Fish ashore at coastal waters in many areas

Last week, fishermen and the community in the East coast were surprised by the influx of fish on the shore. Experts say this is due to a coastal current that resulted in the fish being washed ashore.

It was frenzy of fishing at the coastal areas in the east last week. Lots of fish had been swept ashore enabling the public to catch them by simply using a net or a piece of cloth. Many gathered to see this phenomenon and get fish for a free meal. Some of course kept their distance fearing that the aggregate of the fish could be some bad omen like the advent of another tsunami. Sardines were the most commonly found fish in addition to the skipjack tuna among the schools of fish.
Reports of fish being washed ashore had puzzled the general public even in other areas; some feared that this could be the sign of an incoming disaster. But oceanography experts say that there is nothing to worry and the sudden aggregation of fish is normal. They connected this to the changes linked with the monsoonal patterns. Oceanography expert Dr. K. Arulananthan at NARA (National Aquatic Research and Development Agency) confirmed that this was due to the changing patterns of the East Indian coastal current.

Change of temperature
Sri Lanka is now experiencing the second inter-monsoon rains. According to Dr. Arulananthan, during the south western monsoon, the East Indian coastal current flows from the Arabian Sea towards the Bay of Bengal via the southern tip of Sri Lanka. But with the north-western monsoon the direction of this East Indian coastal current reverses and this happens during the inter-monsoon season. This brings cold water from the Bay of Bengal region and the change of temperature assists in the growing of algae and planktons that leads to algae bloom. Little fish gather to feed on these microscopic plankton and even big pelagic fish that live in open seas follow the smaller ones making this present fishing frenzy in many areas, explained Dr. Arulananthan.
The sardines or keeramin and skipjack tuna are the most notable fish that had gathered in numbers during past few days. The said phenomenon is more applicable for pelagic fish, comments Dr. Arulananthan. The expert also spoke of another possibility of dead fish being washed ashore. The algae also perform photosynthesis which consumes the oxygen in the water. In the waters where algae bloom, the fish find a lack of oxygen, and many die. Some of the dead fish get washed ashore while others sink deep down to the bottom of the sea. The decaying fish at the bottom deplete the oxygen in that region which affects the fish that dwell in the bottom, like eel or ray fish.
This year, Sri Lanka experienced a delayed south west monsoon and perhaps these climatic changes aggravated the oceanic current to make it more observant. However, Dr. Arulananthan calls it a normal phenomenon adding that one need not worry, unduly. But the climate change may bring more abnormal changes of weather patterns that lead to phenomena’s like this in the future, experts fear.
Many feared that this could be a bad omen as they recalled that just before the 2004 tsunami, loads of fish were seen in a similar manner. Dr. Arulananthan reminded that the tsunami occurred in December and this phenomenon of the changing of the East Indian coastal current was in October. He also said the underwater earthquakes might make the lives of fish dwelling in the deep sea to migrate to other regions via oceanic currents. However, the fish caught during last few days are not abnormal species but ones that are commonly found in our oceans.
However, it is interesting to know that the changes of climatic patterns affect animal behaviour as ZooLander reported recently about a dragonfly migration that follows Inter Tropical Convergence Zone which fell during the same time period across Sri Lanka.

Climate change shrinks fish size, says new study
A new scientific study shows that climate change will shrink the size of fish by 14-24%. This too links to the level of oxygen in the water where scientists say the increase of temperature will reduce the oxygen in the water. Researchers from the University of British Columbia have studied change of body size of some 600 species based on models between 2001 and 2050.
Although data projects relatively small changes in temperature at the sea-bed, the resulting impact on fish body size are “unexpectedly large,” BBC has reported. When compared with actual observations of sizes of the fish, models generated on future sizes of fish seem to underestimate what’s actually happening in the seas. The researchers looked at two case studies involving the North Atlantic cod and haddock. They found that the recorded data on these fish showed greater decrease in body size than what the models had predicted. Other scientists stated the impact could be widely felt.
A warmer and less-oxygenated ocean, as predicted under climate change, would make it more difficult for bigger fish to get enough oxygen, which means they will stop growing sooner, the research report states.
The fish stocks around the world are already being depleted due to overfishing.
Climate change due to global warming will also make the ocean acidification that impacts on the fish and this study will be another blow.
According to experts, the ocean acidification is a phenomenon that is triggered by the increase of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. When the Co2 mixes with sea water, the oceans get more acidic. This impacts the many delicate species and ecosystems as corals on the first wave of attack and then will impact the other fish species too, experts point out.
Other species like the mollusks that have shells that are built by calcium carbonate too could be in danger as another report suggests. Calcium carbonate dissolves in acids and when the sea water gets more acidic, their shells will thin exposing them to predators and other hostile elements.
Researchers point out that the worst impact could be observed in the tropical regions; so countries like Sri Lanka will badly affected. Scientists argue that failure to control greenhouse gas emissions will have a greater impact on marine ecosystems than previously thought, the BBC reported.

How Global Warming affects Biodiversity of oceans

   The ocean has absorbed 80 per cent of the heat added to the Earth’s system by climate change.

    Warmer waters cause coral bleaching, which in turn negatively impacts the entire coral ecosystem.

    Many species will be forced to migrate so they can maintain the temperature conditions they need for feeding and reproduction.

   Alteration to water temperature can directly impact development, age of sexual maturity, timing of spawning, growth, and survival of most fish.

    Decreased upwelling due to warmer waters means that fewer important nutrients from lower in the water column will make it to the surface of the water. Many important marine ecosystems almost completely depend on nutrients from such upwelling areas – for example, marine habitats around the Galapagos Islands and along the US coast of California.  

  Acidification directly harms the many ocean plants and animals that build shells of calcium carbonate – including many tropical reef-building corals, coldwater corals, mollusks and other scallops, crustaceans such as lobsters and crabs, and some microscopic plankton that make up the foundation of the food web throughout most of the ocean.

    Many of those same shell-forming organisms provide critical habitat and food sources for other organisms.

How it impacts human welfare:
As in all instances, people are directly linked to life around them. People and many industries around the world rely on the ocean for food and other natural resources. For instance, upwelling areas provide some of the richest fishing grounds in the world. Likewise, coral reefs provide habitat for fish and other protein food sources for people, as well as important tourism economies in many areas. As warming ocean waters impact life within the ocean, humans and industries dependent on them are likewise impacted.

Source: www.conservation.org

http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7357:fish-ashore-at-coastal-waters-in-many-areas&catid=41:mag&Itemid=12

Komodo Dragons, Mongolian Horses and River Hippo arrive

Welcome to the Dehiwala Zoo

Last week the zoo was busy getting ready to welcome three new pairs of animals. They arrived last Thursday and were put in their ready-made enclosures so that visitors would be able to see them. Together with River Rhinos and Mongolian Wild Horses there was a pair of Komodo Dragons – first time residents at the
Dehiwala Zoo.

It was night when the special cargo plane C-130 Hercules belonging to the Sri Lanka Air Force landed safely at Katunayake last Thursday. The plane came from the Czech Republic. The plane had on board six, huge boxes with ‘live’ cargo. These craters had a pair of Komodo Dragons, a pair of Przewalski’s Wild Horses and River Hippopotamus.
The animals came directly from the Prague Zoo of the Czech Republic. The animals would have been tired after the journey as well as going through jet lag as they had to travel over 20 hours, barring two stopovers en route. A veterinary surgeon and some caretakers from the Prague Zoo accompanied the animals on their journey to Sri Lanka.
Once the documentation was completed at the airport, the animals were transferred to the Dehiwala Zoo, accompanied by staff of the zoo. It was reported that the animals were transported to the Dehiwala Zoo with the driver taking much care during the journey to ensure that the already tired animals will have a trouble free journey to Dehiwala. 
At the zoo, another group of workers and animal caretakers were anxiously waiting to welcome the newcomers. Their enclosures had been cleaned and prepared to receive the animals as they start their new life at the Dehiwala Zoo. A group of Young Zoologists’ Association (YZA) members too had been supportive once the animals arrived at the zoo. On arrival, the animals were found to be examining their new enclosures – similar to newcomers in a home.

Komodo Dragons
It is the first time in the history of the Dehiwala Zoo that it has welcomed Komodo dragons. Komodo dragons are found in Indonesia’s Komodo Island and some other nearby areas, hence its common English name. Dragons are gigantic and in legends, breathe fire, but these Komodos are like the over-sized local kabarayas or water monitors. But they have a voracious appetite – they eat much more than our kabaraya and sometimes lay in ambush to hunt. It is said the buffalo or deer would be the preferred diet of a grown Komodo dragon but they even eat carrions if opportunity strikes for an easy meal.
The Komodo dragon is special as it is the largest lizard that lives on earth. The yellow colour of the Komodo’s long, forked tongue reminds people of mythical dragons that spit fire according to legend. The tongue is special for them as it is used to taste the air to pick up the smell of the prey. It is recorded that they can pick up smell over a mile; so when there is a victim, the Komodo’s in the vicinity gather to feed on the carcass.
An adult dragon will hide along a trail and wait for an unsuspecting creature to walk by. Using its long claws and short, sharp teeth, the dragon will attack. If the prey manages to get away, the dragon will simply follow at a leisurely pace as a dragon’s bite contains deadly bacteria that will eventually kill its intended meal. The Komodo dragon is known to have 50 different types of toxic bacteria in their saliva that thrive on traces of flesh, causing bite-wounds to become quickly infected. Recent research however indicates that the real reason for such a high success rate in poisoning the prey could be due to the fact that the Komodo dragon may have a venom gland in its mouth.
In Komodo Islands, their habitats are been destroyed and they are pushed closer to human settlements. There are records the Komodo dragons have attacked humans as well. Even in captivity, they can be dangerous and there are records of attempted escapes. So in the Dehiwala Zoo, the Komodo dragon has an enclosure which is reinforced to the ground as well. Komodos are burrowing animals, so there would be a chance that they keep digging a tunnel under the enclosure so as to slip out.
To prevent this, a metal mesh has been fixed on the ground with sand placed on top of it. But it is better to keep your distance when you visit the zoo to have a closer encounter with these animals.
Class       : Reptilia
Order       : Squamata
Suborder  : Lacertilia
Family       : Varanidae
Genus       : Varanus
Species       :
Varanus komodoensis
IUCN threatened
category : Vulnerable

River Hippos

The Dehiwala Zoo has many Pigmy hippos that are smaller in size, but the River hippopotamus – a very larger cousin of the pigmy, died few years back. The female died attempting to give birth and the male died some time later. The hippo’s enclosure is near the new elephant arena that is being built in a corner of the zoo. Nile hippopotamuses grow up to 15 feet long. Males are heavier than females, weighing up to 8,000 pounds. Nile hippos stand at four and a half to five and a half feet tall.

Class    : Mammalia
Order    : Artiodactyla
Family    : Hippopotamidae
Genus    : Hippopotamus
Species    : Hippopotamus amphibious
IUCN threatened category : Vulnerable

Przewalski’s Horse

Mongolian Wild Horse or Przewalski’s horse is special for any zoo as they are saved by the conservation efforts that zoos take. They had gone ‘extinct in the wild’ in the 1960s and only the horses in the zoos remained. The Zoological Gardens had conducted a special programme to breed these horses. After the captive population grew, the Wild Horses were reintroduced back into the wild. Now they have made a comeback and jumped two steps to the positive side of IUCN Red List category to end up in the “Endangered” level.

Order          : Perissodactyla
Family             : Equidae
Genus          : Equus
Species          : Equus ferus
Subspecies : Equus ferus przewalskii
IUCN threatened category : Endangered

Jumbo Shipment

The military plane from Sri Lanka didn’t go to Czech Republic ‘empty-handed’ either. The plane carried a pair of elephants to the Prague Zoo. They were Janitha (8 years) and Amara (7 years) – male and female elephants from the Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage. It was a promise made by the Sri Lanka government to donate elephants to the Prague Zoo to support their Asian Elephant Breeding programme. This is therefore different from a normal animal exchange programme, commented the director of the Prague Zoo in reply to a query by a local newspaper in the Czech Republic. The elephants however had to travel nearly 30 hours with three transits to reach Prague, said officers of the zoo. The military plane has been prepared for this long flight, and it was a good experience for all those who were involved in the exercise of transporting the animals on the plane. 

Published in LakbimaNews on 21.10.2012 http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7282:welcome-to-the-dehiwala-zoo&catid=41:mag&Itemid=12http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7282:welcome-to-the-dehiwala-zoo&catid=41:mag&Itemid=12

Could there be a Dragonfly migration across Sri Lanka?

Citizen’s support is sought to make observations...

Last year, around this time a large cloud of Dragonflies was observed along the west coast near Colombo which could be part of an amazing Dragonfly migration. With the rains, could Dragonflies too appear as a wave this year?

his wave of Dragonflies was first reported moving toward the South in large numbers on October 20 (morning) last year. Nashath Haffi of the Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka (FOGSL) who had witnessed the flight said that he had observed this wave around 7.00 in the morning along the coast, continuously from Moratuwa to Kollupitiya while he was travelling on the train. Susequent investigations confirmed this phenomenon as the beach community in Dehiwala and the west coast also confirmed seeing the large number of Dragonflies.
Some of the residents living near the beach said this swarm of Dragonflies appears with the change of wind or goda sulan most of the years. Further investigations also revealed that a Dragonfly Migration from the Maldives to Africa was reported by a well known naturalist, Dr. Charles Anderson. Dragonfly larvae can survive only in freshwater pools, but there are no freshwater pools in the Maldive islands. So the dragonflies that are present in the Maldives have to migrate.
Dr. Anderson had noted the dates when the dragonflies were seen the first time in the Maldives, and then compared the data with the appearance of Dragonflies in South India. He found a clear sequence of dates of arrival from the north to the south. According to these data, dragonflies first arrived in Southern India and then in the Maldives. According to his research, each year, dragonflies first appear in Maldive's capital, Male, between October 4-23, with a mean arrival date of October 21. Quite interestingly, the sighting of the dragonfly wave in the west coast of Sri Lanka was reported on October 20, which is quite close to the dates they had arrived in the Maldives. Therefore one can speculate that the dragonflies seen in Sri Lanka must also be those that were involved in this migration.
Dr. Anderson also attributes the wind pattern that helps them in this journey. In October, and continuing into November and December, a weather system called the Inter-tropical Convergence Zone moves southwards over the Maldives. Dr. Anderson suggests these dragonflies must be flying on these winds at an altitude above 1000m. “Ahead of the ITCZ the winds blow towards India, but above and behind it, the winds blow from India. So it seems that the dragonflies are able to reach the Maldives by flying on these winds at altitudes above 1000m,” he stated. This would probably assist them to visit Sri Lanka too.
In the past week there was rain in many parts of Sri Lanka. So perhaps the time is right for this interesting phenomenon, and the dragonfly swarm could be seen any time these days.
The Field Ornithology Group of Sri Lanka that first studied this phenomenon is now looking for more data of the presence of Dragonflies to solve this mystery. The society seeks the support of the general public to collect data on the sighting of large movements of dragonflies.

Migrant Birds too are here now…
Among the many types of birds that migrate are some of the common species such as the Blue-tailed Bee-eaters that can be commonly seen even in Colombo. It is also a fun exercise to note down the days these migrants first appear and the days they disappear at the end of the migration season. FOGSL that is based in the University of Colombo asks the general public to keep a log on the common migrants that can be seen and share the information with everyone at the end of migration season. Some of these migrant birds find their journey across hundreds of miles, exhaustive. Last year, as per the announcements through MigrantWATCH, the lives of some of the troubled migrants were saved. FOGSL invites the public to be vigilant this year too.

MIGRANT WATCH – You too can support science

Much research is needed to solve the mysteries of migration. The first step would be to monitor where the dragonflies have been seen in large numbers, which will give the coordination of a possible map. FOGSL that initiated a programme called MIGRANT WATCH also invites the general public to send information on the movements of dragonflies.
The Migrant Watch mainly aims at observing migrant birds and dragonflies as a Citizen Science project. The power of observation, even by non-experts, can contribute towards collecting information in this regard. FOGSL invites all to participate in MIGRANT WATCH. The data can be emailed to fogsl@slt.lk This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or by post to: FOGSL, Dept. of Zoology, University of Colombo, Colombo 3. Further details can be obtained by calling 2501332 or 0712543634.

Published on LakbimaNews on 14.10.2012 http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7203:could-there-be-a-dragonfly-migration-across-sri-lanka&catid=41:mag&Itemid=12

Alligator Gar: The Gator Fish

It swims like a fish but has elongated jaws with sharp teeth that are visible when it opens its mouth, similar to an alligator or a crocodile. So is it a fish? Or is it an alligator? I am not sure who had named this fish which has been scientifically described in 1803, but it has been given a common English name to match its characteristics. The fish is named Alligator Gar.
The fish is generally olive green or yellow and has a heavily scaled body. A tooth-filled mouth and wide, alligator-like snout give the species its name. With a prehistoric look, the Alligator Gar is one of the largest freshwater fish. Its name is derived from the alligator-like appearance of these teeth along with its elongated snout, and is indeed the largest freshwater fish in North America. A mature Alligator Gar fish can grow up to 10 feet and can weigh over 90 kilograms. It has been one of the largest and toughest fish, and the alligator gar is a favourite target of anglers who love this particular sport of fishing.
The alligator gar has a streamlined body to facilitate swimming and its dorsal and anal fins are located very far back on the body. Gars’ bodies are covered by ganoid scales, which are thick overlapping scales that create a protective covering similar to medieval chainmail – like those worn by heroes of favourite movies such as Robin Hood or Gladiators.

The river giant
These menacing-looking fish are indeed prehistoric. Scientists track the gar’s tenure on earth back to 150 million years to about the time birds began to fly. Although fossils of gars have been found in North America, Central America, Europe and Asia, the living members of the family are restricted to seven species living in North and Central America.
The Mississippi River in North America is recorded to be the alligator gar’s main hideout. They can live in fresh and brackish water bodies. The fish, despite its giant size, is relatively passive and prefers to live a solitary life. Alligator gar can also breathe air directly which allows them to survive even in murky waters. According to some literature, there are records of alligator gar having lived on land, and that is something people find surprising. They have been known to survive on land for a period of up to two hours. They may be on land to look for food or to escape from predators.

Predatory fish
Alligator gar is a carnivore fish as anybody can guess by seeing their sharp teeth. Alligator gars have two rows of teeth. The inner row of teeth is palatine and is longer than the outer row of teeth which gives them a good bite of their prey. The teeth of the alligator gar are long, slender, and fang like, giving them a good bite of their prey. They have ambush techniques in hunting prey, feeding by lurking amongst reeds and other vegetation. They like staying hidden and launch their attack on the unwary prey, and generally the prey doesn’t even know the gar is present until it is too late. They lie still in the water until an unsuspecting fish swims by, and then lunge forward and lash the head from side to side in order to capture the prey. Many times gars will lie still at the top of the water for long periods of time, appearing like a log.
Alligator gars prey on fish but they are opportunistic and have been known to feed on everything from waterfowl and small turtles to carrion. Alligator gars have been reported to attack duck decoys and eat injured waterfowl shot by hunters.
There are also speculations that larger alligator gar attack humans. But there has been no confirmation of such attacks. Though they wouldn’t attack human, their eggs, if ingested, are poisonous to humans.

Popular aquarium fish
All the Gar species are popular aquarium fish and quite interestingly the alligator gar is one of the most popular. But they are quite demanding, needing clean water as well as lots of space as they grow. In the Dehiwala Zoo the alligator gar has a moderately spacious tank. The tank has been enriched with suitable habitat to the alligator gars with some decayed logs and large stones placed within. Alligator gar like such hiding places.
Records show that there are seven gar species in the world. The alligator gar is the largest. Of the seven known gar species, the alligator is the largest and the heaviest. They weigh around 300 pounds (140 kilograms) according to records.
The breeding habits of alligator gar still remain largely unknown, but it is believed that they spawn on flood plains that expand towards the river ecosystems. Alligator gars are thought to spawn in the spring by congregating in large numbers with a female and one or more males on either side to fertilize the eggs. Web resources indicate that females generally carry an average of 138,000 eggs. The eggs are released and fertilized by the male outside of the body. They sink to the bottom after being released and stick to the substrate due to an adhesive outer covering. The eggs are bright red and poisonous if eaten. Alligator gars are thought to spawn in the floodplain of these large rivers mainly to give their young protection from predators.
They grow slowly and take a long time to mature. Females mature at 11 years and live up to 50 years. Males mature at six years and live to at least 26 years.

Conservation
The alligator gar is disappearing from many parts of the range, and declining in population everywhere due to over-fishing and the construction of dikes, dams, and other flood control mechanisms resulting in loss of key breeding habitats. The alligator gar was once reported as common and even numerous in much of its northern range. Now it is rare in the northern parts of its range with reports of valid sightings coming in once every few years.

http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=7129:the-gator-fish&catid=41:mag&Itemid=12 

Joy and Sorrow of a Rhino Mother

the Zoo records a Black-rhino birth... which dies few hours after...!! 
 Last week it was time for joy, and later sorrow, at the zoo. The Rhino couple had been blessed with a baby, but it died after a few hours of birth..

Giving birth to the first baby is always a special occasion to a mother. They prepare for childbirth many months before the day the baby is due – for example buying a cot, and other necessities.   Not only the mother to be but her parents and others too assist in this regard. Presently, even technology assists the parents to check whether the baby conceived is a boy or girl, taking away the suspense about the sex of the baby to be.
There are doctors who check all aspects of the child and mother to make sure they are healthy. The first time a mother would receive lots of advice from the elders and help as well to look after the new born baby.

Anula’s pregnancy not known

But the Zoo’s only female rhino – Anula didn’t have these luxuries. Sadly, no one knew that she was pregnant even though she would have been carrying the baby for over a year as a rhino pregnancy lasts for about 16 months according to literature. It was only on September 9 morning that the keeper had detected that Anula had given birth to a baby rhino and had alerted the veterinary surgeons and zoo authorities about this rare birth.
Mother Anula would have been the most happiest. She would have shown their new born baby to the father rhino – Kosala, who is in the adjacent enclosure. As rhino mothers are careful with their babies, Anula, though inexperienced as it was her first baby, would have licked the female baby rhino. That is the best treatment it could have been given.
The mother and baby were kept separately for better care. After few hours, a zoo keeper who had gone to see the mother and baby was aghast by seeing the lifeless baby rhino in the enclosure. He immediately alerted everyone – and they had rushed to the enclosure. The veterinary surgeons reached the scene quickly but it was too late for the baby rhino.
Everybody in the zoo was sad. The director has called for an investigation. An independent veterinary surgeon from outside had been called to do the necropsy (post mortem) of the baby. It was found out that the baby was too weak and it had weighed only 16 kg whereas the normal weight of a baby rhino is 30-35 kg. The post mortem had revealed some internal bleeding in the head of the baby rhino. It is not clear how the head of the baby rhino was hurt but one theory that the zoo authorities are working on is the possibility that the internal bleeding could have been caused by a kick from the mother who could have been in a panic for some reason. Delivering a baby for the first time, she would have also felt disoriented.

Mother without morning sickness

It isn’t too hard to detect the pregnancy of a human female. The first thing that helps to detect pregnancy is morning sickness, and subsequently the size of the stomach as it gets bigger. But being gentle giants, the rhinos anyway have big bellies, so experts say that it is very difficult to identify pregnancy by just looking at a rhino. Rhinos are short-tempered, so it is also dangerous for vets to get close to the animal to conduct the required tests. If it was known that Anula was pregnant, more care could have been given. “We accept that the death of the new born rhino baby is a great loss to the zoo. An investigation is underway to find out whether there are any lapses,” said the new director of the Zoological Gardens, Anura de Silva.

Rhinos from Japan

The Dehiwala Zoo got down the pair of Black rhinos as a result of a successful animal exchange programme with Japan’s Higashiyama Zoo in Nagoya, in 2007. In exchange, Sri Lanka sent a pair of Asian elephants – namely Kosala and Anula, whose names were transferred to the Rhino couple. The Black rhino is a Critically Endangered animal in the world that is been hunted for its prized horns. In the 20th Century, the Black rhino was considered to be the most abundant in the Rhino species. But by the latter half of 20th Century, the population of Black rhinos reduced drastically. In the early 1990s the number dipped below 2,500, and in 2004 it was reported that only 2,410 Black rhinos remained in the wild. According to the International Rhino Foundation, the total African population had recovered to 4,240 by 2008. It is believed some subspecies of these Black rhinos are already extinct.
According to the web-resource ehow, female rhinoceroses come into estrus once every 21 days which means they can successfully mate during that time. Females spray urine on dung piles or bushes to alert males that they are in estrus and are ready to mate. Males may come along and spray over the female  urine to ward off potential competition. Females also raise their tails in order to signal that they are ready for mating. After some fighting among the males, the female will select the most dominant male available to mate with.
After winning over the female, the rhinoceros bull will then mate with her. These mating instances can last over an hour as per observations. Males and females have little to do with each other  when no mating takes place and that could be the reason why Kosala and Anula do not bother too much about each other during other times. Once the act of mating is over, the male will usually leave the female, so it is not as intimate as love making by humans.
It is said that calves are usually born within rainy seasons in Africa and Asia – it was raining in Colombo too when the baby rhino was born, so this could have triggered the rhino’s birth in the zoo. Calves are usually born around 2.5 to 4 years apart. Shortly after birth, rhinoceros calves are mobile and can keep up with the herd.

Zoo’s effort in rhino breeding

The Black rhino is the most valuable animal in the world. Any zoo in the world dreams of having a rhino, so it is an honour for the Dehiwala Zoo to have a pair of rhinos. It wasn’t easy to get them down all the way from Japan. They had got themselves wounded when they were being transported and the vets had to take care of them during the initial days. But they had settled down in Sri Lanka and developed an appetite for local food.
Anula and Kosala though shipped from Japan were not from the same zoo. As such, they were strangers.  Considering their size, a fight between them for even a short period can turn fatal. Therefore, the zoo authorities had been very careful in match-making between Kosala and Anula a few years ago. After observing that Kosala and Anula were rubbing their heads, and showing other friendly gestures while being in their respective enclosures, the authorities had quietly opened the gates. Prior to that they had placed a few piles of sand in case they got into a fight so that the loser can get a little time to retreat, and also giving time for the veterinary surgeon and animal keepers to act.
To the joy of all, the match making went well. Kosala and Anula fell in love  and had mated on a few occasions. But though vets were vigilant, the pregnancy could not be detected.
A new enclosure too is been built for the rhino couple and it is dearly wished that Anula and Kosala can become parents to a cute rhino baby, in the foreseeable future.

PLakbimaNews on 23.09.2012 published on LakbimaNews http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6955:joy-and-sorrow-of-a-rhino-mother&catid=41:mag&Itemid=12

Lovable creatures of ICE AGE

The recently refurbished Savoy Cinema is running at ‘House Full’ these days, all eager to watch Ice Age- 4; a 3 d movie. After being  disappointed at having to turn back for lack of seats, ZooLander too viewed Ice Age and this week reports about the characters in it...   An ice age, or more precisely, a glacial age, is a period of long-term reduction in the temperature of the earth’s surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of ice sheets in the world. The animals had to migrate, to escape the freezing climate -theme of the Ice Age series. The background to Ice Age- 2 was - the Melt Down and the third covered the Era of Dinosaurs. The ‘Continental Drift’ is the theme of the current movie Ice Age -4, which is being screened around the world and attracting large crowds at packed cinemas.  Perhaps, you have already watched the Ice Age movie. But have you given thought to the kind of animals that are featured in the film? Yes, all these popular characters were based on real animals - mostly fossilized from that Ice age. Browsing through Wikipedia and other websites, Zoolander compiled the natural history of these animals. Manny the Wooly Mammoth Manfred or Manny is a woolly mammoth and is the most important character of all, in all four Ice Age movies. He can be serious and emotional, but is otherwise caring and friendly. In the first film, while passing through the icy cavern, the herd discovers cave paintings of mammoths which were killed by Paleo-Indian hunters; this is an emotional moment for Manny, indicating that the pictures could be 0f him. This shows us his history  and also indicates that something similar may have happened. Manny finds love with Ellie in Ice Age: The Meltdown. In Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs, he has a daughter named Peaches. In Ice Age: Continental Drift, he gets into an argument with his teenage daughter before being pulled away by the drift with Diego, Sid and Granny. Woolly Mammoth is a species of Mammoth elephants. They are commonly found in fossilized records and are scientifically identified as Mammuthus primigenius, also known as the tundra mammoth. This animal is known from its bones and frozen carcasses found in north America and northern Eurasia with the best preserved carcasses in Siberia. They are perhaps the most well known species of mammoth and disappeared from most of its range at the end of the Pleistocene (10,000 years ago). Sid - the Ground Sloth Sid is a Ground Sloth shown in all four films as one of the main protagonists. He is portrayed as clumsy, annoying, slow moving, fast-talking, and unpopular; and has a lateral lisp. Little is known about Sid’s life, other than that Sid once lived in a tree with other sloths. The Ground Sloth is also known as Megalonyx which in Greek means “great claw”. It is an extinct genus of giant ground sloths of the family Megalonychidae endemic to North America from the Hemphillian of the Late Miocene era, living about 11,000 years ago. The type species, M. Jefferson, measured about 3 m (9.8 ft) and weighted up to 1 ton. Diego - Saber Toothed Cat Diego is a smilodon - a Saber Toothed Cat, who has a somewhat sarcastic personality, but without  malicious intent. He was sent by his pack to retrieve the human baby  - Roshan; when he found Roshan in Manny and Sid’s care, he pretended to lead them to the humans, but instead planned to lead them into an ambush by  the pack. However, when Manny  saved his life Diego changed his mind, telling him about the pack and helping to counter attack. Smilodon often called a Saber-toothed cat, or incorrectly a Saber-toothed tiger, is an extinct genus of machairodonts. This Saber-toothed cat was endemic to North and South America, living during the Pleistocene epoch (2.5 mya-10,000 years ago). Scrat - Saber toothed squirrel Scrat is a Saber-toothed squirrel who is obsessed with collecting acorns, constantly putting his life in danger to obtain and defend them. He has his own stories in the film, independent of the main plot, which are parallel with the journeys of the other main characters, causing them to interact with him at times. This character is enormously successful and Scrat is viewed as a breakout character, the most popular of the franchise. In a special feature in the second film’s DVD, his name has been stated to be a mix of the words “squirrel” and “rat”, his species allegedly believed to have been a common ancestor of both. Scrat also appears in Ice Age: Continental Drift, when he finds a map leading to a mysterious acorn island, and he goes on a journey to find the island. At the end of the film, he finds ‘Scratlantis’, an island populated by Sabre-toothed squirrels and filled with nuts. The researchers recently found skulls of the Scrat-like animals embedded in rock in a remote area of northern Patagonia, about 100 miles from the city of Allen in the Argentinian province of Rio Negro. Ice Age Facts * The last glacial, called the Holocene glacial, peaked about 18,000 years ago and ended 10,000 years ago. * Ice covered 40 percent of the world 18,000 years ago.  Glaciers spread over much of Europe and North America 18,000 years ago. Ice caps grew in Tasmania and New Zealand. * About 18,000 years ago there were glaciers in Hawaii. 297 * Ice Ages are periods lasting millions of years when the Earth is so cold that the polar ice caps grow huge. There are various theories about why they occur (see climate change). * There have been four Ice Ages in the last 1000 million years, including one which lasted 100 million years. * The most recent Ice Age - called the Pleistocene Ice Age - began about 2 million years ago. * In an Ice Age the weather varies between cold spells called glacials and warm spells called interglacials. * There were 17 glacials and interglacials in the last 1.6 million years of the Pleistocene Ice Age. * The people of the Ice Age risked their lives to hunt the fierce woolly mammoth. It was a good source of meat, skins, bones and ivory.   http://www.houseandhome.org/ice-age-facts

Published on LakbimaNews on 26.08.2012 http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6611:lovable-creatures-of-ice-age&catid=41:mag&Itemid=12  

Otter - Swimming legend in the wild

Swimming took a lot of shine at the Olympics 2012 in London, with Michael Phelps, becoming the most decorated Olympian in history. Competitive swimmers train hard and develop their bodies, for competition, while the greatest swimmer in the natural world - the otter, does so for its very survival and appears to do so with pride and joy. ZooLander this week reports on the otter in the Dehiwala Zoo... There is a well known sports club in Colombo named ‘Otters’, which has taken its name after these delightful creatures of the water and master swimmers, making known the clubs special affiliation to swimming. The agile otters are famous for an amazing ability to conquer the river habitats in Sri Lanka. In the wild, it is difficult to observe otters at a close range, as they are naturally shy; yet they are some of the most charismatic  animals you can find in the zoo, where you can observe them closely, and photograph their antics, in captivity. The Otter family has 13  species with 5 otter species recorded in Asia. The species found in Sri Lanka is called the Eurasian Otter (Lutra lutra). As the name indicates a European part, it might convey that this species is found m0re prevalently   in Europe, which is not the case, but is very widely distributed. They are also known as the Common Otter and Old World Otter. The Eurasian Otter is also tagged as the least social animal. Otters are semi-aquatic; and lives both in water and land. Otters are usually solitary and relatively  nocturnal. When not fishing, they like to sleep. Master swimmer Though clumsy when walking on land, the body of the otter is well designed for an aquatic lifestyle. This swimmer and diver, moves in water by strong undulations of its body and tail and strokes of its hind feet. While human divers use artificial fins, the otter’s feet are webbed in a manner which gives it power to push the water more efficiently. (Webbed feet are common in ducks)The Otter can close its nostrils and ears, when in water, so there is no issue about water going in from these body holes. Its body shape helps the otter to reduce the water resistance when it swims and maintain the speed. Its fur is short and dense and keeps the skin dry by trapping a layer of air around the body. Unlike other marine mammals, otters don’t have blubber and rely on thick fur to keep warm, but this double coat also helps them to keep afloat. It is mentioned that the bubbles of air trapped in their fur give them  a silvery appearance underwater. The Eurasian otter’s nose is about the smallest compared with the otter species and has a characteristic shape, described as a shallow ‘W’. The strong whiskers on their face are believed to be used for locating prey. Fishing for a living The otter’s staple diet is fish. But it also doesn’t mind some unwary frog or occasional water bird. Some studies show that otters have a preference for eels. Being opportunistic feeders, otters do not show preferences for one fish species over another. They will feed on in relation to their locale and seasonal availability. Otters can give a high speed chase to catch a fish, unlike many other animals that silently wait and ambush when the prey  swims towards them. Otters in the wild catch and feed predominantly on live animals; there are only a few recorded instances where it was found to have eaten dead fish. While that is the case in the natural world, the otters in the Zoo have to depend upon the dead fish provided by their keepers. If you visit during an evening, you may also be able to witness the zoo’s otters getting a feast of fish to dine on. Their average daily consumption of food in captivity is about 1.5 kg per day. Blind babies Otters live in burrows on the banks of waterways called Holts. These are usually only accessible from underwater, hence very successful at keeping out the land based predators and gives protection to their babies. The main mating season is from February to March and July. After a gestation period around 60 to 70 days, the females give birth to a litter of usually 2-3 cubs, each weighing about 100-120g. Baby otters are born blind; will open their eyes after one month; will leave the nest at around two months; and are weaned by 3 months. The young stay around their mothers for up to 14 months and reach sexual maturity at 2 or 3 years. It is mentioned that an otter has a lifespan of 10-12 years. Sea going cousin Our otter species which live in river ecosystems have a few cousins that live in the sea. The sea otters inhabit offshore environments, where it dives to the sea floor to forage. The otters are just as happy in salt water as they are in fresh water, often diving down 20 metres and for up to two minutes at a time, although records show that otters can go as deep as sixty or seventy metres and stay under for up to four minutes. They must, however, have access to fresh water to clean themselves with, as the salt water clogs up their fur and inhibits insulation. The Sea Otters prey  mostly on marine invertebrates such as sea urchins, various molluscs and crustaceans, and some species of fish. They develop special techniques to open up tightly  shut shells. First, it uses rocks to dislodge prey and to open shells making it one of the few mammal species to use tools - indicative of how brainy the otter can be. Near threatened Eurasian Otters had been a common species decades ago, now their populations are declining all over the world. The IUCN which publishes the Red List of Threatened Fauna and Flora indicates that many local populations of otters have become extinct.  In their list it is stated that water pollution as the major threat to Eurasian Otters, mentioning that water pollution in fact has caused recent local extinctions from which Western European populations are only  now recovering as a result of environmental improvements and focussed conservation efforts. The IUCN says agrochemicals such as DDT or Mercury affect the otter physiology directly. Pollution also reduces their food supply  due to nitrate-induced eutrophication from agricultural run-off and untreated sewage, and acidification from atmospheric pollutants. Oil spills threaten coastal populations. In parts of the range, illegal hunting is a major issue, and the rise of fish farming has led to conflict, resulting in some countries in licenses to kill otters being issued by authorities. Road traffic accidents too have been recorded commonly when the otters are trying to move from different parts of habitats. Conservation actions Artificial otter Holts are a good way of encouraging breeding among wild otters by providing them with a ready-made safe place to bring up their young.Conservation actions have helped Eurasian Otters to show some signs of recovery, and to halt being classified under extinct. Otters were once common in Sri Lanka too. But habitat loss and pollution have contributed to a decline in their wild populations. So, whenever you visit the zoo and see the otters, think, it is another animal that has been pushed to the limits of extinction due to human activities and that we should be mindful when engaging in development activity and do so carefully without compromising the natural world.

http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6527:otter-swimming-legend-in-the-wild&catid=41:mag&Itemid=12

Gold Medalists of Natural World

Published on LakbimaNews on 05.08.2012

Playful in captivity, fearsome in the wild

Bears are some of the most feared carnivorous mammals in Asian forests, but you could easily get deceived by their behaviour as the sloth bears in the zoo seem playful. Brought to the zoo when very young and raised by the ‘Young Zoologists’ and zoo staff, these bears are playful and interesting to watch. This week ZooLander reports on the playful sloth bears at the Dehiwala Zoo..!

Sloth bears are fascinating to watch. Though they inhabit the dry zone jungles in Sri Lanka, it is not easy to spot them in their natural habitats as they are shy animals. If you are really lucky, you could have a glimpse of them in a national park like Yala.  But at the Dehiwala Zoo you will have all the time to observe these secretive sloth bears.
You can meet the sloth bears at two locations within the zoo. The one which is home to the  playful bears, is located near the Aviary and adjacent to Patagonian Cave (Mara)’s den. These sloth bears are really playful unlike in the wild. One of these bears was brought to the zoo while just a baby. It was about 4 months at the time of rescue and had even been hand fed by the animal keepers and the Young Zoologists with the love and care the cubs needed. This baby bear had also been kept in the Pets Corner; which allows visitors - especially the kids; to have a closer interaction with animals. It had been cuddled and the kids had played with it resulting in an acquired playfulness.Though fully grown now, it still likes to swing playfully on the iron swing placed in its enclosure.
This bear has the company of another of its kind, which had been kept as a pet and they can be seen playfully engaging in mock fights. Opening their large lips baring sharp teeth, they sometimes seem as if they are trying to scare one another ... Standing on their hind legs they compete in height, while wrestling is also one of their popular pastimes. But when the day-time heat gets to these bears, they lie under a shady spot in their enclosure and go to sleep. They also enjoy relaxing on the large logs in their den.
The other bear enclosure is located elsewhere and is made to give the feel of an environment closer to their natural habitat in the wild. You can find it on your way to the elephant area and will be a reminder of the bears in the wild.

Termite Suckers
With bushy thick coats of black hair, they do not look as cute as pandas. But they are, our local brand of bear, and their natural range is South Asia. Most sloth bears live in India and Sri Lanka; others live in southern Nepal, and they have been reported in Bhutan and Bangladesh too. Sloth bears live in a variety of dry and wet forests, and also in some grasslands, where boulders and scattered shrubs and trees provide shelter. In areas like Yala, large boulders are the best hideouts for the bear. Some of the hideouts in Yala are also named with reference to these bears such as Walas Kema meaning watering hole for thirsty bears. Wasgamuwa has been a combination of words Walas + Gomuwa which translates as  ‘jungle where the bears roam.’
Sloth bears have shaggy, dusty-black coats, pale short-haired muzzles, and long, curved claws which they use to excavate ants and termites. A cream-colored “V” or “Y” usually marks their chests which resembles a loosely stitched necklace. They have large lips, a long tongue, a pale muzzle and well-developed hook-like claws that enable them to climb trees and dig for termites.
Sloth Bears relish termites and ants; which has earned them the tag insectivores; they are actually omnivorous ready to eat meat as well. Sloth bears employ a well-evolved method to dig out termites.Their long, curved claws are used for penetrating nest mounds, which can be rock-hard. Once they’ve opened a hole, they blow away excess dirt, then noisily suck out the insects through a gap in their front teeth. To do so, they close their nostrils and use their lips like a vacuum nozzle. To support these dietary preferences, the sloth bears’ nostrils have evolved in a way that they can be closed. This helps bears to protect the respiratory system from dust or insects when raiding termite nests or beehives. They also have gaps in their teeth which enable them to suck up ants, termites, and other insects. A sloth bear uses its lips like a vacuum, making rapid, loud “kerfump” noises as it sucks insects from their nests.

Bear Season
Though termites are their favourite diet, sloth bears do not mind a juicy fruity treat. Whenever palu trees are ripe with fruit, in the local jungles, they come out from hideouts as the smell of this sweet fruit is irresistible to sloth bears. The palu season which starts in May and goes on till end July marks an unofficial bear watching season in our national parks. Yala is thought to be one of the best places to watch bears in the open, in the wild, and that’s mainly during this palu season ... as the bears are attracted to the fruit.
Some of the greedy bears that cannot control  temptation even climb the palu trees in search of berries hanging on branches. Zoologists also have records of some greedy young bears that have got dizzy after eating too many palu fruits.
Sloth bear is also a much sort after animal by tourists who visit our national parks. Like Africa’s Big 5, the tourism industry in Sri Lanka is also vying to promote “Sri Lanka’s Big 4” which includes the Sloth Bear along with the Elephant, the Blue Whale and the Leopard – adding importance to sloth bears, making them rank among the top Sri Lankan attractions.
In fact, Sri Lanka has its own sub species of sloth bear that is endemic to Sri Lanka. The Sri Lankan sub species of sloth bear is highly threatened, with populations continuing to dwindle. Destruction of dry-zone forests is the  main threat, because unlike other large Sri Lankan animals, the Sri Lankan sloth bear is highly dependent on natural forests as a food source, and is a shy animal.

Short Tempered
With their sharp teeth and long claws, the  sloth bears can indeed be a fierce carnivore in our jungles. They are known to be short tempered and are responsible for attacking many forest dwellers that are not careful enough to avert them. In the past, there were occasional news reports about bear attacks. In fact bear attacks are more common than leopard attacks, simply because leopards have a more acute sense that makes them avoid humans before humans feel the presence of the leopard.
Sloth bears lead solitary lives, and most are nocturnal. If threatened, these smallish bears will stand on two legs, brandishing their clawed forepaws as weapons. Their sharp claws could indeed be deadly. There are fairly agile bears that can run faster than a human.
Sloth bears grow to around five to six feet in height, stand two to three feet high at the shoulder, and weigh from 120 pounds (in lighter females) to 310 pounds (the heavy males).

Softer Side
After a six- to seven-month gestation period, sloth bears normally give birth to a litter of two cubs in an underground den. The cubs will often ride on their mother’s back, a feature unique to bears. Sloth bears mate during the hot season - May, June,and July - and usually give birth to two cubs, six to seven months later. After emerging from the den, cubs stay at their mother’s side for two to three years, before heading off on their own.
Sloth bears show their softer side as they are the only bears to carry young on their backs. This behaviour known as ‘piggy-backing’ gives more protection to the young, which are vulnerable to predation, when on the move.

Published on LakbimaNews on 29.07.2012 http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6293:playful-in-captivity-fearsome-in-the-wild&catid=41:mag&Itemid=12

Wild boars: Pigs in the wild

Pig’ is considered taboo in many religions and the majority consider them dirty animals, always delving into and eating dirt. Some domesticated pigs in villages rummage in garbage dumps looking for anything - even carcasses that are half rotten. Their fat body is often covered by mud and other dirt that they have caught on their skin, which further reinforces their image as filthy animals. Even the wild form of these domesticated pigs, are considered the same, even though they are named differently and are called wild boars.
The term boar is used to denote an adult male of certain species - including, confusingly, domestic pigs. However, for wild boars, it applies to the whole specie, including, for example, wild boar sows or wild boar piglets. Wild hogs or simply ‘boars’ are also called scavengers in the wild. They indeed are omnivorous scavengers: eating almost anything they come across, including grass, nuts, berries, carrion, and nests of ground nesting birds, roots, tubers, refuse, insects and small reptiles. This scavenging has also earned them the title Forest Cleaners.
Wild boars are not rare and are commonly found in Sri Lanka’s jungles. They still survive in many forest patches that are located very close to human settlements. They are widespread from lowland wet zone forests to dry zone scrub lands. Proving that they are quite adaptable animals, the wild boar can also be found in abundance  in the cold hill country. Some of the coldest places in Sri Lanka, such as the Horton Plains, are also home to wild boars.

Unwelcome Guest
Unfortunately, they are also considered pests by many farmers as they frequently invade farmlands and eat up vegetables and other tubers. Even the law is not strict in protecting them giving the farmers an opportunity to hunt down any intruders to their farmlands. Wild boars become active mainly in the night. Early mornings and late afternoons would be the best time to see these animals that sometimes move in herds in forested areas. They like to rest during other times and also like to dig whenever they get an opportunity.
Wild boars are indeed the wild ancestors of the domesticated pig. Ancient man had captured pigs from the wild and through hybrids they have raised the present domesticated pig. But unlike the domesticated pig, the body of the wild boar is compact and is covered by a heavy layer of fur. They also have a clear ridge on their back made of very thick fur that stand out like a decoration almost like a crown. Their heads are large, but the legs relatively short, giving them a funny appearance.  The fur consists of stiff bristles and the colour usually varies from dark grey to black or brown. This dense fur has given them the chance to survive in colder climatic conditions.
A fully grown boar can grow up to 90-200 cm (35-79 in) in length without the tail of 15-40 cm (5.9-16 in), and have a shoulder height of 55-110 cm (22-43 in). As a whole, their average weight is 50-90 kg, as per web sources. But their sizes can vary according to the region that they live in.
Wild boars have incredibly poor eyesight as they have very small-sized eyes, but they also have long, straight snouts which gives them a strong sense of smell. The snouts of the wild boar are probably one of these animals most characteristic features, and like other wild pigs, it sets these mammals apart. The wild boars’ snout is a cartilaginous disk at the end, which is supported by small bones - the pre nasal, that allows wild boars to use their snouts as excavator backhoes when foraging.

Sharp Tusks
Male wild boars have tusks that can inflict painful injury. Their tusks are continuously growing teeth that protrude from the mouth, from their upper and lower canine teeth. These tusks are used as weapons against their predators. The upper tusks are bent upwards in males, and are regularly ground against the lower ones to produce sharp edges. The tusks normally measure about 6 cm (2.4 in), in exceptional cases even 12 cm (4.7 in). Females also have sharp canines, but they are smaller, and not protruding -- like the males’ tusks, say  zoological experts.

There are many who have fallen victim to attacks of panicking wild boars. If surprised or cornered, a boar (particularly a sow with piglets) can and will defend itself and its young with intense vigour. The males, lower their heads, charge, and then slash upwards with the tusks. Females, whose tusks are not visible, charge - head up, mouth wide, and bite. Their sharp tusk is strong enough to tear the flesh off and it is advised not to walk around jungle roads at times when wild boars are expected to come out. Leopards are the worst predator of wild boars, but with their sharp tusks, the wild boar sometimes turns the tables, making the leopard victim. There are many eye witness records where leopards have been sighted being chased away by angry wild boars. Boar moms can be very aggressive when they have piglets and humans need to be extremely careful, when in the wild, as they do not hesitate to attack anybody to ensure the safety of their piglets.

Different Piglet
After a gestation period of 112 - 115 days, boar mothers raise a litter of 3 - 12 piglets. The sows prepare for the birth by constructing a nest of grass and the babies are born into this. The mother has 8 - 14 teats and each piglet has its own teat from which to suckle. It is said, that the first piglets born choose a teat near their mother’s head so that they have a better chance of attracting her attention and are less likely to be trodden on. The piglets are born with stripes and these help to camouflage them in the undergrowth.
Wild boar piglets look vey different to their parents as they are marbled chocolate coloured and have cream stripes over their bodies. The stripes fade by the time the piglet is about 6 months old, when the animal takes on the adult’s grizzled grey or brown colour. Female wild boars and their offspring live in groups called sounders. Sounders typically number around 20 animals, although groups of over 50 have been seen, and will consist of 2 to 3 sows; one of which will be the dominant female. Group structure changes with the coming and going of farrowing females, the movements of maturing males (usually when they reach around 20 months) and the arrival of unrelated sexually active males.
Wild boars are native across much of Northern and Central Europe, the Mediterranean Region (including North Africa’s Atlas Mountains) and much of Asia as far off as Indonesia. Populations have also been artificially introduced to  some parts of the world, most notably the Americas and Australasia, principally for hunting. Elsewhere too, wild boars, have grown in number, multiplying after escaping from captivity.

Hakka Patas and Snarls
Today, wild boars have been listed by the IUCN as being a species that is of least concern of becoming extinct, in its natural environment, in the near future. Population numbers are suffering on the whole, however, mainly due to hunting and loss of habitats and even in Sri Lanka due to demand for their flesh, hunting of wild boar is on the increase. Earlier, hunters had commonly placed a loaded gun on the  paths frequented by these animals. But nowadays, wire snarls are commonly placed to catch these animals. But the most gruesome method used to kill wild boar is the locally made explosive device called ‘Hakka Patas’. The poachers crush dried fish and other rotting items together with small stones and explosives, which mix wild boars can’t resist the temptation to bite on. When it does, there is an explosion inside the mouth, fatally injuring the animal. But death is not usually instant and it’s a painful slow death, with much suffering.
Unfortunately, not only wild boars, but other animals too frequently fall victim to these traps. Several leopards have already been killed by getting caught in wire snarls. In their attempt to escape, the animal struggles, further tightening the wire and killing the unlucky animal. The hakka patas have already claimed the lives of several elephants as they too bite in to the bait. When elephants fall victim to these explosives, they usually suffer for a long time, as they do not die instantly. So conservationists point out that though wild boar populations are not threatened, the ways poachers kill wild boar can harm  other threatened animals, and measures need to be taken to control the situation.

Facts on Pigs

You would be surprised that their fur had been used for Tooth Brushes until the invention of synthetic materials in the 1930s. Even though these bristles were soft, they had taken time to dry - so these were replaced by plastic bristles.

Here are some other facts on pigs...
l Pigs are intelligent animals.
l Like humans, pigs are omnivores, meaning they eat both plants and other animals.
l The pig’s snout is an important tool for finding food on the ground and sensing the world around them.
l Pigs have an excellent sense of smell.
l There are around 2 billion pigs in the world.
l Humans farm pigs for meat such as pork, bacon and ham.
l Some people like to keep pigs as pets.
l Wild pigs (boar) are often hunted in the wild.
l In some areas of the world, wild boars are the main source of food for tigers.
l Feral pigs that have been introduced into new areas can be a threat to the local ecosystem.
l Pigs can pass on a variety of diseases to humans.
l Relative to their body size, pigs have small lungs.
www.sciencekids.co.nz

Published on LakbimaNews on 22.07.2012 http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6209:wild-boars-pigs-in-the-wild&catid=41:mag&Itemid=12

Vegan giraffe feared even by the mighty lion

The movie ‘Madagascar 3: Europe’s Most Wanted’ -- 3rd in the Madagascar series now showing in Colombo is based on the adventures of a group of zoo animals that escaped from New York Zoo in the USA.   One of the key characters of the movie is Melman the Giraffe. ZoooLander this week reports about  Melman’s kind.
This movie illustrates the adventures of Alex the lion, Marty the Zebra, Gloria the Hippo and Melman the Giraffe that escaped from the New York Zoo, together with a group of mischievous penguins. Among them, Melman is the most awkward, receiving constant treatment, for imaginary medical problems. In the zoo, he wanted to be tested for many ailments; undergoing MRIs, CAT scans, subjecting himself to injections also being put in braces and using crutches, for no apparent illness.  From the first movie itself Melman is worried about a brown spot on its neck; but Melman is a giraffe and has brown spots all over its body, it is the way giraffes are meant to be. An interesting fact highlighted in today’s article is that, the pattern of these large brown spots are unique to each individual giraffe.
Giraffes have distinctive orangish, rusty, or blackish coats which have whitish outlines which has the look of a patchwork cover. The pattern and the colour of the spots  goes with the brownish habitat it lives in: the African grasslands. If it was a stitched patchwork cover, it would have taken a long time to get done, considering that the giraffe is the world’s tallest animal. Male giraffes are taller than females and grow to a height of around 20 feet. Its long legs and necks are the main features that make the giraffe hold the world record for being the tallest animal. A giraffe’s legs alone are taller than many humans, as it is about 6 feet (1.8 meters) high. These long legs also add to the giraffe’s speed on account of the length between the strides. A giraffe usually can achieve a speed of about 35 miles (56 kilometres) an hour over short distances -- and can cruise comfortably at 10 miles (16 kilometres) an hour over longer distances reveal zoologists who have studied the animal in depth.

Multi-purpose Neck
A long neck and height gives the giraffe many advantages. First of all, the long neck enables it to reach leaves of tall trees. Being a herbivore, the giraffe is on a totally vegetarian diet, and the long neck helps, there being no competition with other herbivorous that have no option, but to graze. Acacia trees are their favourite pick. Even the giraffe’s tongue is long! The 21-inch (53-centimeter) tongue helps them pluck tasty morsels from branches. The giraffe spends most of his time eating, and like cows, regurgitate food and chew it as cud. The giraffe is in fact the largest ruminant who can do this trick. It is said that a giraffe eats hundreds of pounds of leaves each week and must travel many miles to find sufficient food.
The giraffe’s height also gives it an added advantage. The large African Savannah is full of threats, but because of its long neck, the giraffe can observe a vast area to detect any impending danger giving it ample time to flee. The long neck is also used as a tool in battle, where young males ‘neck-fight’ to show dominance. Males establish social hierarchies by ‘necking’ which is a combat bout, where the neck is used as a weapon. Dominant males gain mating access to females, who bear the sole responsibility for raising the young. However, such contests are usually not dangerous and just end in a show of power. A fight usually ends when one animal submits and walks away. The giraffe has small “horns” or knobs on top its head that grow to about five inches. Both sexes have horns which are covered with skin. The horns of males are thicker and heavier and are used in fights between males. These knobs also act as a form of head gear in fights protecting from serious harm.
Nature is indeed wonderful and has balanced the gift of height of the giraffe,  which is an advantage in finding food and in detecting danger at the same time, by making it vulnerable at drinking posture. The giraffe’s stature makes it very difficult and dangerous to drink at a water hole, as it has to spread its legs and bend down in an awkward position making it  easy prey to predators like the lion. However, the giraffe can go without a drink for several days as they get most of their water needs from the luscious plants they eat.

Rude welcome to the world
Typically, this fascinating animal roams the open grasslands in small groups of about half a dozen. As mentioned earlier the male giraffe is larger than the female, with a male weighing around 1,600 kg and the female about 830 kg. The giraffe gives birth while standing. The young endure a rather harsh entry into the world by falling more than 5 feet (1.5 meters) to the ground at birth. The new born giraffe can stand on its legs within half an hour of birth and in ten hours will be seen running with the mother.  Baby giraffes are born at an impressive height of six feet. It has been calculated that they can grow an inch a day and just about double their height in one year.
A giraffe can rest standing, but often lies down with its legs folded beneath.  The neck is held vertical except during short periods of sleep, usually for about five minutes when the head is rested on the rump. When a giraffe walks it swings the two legs to the same side of the body at almost the same time. When galloping, the hind legs are brought forward together and placed outside the front legs. Maximum galloping speed is 31-37 mph.
Zoologists have categorized nine subspecies of giraffe that live in different parts of Africa, by difference in coat pattern and by the shape of horns . Although listed as low risk on the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN’s) Red List of Threatened Animals, several giraffe subspecies are rare, including the Kordofan giraffe (G. c. antiquorum) of Sudan and the Nigerian giraffe (G. c. peralta), which is now found only in Chad and is extinct even in Nigeria.
So what do you want..? Do you want to see the adventures of a cartoon giraffe that is showing at a theatre or do you want to see the real ones..? You can watch adventures of Melman by going to the Liberty Cinema or get a Madagascar DVD. But if you want to see the real ones - you definitely have to visit the Dehiwala Zoo..!

Giraffe Facts

n Giraffes do not have vocal chords unlike other animals. But researchers have found that they do have vocal chords, but can not make any sound. It communicates by waving its tail.

n Giraffes and humans have the same number of neck bones; both have 7 bones in their neck. The only difference is the giraffe’s bones are much longer.

n Who will win if a giraffe and a lion start fighting? Are you thinking that a lion will win? A lone lion won’t dare to start a fight against a giraffe. A giraffe can crush a lion with its long legs. Lions and giraffes do not relate well and stay away from each other.

n Giraffes walk differently from most other animals. It walks by stepping forward with both right legs and both left legs instead of alternating them.

n Giraffes have very long tongues which can be as long as 19 inches. The tip of its tongue is blue and black to prevent from sunburn.

n Giraffes have very large hearts, as it needs to pump very high blood pressure, and weighs around  26lbs.

n Giraffes are the tallest land animals on earth at the moment and grow to be more than 18 feet, in height, and have the longest tails. Giraffe calves are about 5 feet tall at birth.
n Giraffes need about 36 Kg of food each day to survive. It does not eat all the leaves of a tree at once. In some instances when a giraffe starts eating carnivorous ants that are symbiotic with some Acacia species attack, reducing  the amount of time the giraffe can spend browsing on any one plant.

n The average life span of a giraffe is about 25 years.

n Giraffe’s body spots are similar to human finger prints in the sense they are unique to each individual animal.

n Giraffes’ tongues are almost 2 feet long.

n Giraffes spread their front legs, to drink water at ground level as their tall necks are shorter than their legs.

n Giraffes use their markings as a camouflage among trees.

n Giraffes’ mouth has a hard inner surface making it easy to eat thorny plants.

n Giraffes cannot cough.

Source: http://www.bestfunfacts. com/giraffes.html

Published on SundayTimes on 15.07.2012 http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6128%3Avegan-giraffe-feared-even-by-the-mighty-lion&Itemid=56

‘Ol spiky hair makes ‘Man-eaters’ aplenty

‘Ol spiky hair makes ‘Man-eaters’ aplenty
Seemingly harmless Porcupines

Porcupines, though attired in sharp spiny quills, and look harmless, are in reality the cause for tigers and leopards to turn in to ‘Man eaters.’ ZooLander reports this week about these elusive animals.

Though it has hundreds of spiny quills, porcupines do not look like a threat. Being a rodent it innocently goes about looking for food, seemingly with a big appetite. Did you know that these innocent looking porcupines have been the cause of deaths of hundreds of men and women in India and elsewhere in the world..?
Well, they are the indirect cause, as the wound made by their spiny quills, is that which turns predators such as leopards and tigers into cripples, turning them in to ‘Man-eaters.’ Jim Corbett in his book Man-eaters of Kumaon explains clearly the reason for this and says “A tiger when killing its natural prey, which it does either by stalking or lying in wait for it, depends for the success of its attack on its speed and, to a lesser extent, on the condition of its teeth and claws. When a tiger is suffering from one or more painful wounds, or when its teeth are missing or defective and its claws worn down, and it is unable to catch the animals it has been accustomed to eating, is driven by necessity to killing human beings. The change-over from animal to human flesh is, I believe, in most cases accidental”
Jim Corbett further explains what he means by ‘accidental’ by bringing in the example of Muktesar the Man-eating Tigress that had killed 24 villagers. “This tigress, a comparatively young animal, in an encounter with a porcupine lost an eye and got some fifty quills, varying in length from one to nine inches, embedded in the arm and under the pad of her right foreleg. Several of these quills after striking a bone had doubled back in the form of a U, the point and the broken-off end being quite close together. Suppurating sores formed where she endeavoured to extract the quills with her teeth, and while she was lying up in a thick patch of grass, starving and licking her wounds, a woman selected this particular patch of grass to cut as fodder for her cattle”.
That was how Tigress Muktesar had ‘accidentally’ become a man-eater. So when you go back on the timeline of Muktesar, it is clear that porcupines have to take some blame for creating  these ‘Man-eaters.’ This is not the only case; many of the ‘Man-eaters’ about whom this expert hunter-naturalist writes, have had swollen limbs with painful wounds caused by porcupine quills. It is mentioned that these predators relish porcupine meat and do not hesitate to attack. But porcupines have  a well proven defence mechanism in the quills around their body that’s is covered in multiple layers of them, with the longest quills growing from its shoulders to about a third of the animal’s length. Its tail is covered in short, hollow quills that can rattle when threatened.

Best defence is attack
The quills are in fact the modified hairs coated with thick plates of Keratin and they are embedded in the skin-musculature. A porcupine can also drop their quills by shaking its body, but quills cannot be projected at attackers as believed in the past. From ancient times, it was believed that porcupines could throw their quills at an enemy, but this is just a myth, say zoologists.
When cornered, they would raise their spines and rattle their tails. If that does not deter the predator, then a porcupine takes on the aggressive position and moves backwards or sideways pushing the loosely attached quills deep into the body of the unwary predator. Porcupines can launch this backward attack so effectively that, most brushes between predators and the Indian porcupine end in death or severe injury. Every time the pierced animal moves, the barbs at the end of the quills penetrate further into the body. Often, the quills pierce vital organs and the animal dies. Within a few weeks, the porcupine will grow back the lost quills.
It is mentioned, that on an average a porcupine will have about 30,000 short and long quills, which in fact are very special hairs. The quills are comparable in hardness and flexibility to slivers of celluloid, are sharply pointed, and can penetrate any animal’s skin. In addition, the quill tips consist of tiny barbs (sharp points similar to arrows), which makes   a quillvery hard to remove when it has pierced the skin and is entrenched. The quills that do the most damage are the short ones that line the porcupine’s muscular tail.

Family members in all over the world
There are 29 different species of porcupines distributed around the world. There are two types of porcupines: Old World porcupines, which live throughout Europe, Asia, and Africa; and New World porcupines, which live in Canada and the United States. Porcupines are nocturnal (active at night), slow-footed, and stocky and spend much of their time on trees, sometimes not coming down for days, at a time. They are herbivores (plant-eaters), feeding on bark, buds, leaves, fruits, grasses, and vegetables.
The name Porcupine is derived from the old French words meaning the ‘Spine pig’. Porcupines are large rodents that belong to the mouse and squirrel family and are in fact the 3rd largest rodents in the world after capybaras and the beavers. Well rounded, large and slow, porcupines feed on leaves, herbs, twigs and green plants like cabbage. The North American porcupine often climbs trees to find food. The African porcupine is not a climber and forages on the ground.
The specie found in Sri Lanka is called the Indian Crested Porcupine and the scientific name is Hystrix indica. Sources indicate that they can grow to around 0.9 m (3 ft) long and weigh about 14.5 kg (32 lb). Our porcupines are mostly nocturnal, but do  sometimes forage for food during the day. There are several porcupines in the zoo and they are also found lazily resting during daytime. It is even difficult to photograph them, as they find refuge in the large cylinders, placed in their enclosure. However, when they are being fed, they are quick to come to the dining table.
Adaptable animals, porcupines are seen in some suburban areas of Colombo too. They are not categorized as threatened by the IUCN. When you visit the zoo next time, don’t forget to see the porcupines too. Their den is located near the old quarry.

Leopard versus Porcupine

A battle between a leopard and a porcupine has been photographed by professional wildlife photographer Shem Compion in the Mashatu Game reserve, in Botswana. This young male leopard gets a prickly reception after deciding to make a meal of a porcupine. The big cat was left with sore paws and a bruised ego after losing out in a battle of wits with its spiny opponent. Using all his hunting techniques, the two-year-old male tried pouncing on the porcupine from above, prodding him and trying to roll him over, but to no avail.
Undeterred, the hungry feline even tried extending a gentle paw as the porcupine shook its foot-long spines ferociously. After 25 minutes and several painful spines in his paws, the big cat was forced to accept defeat and retreat with his tail between his legs.
Source:  ww.monstrous.com/ Monstrous_ animals/Leopard_versus_Porcupine.html

Published on 08.07.2012 http://www.lakbimanews.lk/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=6051%3Aol-spiky-hair-makes-man-eaters-aplenty&Itemid=56

From Rio to Rio: After the Earth Summit

ZooLander this week looks at the outcome of RIO+20 and will follow some positive actions taken by participating countries as stated in Rio to Rio, a special book published to coincide with the recently concluded Earth Summit. It is insightful and showcases how the United Nations (UN) has attempted to learn
from the past and move forward to protect the environment.

This is the first weekend after the United Nations Rio+20 Earth summit. The Summit has not yielded the expected results politically, but it has become a forum for the community to get together and discuss the “Future We Want” at international level.
Twenty years after the original Earth Summit, the signatories to Rio+20, last week, did not make very strong commitments. However, this can still be a blueprint document on how to continue with development on a more sustainable path. It was taken as a positive outcome by optimistic analysts. Zoolander this week publishes some extracts from Rio to Rio in the interest of our readers.
The final written outcome of the Rio summit is in fact the hard work put in by negotiators from different countries. There were several views which prevented it from becoming a fully fledged document with strong recommendations but getting it signed has been considered a win for conservation by optimists.
Under the title ‘The Future we Want’ there is a section which deals with ‘Our Common Future.’ The signatories, as world leaders have a personal obligation to the pledge, that reads as: “We, the Heads of State and Government and high-level representatives, having met at Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from June 20-22, 2012, with the full participation of civil society, renew our commitment to sustainable development and to ensuring the promotion of an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable future for our planet, and for recent and future generations.”
The leaders had recognized that poverty eradication, changing unsustainable and promoting sustainable patterns of consumption and production, and protecting and managing the natural resource base of economic and social development are the overarching objectives of and essential requirements for sustainable development. As Zoolander pointed out last week unsustainable development has been the core of most of the environmental problems and we hope that the leaders who signed this document will not forget this fact. They also pledged to introduce sustainable goals for development, similar to the Millennium Development Goals that were set up and which have to be met by 2015. The initial plan of the RIO+20 included coming to an agreement on the Sustainable Goals at the 2012 summit, which however did not materialize.

Protests
However, many NGOs are against the current document, claiming that the Rio+20 Summit is a failure. They wanted a very strong document and calls this only a blueprint that will not make governments work toward getting their acts together. On the other hand, most of them are also against the Green Economic concept that was being promoted. This has also been a common ground shared by the developing countries as pointed out earlier in this column. The indigenous people too have joined the protest against this outcome saying that nature cannot be valued.
Many of those who protested said that, “World leaders have delivered something that fails to move the world forward from the first Rio summit, showing up with empty promises at Rio+20,” and pointing that the, “The RIO+20 text is a polluters’ plan, and unless people start listening to the people, history will remember it as a failure for the people and the planet.” Some kids too have joined this protest. They had even gone to the extent of tearing off the papers with the Rio+20 text.
So this has painted the outcome of the Rio summit as one that cannot be celebrated. But this was not the case in Rio 20 years ago.

Rio Conventions
Twenty years ago, in 1992, the feeling soon after the first Earth Summit would have been different. The Earth Summit ended by introducing three new International Conventions which have been signed and were adopted later on. These three conventions – namely, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) and the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) continued to work on their areas to protect the environment. The world’s governments of developed nations too had agreed to put aside a portion of their income for Environmental Protection and this money has been put into a fund called the Global Environment Fund (GEF).
The UNFCCC sets an overall framework for intergovernmental efforts to tackle the challenge posed by climate change. The UNCCD aims to combat desertification and mitigate the effects of drought in countries experiencing serious drought and/or desertification, particularly in Africa, through effective actions at all levels, supported by international cooperation and partnership arrangements, in the framework of an integrated approach which is consistent with Agenda 21, with a view to contributing to the achievements of sustainable development in affected areas.
The objectives of the CBD are the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components, and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from commercial and other utilization of genetic resources. The agreement covers all ecosystems, species and genetic resources, and CBD will also hold its next meeting – the 11th Conference of Parties (COP11) be held in neighbouring India.

From the Amazon to the Himalayas...

Rio to Rio: A 20-Year Journey to Green the World’s Economies ranges widely, from the Amazon region to the Danube River Basin to the Himalayas to tell the stories of projects and programmes backed by the 182 member nations that make up the GEF. GEF CEO and chairperson, Monique Barbut, hosted the book launch and panel discussion at the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (UNCSD), better known as Rio+20 that took place in Rio de Janeiro on the 20th anniversary of the first Earth Summit in Rio.
Chapters of this book include the story of the revival of the Danube River Basin in one of the GEF’s first projects conducted in the Balkans region during a time of civil conflict. There is the story of the largest rainforest protected area programme – the Amazon Region Protected Areas programme in Brazil which has resulted in dramatic reduction in greenhouse gas emissions across a network of rainforest areas, larger in total than the Ukraine. The GEF’s role as the manager of the Least Developed Countries Fund is illustrated by an extraordinary project underway in the Himalayas of Bhutan where glacial melt attributed to global warming threatens to burst the banks of high mountain lakes, endangering communities downstream. Stone by stone, villagers working for good wages under the programme hike to the highest elevation work site in the world where they hand carry stones to make channels for the lake overflow and helping to avert the threat of so-called glacial lake outburst floods, or GLOFs.
The CEO of GEF has also said that the Fund has plans to conduct more programmes to protect the ocean’s biodiversity through the latest programme they are funding on the high seas. This will mainly aim at protecting commercially viable fish like Tuna that are dwindling due to overfishing.

Published on 01.07.2012