy. Can you?

Ally has another very special quality, eagerness to learn more, all the time. I can always see this “me, me, me!” expression on her face. It becomes so much easy to teach her new things. Another interesting story: Andy Wakefield and Jeremy Cusack were shooting a small promotional video for Croc Bank. We were taking some shots of training, and I was explaining how awesome Ally was. Just then I thought “Just for fun, let’s try and teach her a new command in front of the camera!” The video below shows how she learnt a brand new trick in under 6 minutes!!! That is bloody awesome for a croc. I was so proud of her that day..

Ally learns a new trick in under 6 minutes! All captured in this footage.

Watch on YouTube

There are so many memories with these crocs, never thought I’d get emotionally attached to them. Bonding with crocs is one of the best experiences ever... especially with one croc in particular..

Exchanging thoughts (22 October, 2010).
Photo by myself with self timer on tripod!

I will miss you Ally!

__

CROCODILE TRAINING : PART FIVE

2010-10-04T14:21:00.001+05:30

The launch of Crocodile Enrichment Training Demo

“Soham, you’ve gotta make sure that your training group performs well on the day” said Patrick – Director, Madras Crocodile Bank, looking a bit concerned.

He had a good reason for concern. We were launching the ‘Croc Enrichment Training Program’ for public. People can buy an extra ticket and watch the enrichment show. Crocs get enriched life, Croc Bank makes some extra bucks for conservation, and people get to see how smart and awesome these guys are. Super idea!

**Flashback a couple of months**

“We should really materialize the enrichment show now. It can be a great attraction, and it has a great potential to work as an educational tool” said Gerry Martin – Education Consultant, Madras Crocodile Bank. “We’ve been going on talking about the possibility since a long time now. Let's take it forward”

“Yeah man, that’ll be fun! I’m all ready” I said smiling; though I wasn’t sure as Ally and gang had never performed in front of a crowd. They usually chicken out (underwater!) when they see a lot of people. Getting them used to a big crowd would take some efforts; but it will be very interesting. It will give me a chance to see how far I can go with enrichment training, how much can I influence them, how much of the behavior can actually be modified. Should I have tried all of this first before opening my big mouth? Eeh.. too late now.. Just look confident…

“So when do you think we’ll open up for public” I asked hoping I’ll get some good time to sort things out with my crocs.

“A couple of months maybe”

“Okay!” Can’t laze around anymore!

Soon me, Gerry and Patrick were discussing future renovation plans to make the enclosure look better. Also, these crocs were reaching an age where they start displaying dominance and start establishing their rank in the hierarchy. All around 8-9 years old. It was getting a bit dangerous at times working with 6, very agile crocs, all at the same time. If I spend more time with one, the others would lose patience and sneak up.

“We need some sort of partition in the enclosure to start with” I suggested. Only I knew how important it was to get that damn partition finally! Now, with the partition, I would be able to work with one croc at a time without worrying about getting ambushed. What a relief that would be :)

I drew some basic fence designs which were fine, and then I drew a basic grandstand design which made a lot of sense to me, but not so much to others. Need to enhance the grandstand design with some figures; who’d do it better than Steven Whealing, our then all round volunteer. Thanks Steve for that one! Our current grandstand is based on your design.

With the fence up, I now had to set up a regular routine to streamline the crocs’ entry, performance, and exit. But hey, what about the crowd factor? How do I gather a crowd?

“We’ll call all the staff and volunteers” suggested Akanksha.

Good idea, but I was a bit skeptical. I tried to utilize every opportunity of an induced crowd. The crowd was requested to behave like an Indian crowd; talk loudly, whistle, clap for no reason, try to distract me and the crocs, etc. Our long term volunteers and docents were usually forced to be the crowd!

**Flashback over**

Progress was going on fine. I was ready. Crocs were ready. I had also geared up the big Muggers in pen 8 for a walk on the wooden ramp.

"Rambo", the new dominant male in pen 8

Photo by Keerthi Krutha

But can an event go fine without a dent? Nope, not in my life!

On the morning of ‘the day’, I woke up to a loud motor noise.

“Oh duck! (I changed the first letter to maintain decency)”

Crocs can get freaked out very easily. We were maintaining a very calm environment all these days. We also requested the temple people across the road to lower the volume of festive songs after 13:00hrs. This motor noise can ruin the whole day! If they get spooked, they will not perform, as simple as that. Our maintenance department decided to choose that day to empty out some of the septic tanks, how interesting..

I could only wait and watch.

Janaki and Rom arrived a couple of hours before the launch. Janaki had called earlier to set up a time when she could take some pics of me and Ally for her article. I thought of working with her would be a good idea now. This might make Ally a bit more comfortable before the show.

“Hey Janaki, jump in!”

Ally came out but was not quite comfortable. I was a bit anxious. She is the star and if she doesn’t perform well, it’s gonna be a disaster…. or maybe not, some or the other croc will perform. The show won’t go blank.

Guests started arriving at 16:00hrs. Gerry, Rom, and Patrick were leading the group on a guided tour. Croc Bank Docents did a fantastic job coordinating the whole event.

Gerry addressing the guests
Photo by Shafeeq Ahmed

Jaws III, our largest croc was in top form that day. Gave a jaw-dropping performance!

Jaws III was super active!
Photo by Gowri Mallapur

Now is the time for my gang; Ally and co.

I started with an introductory speech, explaining the importance of enrichment training, and how it also works as a management as well as an educational tool. I emphasized on how it is primarily a husbandry approach, and is for the welfare of crocs. The “show” part of it is only secondary. I also mentioned (of course!) that they were performing in front of a full capacity crowd for the first time; apologies for any misbehavior or non-performance. I jumped in thinking this would not be as good as expected considering the spooky, noisy morning; just hoped for the best.

“Guys, please don’t let me down” I passed on the message in subsonic frequency.

Grand performance by "Ally"
Photo by Shafeeq Ahmed

I was awesomely surprised when they all performed brilliantly, Ally especially. Far better than I expected. They were fantabulous! I wanted to hug all of them, but I could only imagine that. The show went superb. How could I underestimate them so much?!

All the excited guests were guided to the tent for Rom’s presentation. I stayed back for some time.

“You guys really made me proud today!” another one of those subsonic conversations.

I glanced at all of them with a big smile on my face. I looked at Ally.

“Thanks Ally”

I promise I saw her wink!

Unique adaptation of vine snakes

2010-09-09T18:38:00.003+05:30

Adaptation, in its many forms, is the most common phenomenon, and is always survival oriented. Survival is of course, the most crucial game for any animal, a game where losing is not an option, but is often the result.

We humans have come so far is because of our little adaptations; all the ‘out of the box’ experiments. But are we the only ones doing that?

Nope!

Our way of life is very typical, and some animals have noticed that. These animals have now adapted well enough to get a prefix ‘House’ before their names! House sparrows, House crows, House spiders, House ants, House geckos, House rats, House this, House that. Isn’t it smart thinking as opposed to staying away from predators (us)?

Some of most obvious adaptations are witnessed in the urban setting. Monkeys (Langurs and Macaques) raiding kitchens; “stealing” food, Crows and bats catching insects by the street light posts after dark, Black kites living almost exclusively on offal, cockroaches in drainage pipes, spiders in your computer… There are just so many of them.

Pests! What about pests? They are super adaptive, aren’t they?

It is the change in environment that forces the inhabitants to adapt for a better life; after all, losing the game is not an option. The ease of adapting to something is equivalent to smart innovation in human language. But, not every human is smart and it is no different in other animals either. Let’s get to a fresh example of a brand new adaptation and evaluate the smartness!

June 16, 2010

“Whoa! Did you hear that?!?” I said to Akanksha with a big smile. A big smile because I could make a good guess of what was happening!

Anything exciting at midnight is usually fun!

“Something’s caught a frog!” said Akanksha, equally excited now. I was of course proud of her to guess that accurately.

I rushed out with a torch and WHOAAA! This thing was right outside my room! Of all the possible predators, this was leeeast expected. A Common vine snake!!!

“Camera! Camera! Get the camera….. quick” Fortunately the snake can’t hear me yelling.

Ahaetulla nasuta feeding on Polypedates maculatus

“Wow, that was awesome!”

Croc Bank is an awesome place providing an ideal habitat for a lot of native species. Amidst the shoreline ecology, Croc Bank is a mini semi evergreen forest system with more than 135 native plant species.

It almost stays the same all year round

With over 60 species of birds, 30+ species of herps and some resident and occasional mammals, and tons of invertebrates, the faunal checklist is pretty impressive for a 7 and a half acres area.

So what is the big deal if you see a snake catching a frog?!? Well, the Common vine snake Ahaetulla nasuta is supposed to be a diurnal snake, and the guy we saw was hunting at midnight! Now, that is interesting.

Active herpers would know that Ahaetulla are best spotted at night when they are sleeping / resting in bushes and scrubs. I had never seen or heard of this species actively hunting at night, so I was pretty excited about it. This can’t be a coincidence, can it?

When I get excited, I get curious too.

June 18, 2010

A couple of days later, me and Akanksha were returning from Chennai. We had just entered from the Irula Cooperative gate on my motor bike, and saw a vine snake crossing the road.

“Vine snake! Watch out..!” exclaimed Akanksha.

This was at 22:00hrs! There is something more than coincidence here. I was sure.

I must ask someone, and who would be better than the reptile guru himself – Rom Whitaker!

“Hmm, interesting. Good if you share your observations with the ARRS gang as there are tons of vine snakes there and seem to sleep deeply at night, but who knows?” Rom wrote back.

June 19, 2010

I decided to be on night duty! I might see more if I look for them. The next night, I was roaming around at night, all over the place. Came back after an hour and a half; hot and sweaty.

“Gotta go drink some water. Man, I feel dehydrated.”

I glanced at the planted fence on the South side of the canteen before entering the kitchen for a cold glass of water. Green, green, green, vine snake, green, green….

“I must be really dehydrated!” I was thinking while I was filling up water. Mind’s playing games.. or is it..?

I went back and could see a typical green color. “Oooh man, that IS a vine snake! Super!”

Camera, notepad, pen and I’m ready. Wait a minute.. Now I can see 2 vine snakes.. Damn, should have finished the glass of water.
No wait... there ARE 2 snakes! Jackpot..! :)

2 vine snakes. Bad picture quality, good timing.

These 2 were typically exploring the area as they do while hunting, carefully scanning the fence and were checking out anything that moved in the wind. Time check: 22:50hrs.

I sat there taking notes for 2 and half hours till they decided to push off, both in opposite directions. This was getting more and more interesting now. So this is not just one snake. There are at least 3; the first one was around 28 inches long, and now these 2; around 40 inches and 34 inches in length.

Is it a trend across the species? Or is it a local adaptation of the resident population?

July 25, 2010

I was still herping out at nights, trying out my luck. I wished I could go out more regularly. Didn’t see anything in the driveway that night. I was on my way back when I just recalled a distinctive similarity in the hunting strategy of those vine snakes. They were all utilizing the artificial lights! Well, except the one I saw on the driveway, but the rest were.

“Oh yes, the first one caught a frog right under a bulb outside our room. Second one was in pitch dark in the driveway, but it was on its way to some place. Third and fourth were again in the fence that was lit up by the lights from canteen!” I said to myself.

“May be I should go back and look around the canteen area”

I was all smiles when I reached canteen. This time, on a low branch of a tree on the North side :)

A nice specimen, around 36 inches long, was scanning the area below it. Amazingly, it didn’t quite get bothered by my presence. I went back to my room to get the camera, notepad and a pen. I knew it was going to be a longish observation, so made myself some coffee. Time check: 23:10hrs.

I sat there taking notes for over an hour until I saw the body language change. It was – ‘Target locked’

I could see a Bark gecko climbing up a tree nearby. The moving gecko just froze 12 inches away from the snake. Then, there was a looong wait. 17 full minutes.., before it started climbing up again.

I could see the snake getting ready to strike as the gecko went closer.

“8 inches..”

“6 inches..”

“5 inches…”

...and WHOOSH.. A lightning fast strike; bang on target!

Ahaetulla nasuta swallowing a Hemidactylus leschenaultii

Super awesome adaptation by these guys, eh?

But again, we do find several sleeping at night regularly. Like I said earlier, not all of us are smart! :)

Snake-bite management >> India

2010-06-20T13:30:00.001+05:30

Snake-bite is one of the more serious health issues, especially in India where deaths due to snake-bites (I am referring to venomous snake-bites) are estimated well over 50,000 every year. Even though actual envenomation takes place less often, it is best to stay prepared for an emergency. This is not only for people residing in remote rural areas (who are the majority victims) but also for urban city residents. There has been a transformation of habitat for snakes from forest systems >> farmlands >> villages >> towns >> cities, but owing to their extraordinaire adaptive nature, they have managed to survive everywhere. No doubt there are only a few common species that are found in and around human habitation, unfortunately the list includes the BIG 4!

Spectacled Cobra Naja naja (Elapidae)

Common Krait Bungarus caeruleus (Elapidae)

Russell's Viper Daboia russelii (Viperidae)

Saw-scaled Viper Echis carinatus (Viperidae)

These four species make up the BIG 4 medicinally important snakes of India. They are lethally venomous and occur commonly throughout most of India. Of course there are other species that too demand utmost respect like other cobras Naja spp., kraits Bungarus spp., coral snakes Calliophis spp. and Sinomicrurus sp., King Cobra Ophiophagus hannah, sea snakes (Hydrophiidae) and some pit vipers (Viperidae). Bites are however rare from these mostly because of their distribution and biological pattern.

Most of the snake-bites take place unknowingly when the snake is accidentally threatened; while in other cases, well some people just ask for it!

Whatever be the reason, it is not unlikely that you might end up in a situation where a simple strategy and presence of mind can prove to be a limb-saver, in some cases, a life-saver.

The snake-bite management strategy is presented below; and presence of mind, well, I just hope you have it!

~~Suck out venom~~

~~Make incision to bleed out venom~~

~~Go to traditional healers or anything similar~~

~~Try out home remedies~~

~~Apply tourniquets~~

~~Apply ice~~

~~Clean out the bitten part~~

~~Try and catch/kill the snake~~

All of the above activities either do not work or are extremely dangerous to perform. In fact, they will do more harm than good.

Following is what you can and should do:

+ Make sure the victim and others are at a safe distance away from the snake

+ Try to memorize the snake’s appearance (from a safe distance!)

+ Remove watches / rings / other jewelry from the bitten part

+ Keep the victim calm and reassured

+ Do not panic

+ Try to immobilize the bitten limb; do not make the victim run and avoid making him/her walk if possible
+ In case of neurotoxic bites (All elapids and hydrophiids: Cobras, King cobras, kraits, coral snakes and sea snakes), pressure immobilization (Sutherland method) with long crepe or other stretchy bandage (5 - 10 cm wide, several rolls) and splint to be applied immediately to the bitten limb, starting at the digits and working up to the groin or arm pit.

+ Do not waste any time and arrange for a quick transport to the nearest hospital treating snakebite cases, as safely and comfortably as possible

+ If possible, note the time of bite and progression of symptoms

+ Describe the snake and the whole incident to the attending doctor

*Anti Snake Venom Serum is the only cure*

If your neighborhood has a high density of snakes, it is advisable to prepare a snake-bite protocol (plan of action in case of an emergency) best suited to you. This can simply be important contact people and numbers who should be informed first, name / address of nearest hospital treating snake-bites, best mode of transport and related details, name / contact no. of doctor, etc. Make sure all family members understand their role in an emergency.

As always, prevention is better than cure

+ Do not walk around with bare feet outside your house.

+ Take great care when clearing vegetation, raking dry leaves in your garden.

+ Supervise kids in the outdoors, especially in a green neighborhood.

+ Use torch/flashlight at night and keep wearing those shoes. Check shoes before wearing them.

+ Watch your step and see before you sit!

+ Keep your backyard free of junk and make sure your solid waste is managed properly.

+ If you see a snake, do nothing. Let it go. Do not try to pick it up or kill it.

+ If a snake has entered your premises, call professional snake rescuers.

Snake-bite is painful, expensive and extremely risky. Please do not get bit.

Stay safe!

Tree snake >> Skink >> Surprise!

2010-05-26T17:01:00.003+05:30

Croc Bank was hosting a zoo keeper’s training program on ‘Captive management of reptiles’ for all South Indian Zoos. A couple of days were hosted at the Chennai Snake Park Trust; ‘Snakes’ and ‘Lizards’.

Previous day was quite fun especially because snakes are my favorite animals and I took all the lectures and practical sessions. I worked hard till late night after coming back from the ‘snake day’ to prepare for the ‘lizard day’. I have to convince myself “this is close to what I want”, till then I consider the work incomplete. This takes a long time and I rarely impress myself.

Anyway, so I was coming back to my room from the office at around 01:00am (yeah, that’s how long it takes!) and I saw something shiny crawling in the grass outside Akanksha’s office. “Snake” – is what I would have loved to see… but wait a minute… that’s a…. FISH!?! A snakehead fish! Suddenly, I wasn’t sleepy any more.

Snakeheads are found locally and we keep a few in our water filtration tanks. They are so cool. Once, while emptying one of the filtration tanks for cleaning I saw one big snakehead leap out of the water and cover around 15 feet! It sadly landed on land with a thud and then started vocalizing! I put it back in water with no physical injuries. I love them. They are awesome.

A snakehead in the underwater gharial filtration tank

I knew Channids breathe air with their suprabranchial organ but do they cover distances on land? I remembered the instance of the climbing perches last monsoon. That was so crazy! Here is the video.

This snakehead was at least 20 feet away from the filtration tank and was heading towards the opposite direction of the tank! So many questions popped up but most of them ended up with the same “why?”

I started listing the environmental factors that may have triggered this behavior. Everything seemed fine for a predatory fish living in a planted tank, except for one thing may be. This is summer; low water table in natural ponds. If these fishes do actually travel on land in search for other water bodies may be then it does make sense, especially because the fish stock of this particular filtration tank was freshly acquired. I would assume that the instincts might have made them take the decision to crawl out in search of other water body. But then in that case, the tank is that water body; nice, deep, planted and lots of food fishes!

I keep saying that we often assume things in the field of natural history but the reality is more often completely different (but always logical). In my experience, all predatory animals are extremely smart. The best logical explanation that I could derive out of this behavior is that the fish knows it was caught by a ‘potential predator’ and is now kept in an enclosed environment where it can get caught again. The first reaction to captivity - is escape, be it a bird, a mammal (including humans) or a fish. So was the fish smart enough to figure out that humans are not around at night and thus is the best time to escape? But then what about the other predators? May be the fish doesn’t know about them yet. By this time I reached my room. That was a very thoughtful 2 minute walk after releasing the fish back in the tank. Most of the questions still remain unanswered.

So where are the tree snake and the skink?

Well, they come in action the next day morning. The breakfast was arranged at Jade resort, about a couple of minutes drive from Croc Bank. After breakfast, I had to collect some stuff from the Croc Bank on the way to the Chennai Snake Park. Patrick, Gowri and Akanksha were also to accompany us from there. While we were coming out of the gate between the Yacare caiman and Arrican dwarf crocs exhibit, I saw a Bronzeback tree snake Dendrelaphis tristis shoot down off the wall of the dwarf croc enclosure. The snake was partially visible to me with a Neem tree obstructing the visibility. To me, it looked like it was escaping from us. Just then Patrick exclaimed “Hey, it’s hunting something!”

Sure enough, we saw a Brahminy skink Mabuya carinata rush out of the plantation.

Skink (Mabuya carinata) on stone wall

It climbed the wall as fast as it could and they are good climbers, but so is the Bronzeback! I could not believe the speed at which the snake climbed. There was like a 10 – 12 cms gap between the two when the chase was on. The skink smartly entered the dry coconut leaf wall touching the wall with all hopes of losing the snake, and it did work, for about 30 seconds. That was the most active snake that I had ever seen. It was super alert, constantly smelling the air and the leaves, reacting to every vibration (every time the skink moved in the leaves) and had the most watchful eyes. We all were stationed trying to guess what will happen next. At the beginning we thought the skink will obviously get away but now looking at the snake’s determination and its physical capabilities, may be not much of an escape for the skink. But who knows? The skink was fast too and was running for his life.

The skink was climbing up and down the leaves trying to confuse the snake but snake was following the scent trail so efficiently, and was also gaining speed every minute. For once they both disappeared. The skink came out first but without the tail! Did the trick work? Couldn’t see the snake anymore. The skink now started climbing the leaf wall. It suddenly looked alert and then jumped from a height of about 8 feet!

“What the…… !“

And in the same second I saw the Bronzeback strike in air but obviously missed. I have seen this with rat snakes before but for the first time I saw a Bronzeback jump from the same height and almost land next to the skink!

“WHAT THE…… !!!”

It was a rough landing for the snake and took a few seconds to recover. These few seconds were crucial for the skink and it wasted no time. It was back in the leaf wall in a flash and now on the stone wall on the other side, relaxed for a bit. I could see its tiny heart pumping real hard. Phew, those were some adrenaline filled moments. I was so excited! Everything was happening so fast that I didn’t really get a chance to photo-document anything. May be now I should take a photo of the winner in the battle of survival today. I take my camera out, try to focus on the exhausted skink. Just then the skink starts running again!

It tries to jump off the wall but this time it's a bit too late..

The Bronzeback caught the skink in mid air!

M I D A I R!!!

Adrenaline was overflowing now. WOW! That was amazing; the best hunt ever!

The skink was trying to bite the snake but all in vain. I could see the venom was working fast as the skink was becoming more and more lethargic in its struggle.

Skink now losing hope

Now the snake was a bit wary of us. This was typical of most predators after a successful hunt, less often seen in snakes though. Bronzebacks are a bit different. They carry their catch in a safe area and then swallow it. I had once seen one that fell off a tree with a small evening bat in its mouth. It then carried the bat to the safety of the cactus fence and swallowed it. Swallowing a bat takes time especially when the spread-out claws keep getting stuck in everything. This happened right outside the round-house in Croc Bank.

This snake was also carrying the skink in its mouth and now started to move towards the cactus fence where it will swallow the hard earned catch.

Bronzeback (Dendrelaphis) carrying the skink away

Finally it all ended…

… or did it?

A male Garden lizard Calotes versicolor was patiently watching all the action. It was on the same side of the wall where the snake was heading to. The calotes climbed the stone wall and confronted the snake with open mouth!

Calotes versicolor confronting the Dendrelaphis

The snake tried to ignore the situation and tried to sneak past it but the calotes had other plans. He attacked the snake, bit it on the neck and tried to snatch the dead skink away! The snake freaked out and jumped off the wall and landed on our side. It let go of the skink and escaped in the bush. The calotes was not confident enough to come and get the skink in our presence and so he retreated. I felt bad for the snake. After all that, it finally didn’t get anything. Patrick spotted the snake again and aimed the dead skink close to the snake. No response.

We were getting late and had to move. No clue who took the skink finally. I bet the garden lizard did see us throw the skink and I’m pretty sure he would have claimed the booty! But who knows if it ended at that..

What a start to the day! Awesome!

Tale of 2 Tomistomas

2010-05-19T23:31:00.019+05:30

Apologies to all for such a long gap, but April and May (so far) has been a very busy period for me. April began with Croc Bank Docent training program for the 2010 batch on 3^rd and 4^th. A few of the docents couldn’t make it but we are planning a separate training program for them. This was followed by a TGMP camp from 5^th to 9^th. That was fun. It is always fun with Gerry Martin around! I guess changing a few things in every workshop keeps it interesting; keeps it alive.

We had a brief staff meeting on the 10^th finalizing almost everything regarding the big upcoming event; Tomistoma transfer from Ahmedabad Zoo! Yep, ‘Godzilla’ was finally coming to Croc Bank. With a big help from Air India, Ahmedabad Zoo and several friends (Prachee and Rishit in particular!), the transfer was a super smooth one. Thanks to all the friends in media, there was great coverage throughout the event in both the cities, Ahmedabad and Chennai. Personally, for me it was a big achievement considering ‘Psycho’ (our male) and ‘Godzilla’ are the only surviving male and female Tomistoma in the country. Also, there was a silent pressure to start conservation breeding of Tomistoma since that is one of our major focuses and there is a need.

Psycho - Tomistoma schlegelii

Tomistoma population in the wild is comparable to Royal Bengal Tigers; under 2400, making them one of the most endangered crocodilians – now extinct in Thailand. But that figure unfortunately doesn't grab a lot of attention. So much depends on the ‘charisma’ factor! Luckily there is an active group of dedicated conservationists working for Tomistoma. Tomistoma Task Force will provide you with more details.

Godzilla’s capture on the morning of 16 April was rather quick. Amazingly she didn’t react much! After experiencing Psycho’s capture to measure and weigh him in early 2009, I had imagined some action with Godzilla. Psycho was snapping, rolling, snapping, pulling the rope, snapping, trying to throw people off his back, snapping… and hence was called ‘Psycho’. He was 11 feet long then and weighed 130 Kilos.

Godzilla was welcomed at Chennai airport by around 25 media people. She was a big star. We quickly loaded her in the truck and she was off to Croc Bank. I stayed with the wooden crate at the back of the truck. The ride was bumpy but lead me to a flashback. Godzilla was one of the first animals that I ever saw! I was a nuisance child forcing my parents (or whoever was baby-sitting) to take me to the zoo almost every day! I was 3 when I saw her first and I remember my parents telling me that I used to spend long time staring in the enclosure. May be I was planning this transfer since then!

Gz in her old enclosure

Considering Ahmedabad my home and Croc Bank my workplace, I was taking Godzilla from my home to my workplace and as per the breeding loan deal, will take back 50% of the babies back to my home. How cool is that!

We reached Croc Bank and I could see at least 32 welcoming hands. Godzilla’s enclosure was all ready. It was only a matter of few minutes and she was let free in her new home. She wasn’t disturbed at all for the rest of the day.

Next day we had an official opening followed by a press conference. Godzilla looked all confused.

Gz in her new enclosure

Everything was different. Huge enclosure with strange substrate and weird looking shade providers. She was experiencing a big vegetated enclosure with soil and leaf litter for the first time in 35 years! We were excited but there were a few doubts. Her age was a big worry. She is 38 already. Will she be able to produce eggs? We hoped for the best.

Introducing her to Psycho is another challenge. It has to be a soft introduction. Both the animals will have to convince us that they are compatible; no love life till then.

They are sharing the same enclosure and the pond within but with a divider keeping them apart. On land and above the water surface on pond, casuarina fencing separates them but allows seeing, hearing and smelling each other. The pond underwater is separated by a wall. The wall has a window with metal bars which allows olfactory senses to work underwater. All thanks to Gerry and Ralf for this idea and it works really great.

Psycho was obviously curious about the intruder. Knowing him, he will kill anything that threatens his territory or will die trying; something not to look forwards to but to be always kept in mind.

Psycho (left) and Gz's (right) first interaction

Fortunately, Psycho was cool with Godzilla. Such a relief! He was in fact showing a lot of interest with no signs of aggression. He would hang out on the same side of the enclosure as she and when she goes underwater, he goes near the underwater window and displays some cool croc communication in forms or short grunts, growls, bubbling, etc. Last week I saw him with his head raised and mouth open. I could see his throat vibrating but no sound! This was probably some sort of subsonic communication. Awesome!

I started from Croc Bank at 03:00 hrs for the airport on the 24^th. I was on my way to Goa to attend the 30^th International Sea Turtle Symposium. This was the first time it was being organized in India; a huge opportunity for Indian biologists / conservationists to network with the rest of the world. The flight was via Mumbai with a 4 hour stopover. Now what can I do in Mumbai?

“Mallika!”

This was perfect. I hadn’t met her in 3 years and she was in Mumbai. It was a brief meet but all worth it.

The symposium was quite a different experience for me. I had never seen so many turtle (marine) conservationists in one place. Met some great personalities like Jack Frazier and Peter Pritchard. Rom, who started Sea turtle conservation in India back in early 70’s, was also around.

Stay arrangement was awesome. I was sharing a room with Dr. Patrick Aust, Croc Bank Director, in Taj Vivanta, Panaji. I was in love with luxury, totally.

On the evening of last day, I was alone in my room when Rom, Janaki and Jack Frazier came over. Patrick had gone for a swim in the awesome rooftop pool. Rom was getting ready for the evening party when Janaki first mentioned about the unfortunate croc attack in the Andamans. The victim was really unlucky as this was the first time ever that a Saltie (Crocodylus porosus) was seen on the beaches of Havelock Island! Sad.

I got back on 30^th late night – straight to bed, only to wake up to a surprise. Ganga, our senior keeper discovered a nest in Godzilla’s enclosure!

"A nest?"

"Nest?"

I really need to check this before I believe it.

Gz's mound nest!

Well, there it was… a mound nest made of raked up fallen leaves, soil, twigs and fallen branches. 2 feet high and around 3 feet wide. She had built a nest! A real freakin’ nest! This was the first time she made one, ever, in all 38 years of her life! That's some real strong instincts.

This was within 2 weeks of her being at Croc Bank! This is crazy! It is so amazing; how fast they adapt when exposed to a suitable habitat. This was one of the most amazing behaviors I’d ever seen in crocs……until 2 days later, when we found eggs in the nest!

All 12 eggs were perfect in health.

Worried about her productivity? Not any more!

The eggs were obviously infertile since she hasn't mated yet, but I candled each egg carefully with high hopes of reporting parthenogenesis in crocs for the first time. No Damn Luck!

_____

Trip to Gharial capital

2010-03-07T14:40:00.008+05:30

Gavialis gangeticus

The Gharial Gavialis gangeticus is one of the most endangered crocodilians in the world, with less than 200 breeding adults left in the wild. Historically, gharials were found in the river systems of Pakistan, Northern India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal. Now gharials are wiped out everywhere except a few small areas of India and Nepal.

Edward and Derek (I really can’t spell or pronounce their Chinese names!) from the university of Hong Kong reached Croc Bank, late night on 20 February, 2010. They were awarded a fully sponsored field trip by the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation. They were to spend a week at Croc Bank and a week at Croc Bank’s field base in Chambal River Sanctuary, experiencing Croc Bank’s field projects.

So who’s gonna escort them to Chambal..?

Yep, me! :)

We left for the airport at 05:30 in the morning. I didn’t notice we were flying spice jet till I actually took out the e-ticket to acquire boarding pass. It was one of the worst 2 hours and 32 minutes of my life! The legroom was ridiculous. I was using ‘concertina locomotion’ on my way out of Delhi airport!

It was a long drive to Gharaita where our field station is based. We reached at around 7 in the evening. Dark outside. No electricity. Cold. Tripped over a stone and almost got bitten by the sleeping dog!

Anyway, we were waiting for Dr. Jeff Lang and Shailendra Singh, both were on their way back from Etawah. Ravi, the education officer working with the freshwater turtles project did welcome us and offered nice hot tea. Jeff is heading a gharial radio telemetry project (Gharial Conservation Alliance) and Shailendra works with Turtle Survival Alliance. They both arrived in a short while. It was time for dinner by then. We had a nice introductory session with Jeff and Shailendra while having dinner.

“So, where do you guys want to sleep? You have your sleeping bags, right?” asked Jeff.

“Yes we have sleeping bags and we can sleep anywhere. No worries.” I said with a casual smile.

“Ok, we have a couple of cots up on the terrace. We can arrange for one more” said Jeff.

We went up there and whoa! It was COLD. Really cold. People who know me would know how much I hate cold. I realized I’ll look like a chicken if I now say that “Well, maybe I can sleep downstairs. It’s nice and cozy there.” So I was just nodding away with a weird smile. We set up a couple of cots for Edward and Derek. The third cot was covered with Jeff’s gear and I had my fingers crossed. :)

“You can sleep downstairs tonight and maybe we can arrange for a cot here tomorrow. Hope you don’t mind.” announced Jeff.

“Don’t worry Jeff. I’m fine anywhere, really” I said, again casually. But inside my head, I was “YES! Phew.. :)”

It was a rather good night. Nice and cozy in my sleeping bag, which has a 10 deg C comfort level by the way.

Next day started with a breakfast discussion with Jeff. He gave an overview of his project. They have been tracking 10 gharials for over a year now. A lot of interesting findings including habitat preferences, parenting behavior and some intelligent behavior! Jeff mentioned findings about the habitat preference and the main factors influencing it. Female gharials tend to stick around in areas with deep waters during the dry season and nest on the sand bars (raised islands in the river), making sure the babies, when they hatch out, have enough water and food to survive till the rains come. Males choose areas with females and food availability and end up making the same choice as females – deep waters. Same goes with juveniles and sub-adults. Smaller males maintain their distance from the big dominant males, quite naturally. You can very well map out the ‘gharial colonies’ on Chambal River in the dry season. During the monsoons everything changes; Chambal River gets flooded inevitably with high water levels everywhere, flushing out a lot of babies. This is when the gharials move out of the nesting areas. They have also documented a very cool movement pattern of gharials from wet season to dry season to wet season again. They seem to know the area they cruise pretty well. This movement pattern may hint towards their ‘home ranges’ but it is too early to conclude anything. A few more years will reveal a lot more information. Jeff also witnessed parental behavior of a caring father gharial. Jeff was trying to take some good shots of some of the hatchlings when this male appeared out of nowhere and stood guard, protecting the babies.

We also had a chat with the trackers, Pankaj and Anand. Jeff says he’s really fortunate to have these guys as trackers. The best advantage is that they are locals with their village not far from our base. They know the terrain, weather, animals, people and culture; some of the main qualities of a good tracker. They both come from a fishing community and so are well aware of the Chambal river system. I was acting as a translator in the conversation between the students and trackers. I also cleared out some of my queries. It was interesting to know that the local community is amazingly ignorant about the animals. They think Muggers Crocodylus palustris and Gharials are the same species and call them muggers! In spite of them looking and behaving a lot different. In case there’s an attack by a mugger on livestock or humans, gharials are equally blamed as the villagers think they are the same. Plus they see the gharials as major competitors for fish and think that if there are no gharials, there won’t be a protected area and they’ll have easy access to the river and its resources. This shows the extreme importance of educating locals.

Mugger Crocodylus palustris in Chambal

We went gharial watching for the next couple of days with Pankaj and Anand. This was another first for me; seeing gharials in the wild. I must say, these two guys have perfected the tracking business. We carried a big antenna and its smaller cousin, a foldable antenna. Within no time the receiver units were connected to the antennae and the search begun.

Tracking gharials

The first time I got a signal,…. beep beep, beep beep, I was jumpin! Woo hoo! That was awesome! What next? What next? I recalled Jeff saying “After the beeps, we try and observe the animals for 2-3 hours and note everything they do” and that’s exactly what we did. We went down the ravines (yeah exactly like you see in the movie ‘Bandit Queen’) and to the river bank.

Chambal is wild!

The terrain is not easy. It’s usually a few kilometers walk to the observation spots; hot, sweaty, tiring, but worth every step. Chambal is a wild place – ducks, pelicans, cormorants, storks and the best of all and my favorite - the birds of prey. I saw more birds of prey than anywhere else; Ospreys, Bonelli’s eagles, Booted eagles, Steppe eagles, Laggar, Kestrels and a couple that I could not identify.

“…19, 20, 21” Pankaj was counting.

I wondered what he was looking at with his binoculars. I tried to spot the ‘target’ myself.

“F……ish!” there were gharials! 24 at least. That was crazy. I wanted to WOW loudly but was well aware that’ll freak them out. Finally, I got to see gharials in the wild. Awesome!

We sat down looking at the gharials. The trackers took out their field notebooks and started recording location of the gharials, count, activity, sketch of the river and position of gharials, everything. GPS coordinates are also taken. The trackers follow the protocol religiously; pretty impressive.

Life is in slow motion for crocodilians. You can fill up 5 pages in one hour if you’re studying primate behavior, but with crocs you barely fill up half a page in a day.

The croc is basking.

Basking.

Still basking.

It ate a fish…………………….. no it didn’t.

Went in water. Can’t see it anymore.

End of day.

Studying crocs, not easy.

So we were enjoying the gharials while our tracker friends were busy taking data. My binoculars occasionally would set a higher angle to spot the distant raptors. I was so happy, almost forgetting about the long walk back. But hey, that’s exciting too.

Leith's sand snake Psammophis leithii. Spotted on our way to the river bank.

Edward and Derek were having a great time taking tons of photos. We were also chatting with the trackers about their experiences with dacoits – the most famous ‘wild life’ of Chambal. It seems it isn’t as bad as it used to be a few years ago, but there are still a few dangerous folks around. The far-famed dacoit queen ‘Phulan Devi’ ruled her territory not far from where we were sitting. Just then Anand pointed a boat at distance. ‘Chambal Safari Lodge’ it read.

“Don’t worry. The gharials won’t get scared. They know the boat” said Pankaj.

I recalled the conversation we had with Jeff. He was talking about the intelligence level of gharials and capability to learn. If it is a survey boat (the boat that was used during their catching when the transmitters were fitted), they vanish underwater even before you see the boat coming. But they have figured out the tourist boats pose no threat and so they are surprisingly tolerant of them, even the babies! They differentiate based on how the boat looks and sometimes based on how it sounds!

The tourist boat didn't seem to bother the otherwise extremely shy gharial

I told Jeff about the enrichment training that I do with the crocs at Croc Bank and how they can analyze, learn and modify their behavior to get the best results. This could be linked to their behavior in the wild as well. I showed him some of the croc enrichment training videos. “Whoa!” , “Bloody hell..” , “Wow..” , “Wow…“ , wide open eyes, were some of the expressions. “Man, that is new!” I was happy to hear that from a croc researcher of his caliber. We discussed about this whole new concept of learning capabilities of crocs and how it can be explored more to understand them better. I remembered Ralf mentioning its importance in dealing human-croc conflicts. Jeff encouraged me to document the training sessions as much as I can and well, I’m gonna do it!

Back to the field. Derek pointed out “Is that a Jackal?” No Derek, that’s a WOLF! Wow! Another first for me, right there, on the opposite bank. I wish I was there on that bank, or may be the wolf on this bank. Feeling blessed with an awesome luck I asked Pankaj “Are there dolphins here?”

“Yes!”

Not long before we spotted a few behind the gharials! Ganges river dolphins! I was thrilled. This just could not get any better.

It was getting dark now.

“We better leave. Not a safe place after dark.” announced Pankaj.

I fortunately got my jacket along. It was getting colder as it was getting darker.

“What pugmark is that?” I asked

“Dog?!? ” said Pankaj

“You guys have huge dogs here”

Pankaj came to have a closer look and said “oh these are of Hyena’s”!!!

Striped hyena Hyaena hyaena pugmark

Chambal is awesome. 10/10! I loved it there. By the end of our trip, we saw around 100 gharials of all sizes and a bonus of all the other wildlife. I’d love to go back again, any day (except the winters!). In fact, I just received an email from Samir (Assistant director, Croc Bank) requesting a couple of visits to our base. Man! ain’t I happy!!!

Siamese Crocodile enrichment training

2010-02-23T12:33:00.000+05:30

"Thai" & "Komodo" are real fun to work with!

These are Siamese Crocodiles; fast and bold - a super combination. This is one of my favorite species. I consider them as one of most physically capable crocs. Komodo used to respond same as Thai but you can now see the difference training makes. It is so much easier to manage Komodo now, Phew..

Spectacled Caiman enrichment training

2010-02-21T18:20:00.000+05:30

"Johny" is one of the fastest learners.

Johny is an adult Spectacled Caiman, who is also one of the new 'students'! This was my 10th session with him. That's quite impressive considering its only 10sessions x 15 mins = 150 minutes of training work!

American Alligator enrichment training

2010-02-20T12:27:00.000+05:30

"Ally" loves her training sessions!

Ally, a 6 year old gator enjoys the enrichment program as much as I do!
This clip shows a small 'sequence' of commands that she loves to do.

Ninja turtles

2009-12-11T23:54:00.001+05:30

Psycho is not exactly a decent name for a croc but that’s what I call our male Tomistoma. He never really got along with the female and now I’m trying to get him a new bigger female. May be… he likes big girls! ;)

There are 14 species of crocs here at Croc Bank; around 2200 individuals, and they truly are ‘individuals’. They are all so different; each with a unique personality. They all have their choices, likes and dislikes. Animals in captivity provide such great opportunities to dig deeper into their way of living and observe some really cool behavior. Croc Bank is thus one awesome place. With so many crocs around there’s always something happening; audible communications, gestures, displays, fights to name a few.

Feeding time is always fun. Fun for crocs, fun for us. Especially when you can see the otherwise ‘shy’ crocs so actively feeding/foraging. Most of the crocs are opportunistic feeders. They will eat what they can catch.

The Mugger was faster than the egret this time.

Gharials are different. They are specialist feeders, feeding almost exclusively on fish. They are built for catching fish, though I have documented one instance of a Gharial eating an egret. But that was one freak incident. They’re happier with fish on the menu. That’s why we are able to house the breeding stock of Batagur kachuga and some other turtles with Gharials. But this is not the only species tolerating turtles.

These three species; African Slender-snouted Crocodile Mecistops cataphractus (left), Tomistoma Tomistoma schlegelii (center) and the Gharial Gavialis gangeticus (right) are fairly big, the latter two being one of the largest. But they have never really harmed any of the Melanochelys trijuga (Indian Black Turtle) living (and breeding like rabbits in some!) in the same enclosure. Interestingly, they have one physical characteristic in common. Hmmm.. what could that be? The shape of the snout? Yes! They are all narrow snouted crocs. Gharials have a somewhat delicate snout built to catch fish. So delicate that it may break in a fight! The Slender-snouted Croc and Tomistoma are not restricted to fish only. Small mammals, birds, reptiles (except turtles) are part of their diet, even monkeys in case of Tomistoma! The teeth formation in these species is interesting too. Most of the teeth are sharpish and narrowish, built for ‘catching’, not many for crushing. Same with the jaw muscles. This could probably explain why they are not into turtles. But in spite of this explanation, who would want to challenge the mighty Tomistoma, that too Psycho?!?

I hope these little pirates don’t push their luck too far!

What the f...ish ?

2009-11-15T21:25:00.000+05:30

It is finally raining here now. Monsoon is late but I’m happy it is here. More than me, the crocs are happy. The water level had gone down quite a bit in some of the natural ponds. This resulted in some really tensed days for them. They either had to fight for a dip or defend their part of the ‘pool’ from others. After the rains you can see a kind of a smile on their face! Rain is good for all. We now see tons of tiny toads and frogs all over the place. You've got to be careful or you’ll step on a few on every walk. They are mostly seen doing two things; eating or getting eaten up! Well, that’s life. Everything seems livelier during the rains though.

I was having a cup of hot coffee in my office, which is in the Croc Bank laboratory building, while it was raining outside. It was cozy inside and I was entering some animal data into the system. Just then Akanksha called.

“There are some fishes walking around in pen 10!”

“What???”

“Yeah. They are. You coming?”

I hung up the phone and headed towards the said enclosure. On my way, I was wondering what fish could that be. I recalled we did have some Climbing perches. These are often referred to as Climbing gouramis (Anabantidae). They possess a special structure in their head called labyrinth organ which allows them to breathe atmospheric oxygen. Primarily a freshwater egg-laying fish; often guarding the eggs and young. Unlike the name, they cannot really climb perches, unless of course the perches are laid low. Really low.

They are often kept by fish enthusiasts. They look quite dumb with the large eyes, mostly spending time sitting on the floor and ‘looking’ at you. They are commonly seen gulping air at the water surface.

Climbing perches travel in search of water when their ponds dry up; they walk with jerky movements, supported by the spiny edges of the gill plates and propelled by the fins and tail. But what could stimulate walking during rains when the ponds are full?!?

I reached the enclosure and sure the Climbing perches were WALKING!

“WOW!”

It was just amazing to see them walking. This was the first time ever I saw a fish walking! Well, I have seen mudskippers before but these were walking on proper land, managing their way through hurdles like leaf litter, stones, bricks.. That was so cool! I remembered that when I take groups for guided tours, I always mention about these fishes. We have a few in Batagur dhongoka and Lissemys punctata exhibits. I tell the group things that I was told about this fish but actually seeing them walking is just another thing.

About 10-15 were out of the water and were walking on the inner side of the enclosure boundary wall. I spent of some time there wondering why are they walking out of water now? I went back to my office as it started raining hard again. After about 20 minutes, Akanksha came to my office with a big smile on her face.

“At least over a 100 were out walking when it was raining heavily! Many are still out.”

Fortunately the rain halted for a while now. I ran out with the camera.

“What the f…ish?!?”

So many of them were walking around, in a straight line! Oh that was crazy! They all came out from one end of the pond and walked for almost the entire distance of the enclosure wall inner periphery. A m a z i n g stamina I'd say! They were following the wall and that’s a long distance considering the size of the enclosure. People who've been here would know. This is Rambo’s enclosure, opposite director’s house. I managed to take the following video before it started raining again.

I still kept on wondering what would make them walk during the rains? In fact they were more active when it was raining really heavily! I noticed one thing this time. There were small puddles along the wall. The fishes would walk to the puddle, halt completely submerging themselves in the little available water, till many of them gathered in the same pool; then they would start walking again. I came to this probable conclusion.[Please note that this is my little theory. This is what I think.]. With so many of them in the same pond, there must be tough competition for everything including food. So if a water body reaches its carrying capacity, they probably disperse to newer water bodies and populate them. This also means population expansion of the species; one of the main evolutionary goals. Distance from one big water body to another is not fixed. The fish doesn’t know if the distance is long or short. If short, no problem, but if long, the small puddles during the rains provide best pit stops! Plus they are not continuously exposed to predators. Cool thinking!

But wait a minute, I read that they usually walk out under the cover of darkness, but our fishes were walking during the day time! Another mystery to solve, eh? This becomes a bit more complicated especially when there are a few hundred egrets sitting on trees above the pond! Walking in daylight would be just dumb, right? But hey, no predator is active when it is pouring. Wow! How did the fishes figure that out?

Ahmedabad's favorite bloodsport

2009-11-04T19:05:00.000+05:30

Bird life of Ahmedabad city is impressive. My checklist of rehabilitated birds is of 126 species; all from in and around Ahmedabad. People visiting from other places often get amazed by the diversity of birds that are now part of the ‘urban environment’. But by bad luck, this city also becomes a death trap for thousands of birds every year. Yes, I am talking about the Mass Bird-Killing Sport, also known as Uttarayan – The Kite Flying Festival (14 & 15 January). This is the worst time of the year for resident birds, the critically endangered White-Rumped Vultures topping the list. About 25% of the total Vulture population of city either die or is grounded for life, every year.

This Vulture ran out of blood before reaching the hospital. The impact of crashing into tar road tore its crop.

This is one of our most 'important' birds. What a shame.

Also, this is the time when many of the species including Vultures have young ones in nests. This means if the parents die, the babies will too. More bad news. This is the winter migration time and Ahmedabad falls in the migration route. We have done immense awareness and education though various medium regarding the same. Almost everybody in Ahmedabad knows what exactly happens during ‘Uttarayan’ yet a very small percentage have shown concern and stopped participating in the sport. For the rest, the entertainment value is far greater than anything else. In this case, Uttarayan is nothing less than a free bird-hunting season; a cold-blooded sport with no restrictions. For those who have no clue what I am talking about, please go through the presentation below. I had made this a few years back with the aim of sensitizing Amdavadis, but I seem to have failed.

I don’t think we need anything more than plain common sense to make the decision.

The bathroommate!

2009-10-26T23:56:00.000+05:30

Casper loves his morning walks/runs and he will wake you up. He basically comes and licks all over your face till you are about to drown, slobbering as he licks. Though it is mostly Akanksha, I do get the face-baths sometimes. One such morning, I went in the bathroom to wash my face and then was to take Casper out.

“Damn rat!” I called out. Akanksha woke up wondering what was wrong.

“A rat probably was running around in the bathroom last night. My shaving foam bottle, brush, razor, all your tubes are fallen down. We need to do something about these…… HEY! LOOK AT THAT!!”

“What?”

“Loooook at her!” There she was. A female Polypedates maculatus, the Common Indian Tree Frog. I forgot all about the mess in the bathroom. She was beautiful!

Cozy hangout on my hair cream bottle.

She looked really cozy on top of my hair cream bottle. What a pleasant morning that was! These frogs are known to use the same roosting place for a long time. She started spending days here and at nights she’d be out hunting. She didn’t seem to get bothered by any activities. We started wishing her “good morning” and “happy night out”. She was the first thing we would look for the moment we enter the bathroom every morning. She was now part of our daily life; our very own bathroom-resident froggy!

One night we heard ‘things’ falling down in our bathroom.

“That rat is back again”

I rushed in …. but then came out laughing…! Froggy was happily hopping from one shelf to the other! So it was her the other night and I was blaming a rat. Now the mess was looking so cute!

I was thinking of a name for her. One evening Akanksha just randomly said “Your Champa is sitting on the flush tank”. She lovingly calls female individuals ‘Champa’.

“Hey that’s a nice name for her!” And so she was named Champa.

One morning I went in the bathroom, washed my face and was about to greet Champa, but she was nowhere to be seen.

“Akanksha, have you seen Champa?”

“No”

She did not come for the whole day. We were very worried, especially with predators like snakes, shrews, Casper? around. Is she gone forever??? I was a bit upset that evening.

Next morning I was yawning as I went in the bathroom.

“Akankshaaa!!”

“What?”

“Champa is back!”

I was so happy. She was back. She often stayed out for a day but was always back the next day morning. We were used to her ‘routine’ now. She is pampered at times. Once there was this grasshopper that hit the fan and was half dead. It was the perfect dinner for Champa! Click here to see what I did!

It was an awesome experience. Champa is now more or less a permanent resident and we love her company. But a few days back she did not come back for one night or the night after that or the night after that. Three nights in a row is not good news at all. I was hoping she’s safe and alright. Thoughts were discomforting. I was up till late night hoping she’d come back but she didn’t.

Next morning, I found my shampoo bottle, tooth paste, deo and the shaving foam bottle scattered on the floor.

The bathroom was in a mess.

She is back! :)

Checkered Keelback playing dead (Letisimulation) video

2009-10-16T10:17:00.001+05:30

I had written an article on Checkered Keelback playing dead (Letisimulation) some time back. In fact, that was the first article of this blog!

You can read it here: http://wildinfo.blogspot.com/2009/02/playing-dead-observed-in-xenochrophis.html

At that time I was unable to trace the video that I had taken of the same.

Found it now and here it is:

Sorry for the quality. The video was taken from a small digi cam. The snake was quite used to handling when this was taken and thus not giving her
best performance, but you can get the idea. Hope you like it!

CROCODILE TRAINING : PART FOUR

2009-10-16T00:48:00.002+05:30

The whole training and enrichment of crocodiles started off as an experiment. The current ‘model’ was going really well now, but there’s always that urge to try more things. In this case, try more crocs. All of the crocs in the training group were juveniles; around 6 years old. I remember bugging Ralf a lot when he was here.

“Do you think it is easier to train a certain age class?”

“No. It is all the same whether you train young crocs or big adults.” said Ralf.

“Really? Even the BIG ones?”

“Ya. They are often easier!”

Cool!

So that was my next plan. Train some big crocs. Of course enrichment is always attached with such programs. Now I needed a big croc, but which one? One day I was walking past pen 10. A background on this enclosure – This enclosure houses breeding Mugger females and one super lucky breeding male. He was having a tough time trying to keep all the females happy! Anyway, I just randomly called him “Rambo” and he looked at me! WHOA!!! I don’t know why he responded but that was the ultimate opportunity. You always identify ‘responsive’ crocs like this for training. It is not impossible to train any less responsive crocs but it is just much more fun with good response. I started calling him out and giving some rewards. Every time he responds to “Rambo”, he’s given a reward and this I carried on for about a week to reinforce his name. Once he knew his name he was like a dog when I call him.

Rambo coming out. Note the high walk.

Of course there’ll be days when he’s not in the mood and ignores me completely. But in the good days he is awesome. I first make him “jump” which he absolutely loves. Folks who have seen this up close know what I am talking about.

Rambo leaping for the meat. This pic would have been awesome if it was taken a second later.

Rambo is one of the fittest crocs at Croc Bank. He often manages to clear ground when he jumps and that is damn impressive for a 10-footer!

I wanted to do something really different with Rambo. Something that wouldn’t look like a simple trick that you can teach a croc. The next trick was ‘inspired’ from one of the youtube videos! There’s this guy who was working with a big Saltie, desensitizing him. Next thing he did was asked the croc to open its mouth and the croc did! I was speechless. How the hell do you teach a croc to open its mouth?!? How do you get the message through? I was breaking my head on HOW? I took that as a challenge, spent some time with Rambo and cracked the code!

Rambo with his mouth open.

Again, folks who have seen this up close will agree with the following part. It looks totally unbelievable. After the jumping, I ask Rambo to look “up” which he does perfectly well. After that the next command is “open your mouth”; Rambo opens his mouth! He gets a reward. “Up” and “open your mouth”, and he will do it again and again. It looks awesome. But How?

I was so overjoyed when I first taught him that. People just couldn’t believe that. When they saw it for the first time, they thought it was merely a coincidence that he opened his mouth.

"This is not real, right?" They would say.

"You don't believe what you see?"

“Rambo up” and “open your mouth” and I instantly had some astounded people!

Basically, all of the ‘tricks’ or ‘commands’ are based on the target croc’s basic behavior. I never entered the enclosure and always worked from outside but still managed to teach him to open his mouth on my command. Well, actually that was one of the easiest things to do! Rambo is a big guy. If he does “up”, which is looking up at me, for a longer time, he gets tired and drops his lower jaw; opening the mouth. When I noticed this first I went “Whoa! He just opened his mouth! Similar to that Saltie. Now I only have to make him understand that he has to do it when I ask him to.” When a croc is already doing the behavior that I want him to do, my job is half done. I only need to reinforce the behavior and associate a vocal command and reward with that. Every time during “up” when he opened his mouth after a bit, I would go “open your mouth” and give him a reward. Within three days he figured that when he hears that vocal command he is supposed to open his mouth for which he will get a reward. I continued doing this everyday for a week and had a really cool trick on board!

I enjoy working with big crocs equally well. Next target group was from pen 8. Gerry and a group of herpers from U.K. helped build a wooden ramp for enrichment of the crocs. The basic idea is to get them up on the ramp and give them food there. This will give them ample exercise as they will have to come a long way considering the enclosure size.

Initial days need some extra encouragement

I managed to fit in “stay” when they reached the top of ramp.

Tommy performing "stay"

This whole activity is a big crowd puller and offers excellent education opportunity. We will be having some good talk accompanying it. Tommy and Gerry are the crocs that I am working with in this enclosure. They are big and impressive but I am waiting to try my hands on Monster, the largest male Mugger. That will be truly awesome.

END OF PART FOUR.

To be continued...

Eat, eat, eat. Relax.

2009-10-06T11:31:00.000+05:30

Life is not so easy for carnivorous animals. They always have to be a step ahead of their prey, which is often very difficult. Success in hunting is not an everyday matter in spite of trials. If one meal lasts for two days there is no guarantee of a meal on third day. It could be a week or more before the next catch!

Adaptation is must for survival. It is simply a process whereby an organism becomes better suited to live in its habitat. Most of the predatory animals have developed one adaptive trait in common; being an 'opportunistic feeder'. This trait is extremely effective and can be commonly seen in almost all predators. I had seen several examples on T.V., crocs, komodos, hyenas, etc. stuffing themselves as much as they can. I always knew this for a fact but never put in any serious thoughts until a couple of weeks back; when I saw one of the best examples of opportunistic feeding in a much unexpected animal.

With the first rain showers, several thousands of winged male termites stormed Croc Bank. They were everywhere including my room. Our canteen lights were the greatest attractions. All the geckos were having an awesome time.

Hemidactylus leschenaultii (left) and Hemidactylus frenatus (right) gorging.

In minutes, many started losing their wings and then was the time for frogs and toads. I was having a great time too enjoying the feeding frenzy. It was crazy. All of the insectivorous population was out busy eating. Eating? No, I mean stuffing themselves. My bathroom-resident female Polypedates maculatus was no exception. I actually got to hand-feed her for the first time that day! That was so cool.

Duttaphrynus melanostictus was almost as round as a ball!

“Hey” I thought “This would be a great time to stuff up my scorpions too”.

Akanksha caught some termites and offered my adult female Heterometrus xanthopus.

I could not have imagined what I saw!

Heterometrus xanthopus playing a pig with at least five termites in her mouth!

This species does not use venom for small prey items so she was just catching the termites one by one and stuffing her mouth like mad. It looked so funny like a kid stuffing chocolates in his mouth. The big female Heterometrus laoticus did the same. I had never thought that scorpions would do this but later I realized the importance of such behavior. So much of easy food does not come your way every day, so go ahead and stuff yourself with as much as possible and no tension of feeding for over a week! That would be such a great relief in the wild; like for the geckos, toads and frogs.

CROCODILE TRAINING : PART THREE

2009-09-30T01:06:00.000+05:30

“Ally come”

“Sit”

“Up”

“Stay”

“Turn”

“Sit”

“Up”

“Stay”

This was pretty much what I was doing with Ally now. The possibility of teaching crocodiles is the biggest inspiration to try out new things and do more. I was so amazed by the fact that they assess their immediate environment so well and figure out a way in which they get the maximum benefit. Survival instincts, I guess. But is this instinctive behavior? In the captive environment, these crocs figured that they have best chances of survival if they “participate” and “perform” and so they do participate and perform. This is very similar to any animals with supposedly higher intelligence, including humans. This basically means that they are thinking and evaluating everything that is going on! Still instinctive behavior? Probably not! Definition of instinct is “an inborn complex behavior of a living organism that is not learned". Well, learning tricks that are completely unexpected and which sometimes include problem-solving skills disproves the age-old impression of crocs being highly instinctive animals.

With Ally, “sit”, “up” and “stay” was looking a bit incomplete. So what would complete this string of commands? Ralf had now gone back to Germany. I was now on my own. I remember him saying “Don’t limit yourself. Crocs are very intelligent. They are smarter than you think they are”.

I saw a greater prospect in working with Ally; simple reason being that she is an American Alligator. They are one of the calmest species; more trustworthy and plus she is so cute! One day I was just imagining how cute she would look if she made (cute) jumps. Hey wait a minute, how about making her jump to complete that string of commands? Awesome idea!

"Ally jump"

It took her 4 days to learn jump and now it is one of the major attractions! Sometimes she misjudges the front-leg – hind-leg coordination and ends up making a really funny cute quarter-jump. I call them Alligator jumps.

Now the crocs were getting ample playtime in the form of enrichment activities but crocodile training is also a major management tool. Dangerous animals like crocs have to go through a lot of stress while being restrained for any concerned reasons like for e.g. Veterinary intervention. To make it smooth, crocs can be trained to enter specially designed wooden crates (boxes) with windows on the sides. These boxes are pretty compact entering which does not allow turning around in any ways. Once the croc goes in, you close the doors and do all the necessary checkups, medication, take samples for lab, etc. with no safety issues and minimal stress on the animal. In species like American Alligators, a lot of this is possible even without the crate! The trick is to desensitize them. Desensitizing is a procedure to take the animal’s physical comfort to such a level that it ignores and tolerates almost all physical contacts to its body. It is the same thing when you ‘calm down’ a freshly caught snake. It all starts by gently touching the body (safest part first) of a croc and slowly getting it used to it. Then gradually you try to cover as much as possible. A desensitized croc is way much easier to manage whenever there is an intervention needed and it is always better to be prepared for any such possibilities. With advanced desensitizing, you can also draw blood samples without physically restraining the croc! To give it a try, I started desensitizing Ally and now she allows me to do almost anything! It is really amazing how it works. I wouldn't have believed it if I hadn't tried it myself.

Desensitized Ally

My next target is to desensitize her to draw a blood sample. It will be so cool to maintain a health report that includes regular blood checks.

END OF PART THREE.

To be continued...

Eagle's paradise

2009-09-18T22:07:00.001+05:30

Croc Bank has a large heronry of Egrets, Night herons and a few Cormorants. Bird watchers and enthusiasts who come here for a visit love the sight of these birds especially on trees of enclosure # 8 & 10, where there are maximum number of nests.

Somebody actually compared this to 'snowflakes'!

It is a great sight for sure but we can seriously do better with less number of birds. I will get to why later in the article but what made them settle here? Firstly, they get an undue advantage living here. They don't have to go far or work hard for food. They raid the croc ponds for fishes, plus they also go for the leftover food of crocodiles. They have got enough 'shelter' in Croc Bank and there are no predators! They initially were using Croc Bank as a feeding ground but then looking at all the luxuries here, they started breeding. Now they breed throughout the year, though the peak breeding season is crazy. There are babies everywhere and the sound that they make. It is funny for the first 15 minutes or may be half an hour but surely not throughout the day. And night! It gets a bit irritating then. A bit? REALLY IRRITATING.

Getting back to why they are a problem: All the fence walls of our tortoises off-exhibit enclosures are white, I mean spotless white; not with paint but... yes you guessed it right - with bird droppings. Most of the benches for visitors are also very often covered in white. When you have to go to the library from the education office or to the main office, you have to walk/run very tactfully, dodging the small white showers. On an average, you can get 'pooped' on about 2-3 times at least, everyday! The smell of the droppings (mainly ammonia) is blinding near the tortoise enclosures, especially after the first rains. The ammonia levels in some of the croc ponds are also way too high due to the constant droppings. This is not good for the animals at all. But how do we tackle this problem?

On 16 September 2009 we got a striking answer from nature!

A Booted Eagle Aquila pennata with its catch!

I love Eagles!

By the way, we also get a weird and crazy answer from nature sometimes. Click on the answer to find out!

Crochameleon ----- Heard that before?

2009-09-15T15:53:00.000+05:30

Our 2007 hatched Morelet's crocodile Crocodylus moreleti babies (10 in all) were out-growing their nursery enclosure. Soon five were transferred to one of the aquarium exhibits in ‘Turtle Haven’ to lower the density. After about 2-3 months post transfer, the two separate ‘gangs’ were showing a lot of difference in behavior. The ones in Turtle Haven were so much bolder now. They weren’t scared or stressed out when visitors go close to see them. This could be due to the constant exposure to people and now they just got used to it gradually. The ones in the nursery would just dive underwater when approached.

The Turtle Haven gang would look at me curiously every time I stopped by their enclosure. Since I am also looking into enrichment of our crocs, I thought it was a great opportunity to take advantage of this boldness combined with curiosity. I started making them jump out of water as part of their behavioral enrichment. It is an amazing sight to see these small crocs jump! Sometimes they miss their ‘reward’ (piece of meat) and the reward ends up underwater. Then they start their treasure hunt. It is so cool to see their capabilities to ‘scavenge’ underwater. When I saw them find a piece of meat underwater for the first time, I was thrilled. Amazing! I was even more amazed to see them swallow the meat underwater! I always thought that crocs always come to the surface to swallow otherwise they end up swallowing a lot of water unnecessarily. But these guys were doing it all the time! WOW. I still don’t get the logic. May be it’s a trait with young crocs but who knows…

Young crocs grow really fast. Now after about a year, they have again out-grown their enclosures. I could also see a difference in their growth rate as enclosure space is also one of the factors affecting growth. The Turtle Haven enclosure is a bit smaller than the nursery and thus the nursery gang is a bit bigger than the Turtle Haven gang. So now on 12 September 2009, we transferred both the ‘gangs’ into one biggish enclosure.

Interesting stuff till now, but why is the title of this article called “Crochameleon”?

Well, there is one more really interesting difference between the two gangs. Their body colors! The nursery gang is pretty light colored and the Turtle Haven gang is pretty dark colored! They looked so different (colorwise).

Morelet's crocodile from the Nursery enclosure. Note the 'light' coloration.

Morelet's crocodile from the Turtle Haven. Note the 'dark' coloration.

My logic behind this is that nursery enclosure gets a lot of sunlight throughout the day; almost 5 hours of direct sunlight; while on the other hand, the Turtle Haven enclosure gets very little sunlight; about 1 - 1.5 hours, that too sometimes dappled due to the trees above. The dark skin color probably helps them absorb more heat. Now the cool fact is that they can and they did change their skin color to a certain extent! That is one classic example of adaptability.

Now that they are all in the same enclosure, I expect the skin colors to even out soon.

Croc rule!

Gharial is an exclusive fish-eater.............. Not!

2009-09-12T21:20:00.003+05:30

Gharial is now the most critically endangered large animal of South Asia with population reduction of >80% over 3 generations. With less than 200 breeding adults left in the wild, Gharial is one of the most endangered animals on earth.

Distribution of Gharials is now restricted to a few places in India and Nepal; the largest wild population being in National Chambal River Sanctuary and then in Katerniaghat Wildlife Sanctuary.

Gharials have a typical long and slender snout built for catching fish efficiently. They are exclusive fish eaters (?). They are a riverine species and are often seen basking out on banks with other animals like turtles and birds showing no fear from these 'harmless' creatures.

One of the breeding females at Madras Croc Bank. She is gorgeous. Photo by Katie Maxwell.

Super interestingly, on the morning of 2nd September 2009, Nick Ballantyne, one of our international volunteers working on temperature profiling of an enclosure housing Gharials and Batagur kachuga turtles, came back after his daily morning reading and said "I saw the male catch an egret!"

"Really? Wow man.When?" I was now putting in charged set of batteries in my cam.

"Just now. He still has it in his mouth" he said.

WHOOSH!

I had reached the enclosure, stunned by the sight.

A fledgeling Little egret (Egretta garzetta) was wandering close to water's edge in pen#24 (a.k.a. temple turtle pond). The male Gharial was keeping an eye on its constant movements. The egret was hopping on some of the partially emerged stones out of water. This made the Gharial curious and it came closer to investigate. The 'not-so-smart' egret thought Gharial's head was a stone and attempted to land. WHAM! The Gharial got it in his jaws! This could just be his reaction to the whole jumping-on-the-head thing. I have actually seen this before; in fact with the same animal. But then he let it go in the previous occasion. But this time he had some other plans!

Our male Gharial swallowing the egret!

I was taking pictures thinking that he'll probably spit out the egret in a while. Just then, he started swallowing it! I could not believe my eyes! I wanted to take a video of this but then the damn camera betrayed. I had to turn it off and then turn it back on. He had already swallowed the bird by then. I managed to get some good stills though.

"Amazing huh? Fish eater!" replied Gerry when I told him what I saw. This was so crazy.

"This is one of the weirdest things ever! This is the first record of its kind. Very important to make a note of it" said Rom.

It was a m a z i n g seeing all this happen from a distance of 10 feet! AWESOME!

CROCODILE TRAINING : PART TWO

2009-09-05T17:36:00.001+05:30

“You’d know if they are enjoying the whole enrichment activity” said Ralf. I was wondering how. I was following one particular time everyday; 15:00, +/- 10 minutes. I started noting that they all would be doing some other stuff till about 14:50 and suddenly in 10 minutes, they would all ‘set up’ for the training.

After some intense training days, they all had chosen their ‘spots’ where they would come and wait for the training. There is no meat on Mondays so no training, but you could still see them getting ready at around 15:00 for the training! This means they are enjoying the activity. And they can calculate time of the day. More amazingly, they can also calculate day of the week! (This I found out later while working with some larger crocs.)

I was also following a fixed turn schedule for the group to be called out starting with Ally and then Pintoo, Thai, Komodo, Mik and lastly Abu. They remember that too and you can see the croc with the next turn getting ready to be called out! They were proving themselves smarter everyday (They still are!). This was getting more and more exciting for me everyday. I finally had a group of disciplined crocs coming out of and going in the water on my commands, and they were enjoying it. But I wanted to do more than just calling them out of the water. So what more can I possibly do?

“Make them jump out of water. The Saltie will love it.” suggested Ralf. What an awesome idea it was. I started calling them in one of the water pools and made them jump to get a piece of red-meat hanging from a bamboo stick. I tried this with all the five species. The Nile crocodile (Abu) and Mugger (Pintoo) didn’t show much interest or rather were not built for it. Ally liked it and would make a half-jump once in a while but then soon lose interest. The Saltie (Mik) and the Siamese crocs (Thai and Komodo) LOVED jumping out of the water and it seemed that they are perfectly built for it. Awesome! Amazing physical capability. We knew about the salties jumping out of water, but Siamese crocs are equally good.

Ally jumping out of water. Well, jumping half out of water!

Mik (Saltie) jumping out. She missed the meat in this jump.

Komodo (Siamese croc) jumping out. Bang on target!

I was so excited now. I had a bunch of crocs that would not only come out of and go back in the water, but jump out of water as well, all on my commands! Wow. I would regularly give updates to Rom whenever he visited Croc Bank. He was quite delighted with the whole idea of enrichment for crocs. He too was amazed with the learning capabilities (and some of the crazy physical capabilities of Siamese crocs). I will always be grateful to him for his encouragement and of course it wouldn’t have been possible without Ralf. I am also thankful to Janaki who always advised to keep notes of this whole activity.

Now again, I wanted to do more than just calling them out, sending them back in and making them jump out of water. What next?

“Try interacting more with Ally. You can do a lot more with Alligators.” Ralf again suggested. Sure thing. I started interacting more with Ally. I also managed to desensitize her by patting her on the head saying “good girl” after every time she performed something right. I gradually desensitized her whole body. Now I do not have to worry about her reacting defensively (or aggressively) when I have to touch her body to check for any physical injury or anything else.

I thought why not do something like you do with dogs. It’ll be fun and will look rather cute with her. So, we started working on “sit”. It took about a week but then she figured out. She had to lay flat on her belly.

Me teaching Ally to "sit"

Pintoo was seeking attention now but since I was working on some new set of commands with Ally, I didn’t want to divide my concentration on anything else. There were also a few ‘surplus’ crocs who would come out randomly for food. Pintoo was the boldest croc in there and the smartest too, so he wanted to prove that he can do more stuff and he knew that he’d get food as reward. So he would come out and try to show his readiness for performance. I didn’t want to neglect him completely so I thought of “stay” as his next command. He took only a couple of days to figure that out. All of my commands have a tap-on-the-snout with a small bamboo stick. For “stay” he had to freeze in whichever place he was tapped “stay”. While I was working on that, I saw Ally mimicking “stay” like Pintoo! She would just come up as if asking to tap on her snout. I tapped on her snout and said “stay” and she just froze! I could not believe my eyes.

Ally performing "stay"

Later I taught them to perform “stay” with their mouth open as it looks much more impressive that way.

Getting back to Ally, she would now come and “sit” but it looked incomplete. She should now stand. I chose “up” as the command word just to keep it simple for her. We started working on that. Again it took about a week. Now with the command “up”, she has to stand up raising her head high.

Ally performing "up"

I would follow this up with a pat on her head. “Good girl Ally”. People who have seen this often say “Oh she seems to really enjoy that pat on her head”. I am sure she does. She is awesome.

"Good girl Ally"

She loves to eat and so I have to act as her dietician keeping a check on her food intake. I want fit crocs, not fat crocs, and this goes for all crocs. Their food intake is strictly monitored. One more problem I faced during the initial days when they didn’t have a fixed turn schedule was that the crocs would randomly come out and ask for food while I was working with some other croc. This was often irritating as they would ruin my concentration and distract the croc I was working with. This would become dangerous when they grow bigger and should not be encouraged. I often had to have one more person in the enclosure who would keep an eye and send back any such ‘off training’ crocs while I was working with one. First Nikhil, then Gowri and later Seth (one of our keepers) played this vital role. After about a month of this, they all knew their turns and were quite ‘disciplined’. I started working alone again.

END OF PART TWO.

To be continued...