Marine biodiversity takes centre stage - One Ocean,Many Worlds

22nd May is dedicated to Biological Diversity and is celebrated worldwide as International Biodiversity Day. This year it is themed on ‘MARINE BIODIVERSITY’ and emphasizes the importance of the diverse forms of life in the oceans. ZooLander dedicates his column to marine biodiversity, paying tribute to an important segment of the ecological system.

The ocean is home to the blue whale, the largest animal ever to have lived on earth, and to billions upon billions of the tiniest: there are more microorganisms in the sea, than there are stars in the universe. Oceans cover 71 percent of the surface area of the globe, and constitute over 90 percent of the habitable space on the planet, making it one of the most important habitats of the world.
From sandy shores to the darkest depths of the sea, the ocean and coasts support a rich diversity of life. People have lived near and fished from the ocean for thousands of years and even today, an estimated 41 percent of the world’s population lives within 100 km of the coast, and fisheries provide over 15 percent of the dietary intake of animal protein as per statistics of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD) which selected “Marine Life” as the theme for the International Day on Biological Diversity.

How much life in the Ocean..?
From 2000 to 2010, in an unprecedented international collaboration, scientists around the world, set out to try and determine how much life there is in the sea. Dubbed the ‘Census of Marine Life’, the effort involved 2,700 scientists from over 80 nations, who participated in 540 expeditions. They studied surface seawater and probed the deepest, darkest depths of the ocean, sailed tropical seas and explored ice-strewn oceans in the Arctic and Antarctic.
By the time the census ended, it had added 1,200 species to the known roster of life in the sea; scientists are still working their way through another 5,000 specimens to determine whether they are also newly-discovered species. The estimate of the number of known marine species - the species that have been identified and the ones that have been documented but await classification, has increased as a direct result of the census, now making it around 250,000. (This total does not include some microbial life forms such as marine viruses.) In its final report, the census team suggested it could be at least a million. Some think the figure could be twice as high. So these figures alone highlight the importance of marine life which thrives in the oceans.
Marine life are found in the coastal areas, the continental shelf, the open ocean, the deep ocean and can be in some of the different ecosystems within the ocean world itself, making it one ocean, many worlds.

Along the Coast
Coastal areas, often among the most dynamic and productive of environments, are in many ways the definition of living on the edge. Waves crashing against rocky cliffs or rolling onto sandy shores, form estuaries that exhale the last breath of river systems, the frenetic riverine pace yielding to a sprawling mixture of fresh and saltwater.
In the warm estuarine waters of the tropics, hot and humid mangrove forests are a hybrid of terrestrial and marine life: above the water, they host insects, birds, monkeys, alligators and large mammals like deer and even tigers; beneath the water’s surface, fish swim among mangroves thick roots, which are covered with filter feeders like oysters, mussels, and anemones, while the muddy banks are inhabited by amphibians and crabs.

Continental Shelf
The area fringing coastal landmasses is known as the continental shelf; during ice ages, when sea levels were lower, the shelf was the boundary of the continents but now extends offshore underwater by an average of 80 km. Continental shelf waters are relatively shallow, generally between 100 and 200 metres deep; because their shallowness means they are bathed in sunlight in their upper layers and because their relative proximity to shore provides them with ongoing sources of nutrients from land, they are some of the most productive waters in the ocean. Coral reefs, sea grasses and kelp forests are all in continental shelf waters, as are the vast majority of the world’s fisheries.

The Open Ocean
Peering over the sides of a ship steaming over its surface, it might appear that the open ocean is one big, boundary-free expanse of water – its wildlife swimming back and forth, from surface to depths, without constraint. But marine life researchers found that, although many areas of the open ocean may look equal, to marine animals there are clear differences. The researchers found, for example, that white sharks congregate in an area off Hawaii that scientists dubbed the “white shark cafe‚”, and that several species of turtles, seabirds, seals, whales and sharks all congregate at ‘hotspots’ as in the California Current.
The top 100 meters of the ocean is the zone within which most of the life with which we are instantly familiar -- fish, turtles, and marine mammals, as well as the microscopic plant and animal plankton that forms such an important part of the marine food web – exist. Much deeper where sunlight struggles to penetrate, its another story.  Six hundred meters deep, sunlight in the ocean is as bright as starlight on the surface; at 693 meters it is approximately ten-billionth its surface brightness; and by 1,000 meters, the sea is completely dark. And yet, even here, there is life.

The Deep
In the absence of sunlight, many deep sea fish create lights of their own, in the form of bioluminescent symbiotic bacteria that dangle as lures or shine a path ahead like headlights. Marine invertebrates burrow through the silt of the seabed itself. Seamounts, underwater mountains that climb 1,000 meters or more from the ocean floor, often have complex surfaces of terraces, pinnacles, ridges, crevices and craters, and their presence diverts and alters the currents that swirl about them; the net effect is to create a variety of living conditions, providing habitat for rich and diverse communities. There are believed to be in excess of 100,000 seamounts of 1,000 meters or higher, although only a fraction have been studied.

Human Impact and Hope
However, although humanity has frequently benefited from the bounty of the ocean and the wildlife it contains, ocean and marine wildlife has not always benefited from the attentions of humanity. Some species are already extinct, due to unregulated human activities; others, notably the great whales, have been hunted to fractions of their original populations. Commercial over exploitation of the world’s fish stocks is so severe that it has been estimated that up to 13 percent of global fisheries have ‘collapsed.’ Between 30 and 35 % of the global extent of critical marine habitats such as seagrasses, mangroves and coral reefs are estimated to have been destroyed. The burning of fossil fuels is causing the ocean to become warmer and more acidic, with consequences we are only beginning to grasp.
But there is hope. Around the world, species and populations are recovering with effort and intervention from communities and governments; large areas are being established as protected areas, and the Convention on Biological Diversity has established a series of specific targets that require stakeholders at all levels to work together to protect the biodiversity that lives in the ocean, for its own sake and for the benefit it brings to people worldwide.
Fish may be one of your favourite food items. But be mindful that they too are marine life and if we allowed the world’s oceans to be polluted and over exploited,  marine species, we will not get fish for our consumption. Let’s all be mindful of Marine Biodiversity and commit ourselves to take special heed to protect this precious resource. on this International Biodiversity Day!

Past themes celebrated on International Biodiversity Day

Marine Biodiversity is the theme for this year’s International Day for Biological Diversity (IDB). Designation of IDB 2012 on the theme of marine ecosystems provides parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and everyone interested in marine life, the opportunity to raise awareness of the issue and increase practical action. The themes of the past Biodiversity Days are listed below...

2012 - Marine Biodiversity
2011 - Forest Biodiversity
2010 - Biodiversity, Development and Poverty Alleviation
2009 - Invasive Alien Species
2008 - Biodiversity and Agriculture
2007 - Biodiversity and Climate Change
2006 - Protect Biodiversity in Dry lands
2005 - Biodiversity: Life Insurance for our Changing World
2004 - Biodiversity: Food, Water and Health for All
2003 - Biodiversity and Sustainable Development
2002 - Dedicated to forest biodiversity

Published on LakbimaNews on 20.05.2012 

Sacred yet venomous - The mighty Cobras of legend

This is the season of Vesak where Buddhists celebrate the Buddha’s Birth, Enlightenment and passing away. No sooner Gautma became Buddha the Thathagatha spent 7 weeks paying tribute to the elements, which facilitated the journey – and provided  shelter during meditation. During the 6th week, heavy rains had prevailed but a cobra known as Muchalinda had shielded the Buddha with his large hood giving protection to the Thathagatha from the inclement rain. ZooLander this week ventures to explore the life of cobras...!

The Vesak season is celebrated with lots of lanterns and pandals. The Sath Sathiya depicts how the Buddha spent 7 weeks immediately after becoming a Thathagatha,  and is the subject of many of these pandals. The first week after enlightenment was spent under a Bo tree experiencing the freedom and peace of becoming a Buddha. On the second week, Buddha continued to gaze at the Bo tree in gratitude to the tree that had given shelter during  the struggle to attain enlightenment. Of the rest of the seven weeks, the sixth week is perhaps the most interesting for those who like to read about animals.
On the sixth week of meditation it had begun to rain heavily  threatening to disturb the Buddha’s meritorious attempt, when a huge cobra known as the Muchalinda Nagaraja (cobra king) came out from  its den and coiled its  body seven times around the Buddha to keep the Thathagatha warm. Also  the cobra protected the Buddha by shielding the Blessed One from the rain with its hood, is what legend says. Some Buddhist legends also go on to mention that after seven days, the rain stopped and the snake changed into a young man who paid his respects to the Buddha.
Whether this is fact or fiction, it is interesting that the cobra has been mentioned in a very close encounter with the Buddha. What makes it significant is that the Cobra,  known as a venomous snake, had not harmed the Buddha who also did not deny the close encounter with a cobra. Snakes are also considered disgusting as they appear slithery, whereas, in fact they are  dry  animals with scales – and perhaps this example of being able to protect the Buddha is a unique testimony to this feature.
Cobras or nagas are considered sacred by Buddhists and Hindus alike. Some legends even mention of cobras that can take the human body shape. In Hindu and Buddhist mythology It is said that nagas are a race of semi-divine serpent creatures. Female nagas are called nagis or naginis. Usually depicted as human above the waist and snake below the waist, nagas can also change shape to appear fully human, or snake. Nagas and nagis are known for their strength, supernatural wisdom, and good looks. When nagis take the human form, they can marry  mortal men, and some Indian dynasties claim descent from them. Some also believes the cobras mentioned in these legends are a tribe known as ‘Naga People’ who worships snakes.

Other snakes mentioned in Buddhism  
In Buddhism, there are many  references to snakes. In one instance the Buddha is said to have drawn a parallel between money and a snake, likening a money to a snake. The story goes,  some thieves having stolen valuables and cash from the house of a rich man had come to a field and divided the loot, from which a packet of money had dropped, and been left behind unnoticed. The Buddha had passed by, in the companying of Venerable Ananda, and on seeing the money packet, had called on Venerable Ananda to look at the very poisonous snake – and the  story continues, with the Buddha likening money to a venomous snake.
There are other instances too, where snakes are mentioned in Buddhist legends and related Jathaka stories. The cobra is undoubtedly the most famous and sacred snake of them all.

Real cobras
Whatever legend says, there are real cobras in Sri Lanka. They are one of the 7 most lethally venomous snakes and if not treated, their bites will prove to be fatal. Cobras are widely distributed in Sri Lanka and the species found here are scientifically classified as Naja Naja or Indian Cobra. On the rear of the snake’s hood are two circular patterns connected by a curved line, evoking the image of spectacles, hence our cobra is also known as the spectacled cobra. Hindus believe these markings are the footmarks of Lord Krishna that danced on hundred and ten hooded snake’s head, known as Kaliya. Naja Naja is distributed across the Indian Subcontinent.
An average cobra is about 1.9 meters (6 feet) in length and there are the rare ones that can be as long as 2.4 meters (nearly 8 feet). Cobras can expand their neck ribs to form a widened hood and our cobra too has this ability like the Muchalinda cobra king. A hood is indeed the most distinctive and impressive characteristic of the Indian cobra. It is formed by raising the anterior portion of the body and spreading some of the ribs in its neck region when it is threatened. The spectacle pattern on the hood varies greatly, as does the overall colour of the snake. The female lays 20 to 30 eggs at a time and will guard them until they are hatched.

Cobras in the zoos Snake Show
If you live in the outskirts of Colombo or in a remote area, there is a chance that you could have an encounter with a cobra. They carry a neuro-toxin venom and stings can be quite lethal if not treated. But luckily there is anti-venom snake serum available in most of the hospitals in Sri Lanka.
However, you can visit the Dehiwala Zoo to observe cobras in safety. There are a couple of cobras in the zoo’s reptilian section. A few of them are taken out during the Snake Show that is held daily at 2pm at the old elephant arenas. The show is conducted by either Nihal Senarath - the Education officer of National Zoological gardens or a curator of the reptilian area.
The Snake Show also helps to clarify some of the myths associated with cobras. Some believe that they grow wings on maturity and fly to the Himalaya region. “But the cobra is just a reptile and how can he get wings to fly,” questions Nihal Senarath during the show from a captivated audience.

Mythology busters
Snake charmers too are famous for making cobras ‘dance’ by playing their flutes. But snakes do not have ears, so there is no possibility of them responding to the sound of music. But if you look carefully, the snake charmer shakes his knee –– and the cobra too moves its head synchronizing with that movement, which explains the snake show conductors replicating the same scenario making the cobra  dance sometimes without using a flute.
It is also said that the cobras when provoked, will keep it in mind and when they get the chance, attack. But it seems this too is a myth. The cobra can perhaps live closer to the victim’s place, so there is a higher chance of getting bitten if a person is not careful. Perhaps it is a different cobra that attacks on a different occasion, but people link the two episodes and associate one cobra with both incidents ...
The cobra is a really interesting creature that evokes both fear and sanctity in the human mind. On your next visit to the zoo, observe them closely. The snake show is also an opportunity for you to get to see these creatures at closer quarters; go on  be there at 2.00pm at the old Elephant Arena located near the elephant shed.

Published on LakbimaNews on 13.05.2012 

The March for survival in the Animal Kingdom - Penguin May Day

Last Tuesday, thousands marched through some Colombo streets to mark May Day. Such ‘marches’ are the stuff of the animal kingdom too;ironically they are more disciplined but also happen in April/May. ZooLander reports this week of the March of the Penguins..!

In the animal Kingdom too, there is an annual march, which occurs   across probably one of the most challenging environments on earth. Instead of the scorching sun or pouring tropical rain, these marchers have to be ready to negotiate walking on freezing ice baring the sub-zero temperature of Antarctica - the polar region that records the lowest temperatures on earth. The participants of this particular march are also not offered biriyani or any alcohol to keep them motivated, but their annual participation is compulsory for the very survival of their whole colony. They are also not divided into different camps carrying different coloured flags --- to the naked eye its just plain black and white pillars moving across a snow-white  Antarctica ...
They are not humans; this is the march of the emperor penguins, and their march is not just a mere 2 or 3 kilometres that make up the May Day march  of political activists, but stretches to about 60 - 100 kilometres in length. The aim of their march is not a mere  politicaly motivated reason such as showcasing power, but is a serious effort in completing the annual breeding cycle of the emperor penguins.  They have to march this distance because of the nature of the Antarctica land mass, which shrinks and expand during summer and winter seasons of the polar region. Under the ice shield, it is an ocean and during the summer - though it is still below zero Celsius temperature, the ice shield can go thin and break off. These emperor penguins use a particular spot that has solid ice year round as their breeding ground to avoid losing a land mass that is vital for the survival of their young. At the beginning of the Antarctica summer, the breeding ground is only few kilometres away, from the ocean where penguins feed. However, by the end of summer, the breeding ground is over 100 kilometres away from the nearest open water and in order to reach it, all the penguins of breeding age must travel this distance.

May Day Rally in the Antarctica
Humans rally in large numbers on May Day, and after a short march stop to listen to their leaders; these Penguins too rally on their pre-designated breeding grounds after the tiring march. Even though there is no ‘police’ or a particular leader to discipline them, they all flock together at freezing cold temperatures.
Antarctica is the coldest continent on Earth and is considered  a cold desert. Temperature in the Antarctica can reach -89 C making it one of the hardest places to survive in. The march of the penguins has provided these creatures an opportunity to survive in the harsh Antarctic environment. ...or if you consider the flip side, only those who marched would be able to survive the harsh Antarctic subzero climate. (Ah, much like  Government supported May Day rallies where those who do not March in support of their campaign may not get benefits?).
Since the discovery of the Antarctica, it has puzzled explorers how the penguins breed in these harsh conditions. Penguins usually lay eggs on the ground, but in the Antarctica, there is no actual land with soil; the whole continent is covered by ice. It had taken decades for zoologists to resolve this puzzle of penguin breeding. Earlier it was believed that the Emperor penguins were some kind of evolutionary “missing link”, something that scientists thought could be proven by observing the growth of the ‘embryo’ at various stages. Later, they were taken by surprise, on seeing the large colonies and their gatherings and  the long march these penguins make annually to reach the breeding grounds.
Emperor penguins breed almost exclusively on sea ice and so are perhaps the only species of bird that never sets foot on land. Now zoologists have discovered around 40 large nesting sites of the emperor penguins. The first breeding colony wasn’t discovered until 1902, when Lt. Reginald Skelton on Scott’s 1901-04 Discovery Expedition, did  some 130 years after the birds had first been sighted, on Captain Cook’s second voyage. New colonies were still being discovered as late as 2009 as per internet sources.

Spectacular scene
Some of these sites say that there are more than half a million birds making it a spectacular scene to watch. But another reason to flock closer together is that each other’s warmth keeps everybody warm -- and loss of energy is at a minimum.
‘Numbe Amma Muhude Giya, Malu aran enna giya’ :
Emperor Penguins begin their breeding cycle when the other Antarctic penguins have finished theirs, at the end of April / May. Eggs are laid in May and June, are the smallest in size relative to body size of any bird, being around 0.4kg (1.1 lb) and just under 1.5% of the mass of an adult bird.
As soon as the mother penguin lays her single egg, she transfers it to the feet of the waiting male with minimum exposure to the elements, as the intense cold will kill the developing embryo. If it stays on ice for more than a few minutes, the purpose of the whole march would be lost. From this point onwards, the males take charge of the egg. No nest is built and the egg is incubated on the feet of the parents. A special fold of abdominal skin known as ‘brood patches’  covers the egg to keep it warm.
There is a famous lullaby sung to console  human babies Numbe amma kira ta giya, kiri erawa enna giya (your mother has gone for milk and will come back with milk). Perhaps this is what penguin fathers are murmuring in the freezing cold as they  take care of the eggs, with a different version such as -Numbe Amma Muhude Giya, Malu aran enna giya (your mother has gone to sea and will be back with fish), as the mother penguins then set off back to sea for fishing and do not return until July.

published on LakbimaNews  06.05.2012

Meet Captain Cook’s Kickboxers

A recent addition to the Dehiwala Zoo are two kangaroos from Japan’s Nagoya Higashiyama zoo. Initially shy, this pair is now fully acquainted with their new environment. ZooLander this week reports about the Zoo’s new residents.

British explorer James Cook landed in the then unknown lands of Australia, in 1770, on his voyage to find a new continent in the southern seas. Australia’s Great Barrier Reef had damaged his ship, and they had to move inland and anchor it in a river. While the ship was being repaired, Captain Cook and a team decided to explore the hitherto unvisited new paradise in the company of the locals - the indigenous Aborigines who spoke a language named Guugu Yimithirr.
Suddenly Captain Cook had seen a strange looking creature hopping fast, scared by the people that had penetrated its territory. It had a long tail, strong hind legs but small fore limbs – and the animal had to bend awkwardly to touch the ground (in a manner touching it with all 4 legs.) Puzzled by the strange animal, Captain Cook asked the Aborigines “what is this animal..?”. The native replied kangaru which in his language meant ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I don’t understand’. Driven by excitement the explorer failed to realize that the Aborigine had not understood his question and the name has been kept since then.
This is the common myth about the origin of the name “kangaroo” and this story has become  Australian legend. Other fictions  behind the origin of the name includes variations of the above. Explorers are said to have mistaken the Aboriginal word for go that way (kangaroo) when an Aborigine pointed in a direction that a kangaroo happened to be headed. Another story says that when explorers asked the indigenous people what the first kangaroo they saw was, pointing at it, the natives replied “kangaroo!” meaning “That’s your index finger!”
However, these stories are only myths and later language experts conclude that the word “kangaroo” has been derived from the Aboriginal word gangurru, a Guugu Yimidhirr word referring to the Grey Kangaroo. Whatever the reality is, the legend surrounding  how the ‘kangaroo’ got its name is as fascinating as the pair of kangaroos now resident at the Dehiwala Zoo, and which you have the opportunity to closely observe.

Shipped from Japan
This pair of kangaroos has been shipped from Japan’s Higashiyama Zoo located in Nagoya.
The Kangaroos were very shy on the first few days in their enclosure at the Dehiwala Zoo. They had rarely come out from their cage to the open area, though they have been given a fairly large enclosure to play around in. It had taken few weeks for them to gain confidence. Now it is a pair of different kangaroos that hops around the enclosure. The large male also likes to rest in the shade during the hot afternoons and  would remind you of a celebrity laying on a beach. The female is smaller in size and more energetic and wants to keep on exercising, hopping around the enclosure unlike the lazy male.

Hopping for a living
You would have seen lots of small animals hopping as a way to move around, but kangaroos are the only large animals who hop as a means of locomotion. Kangaroos can continue hopping for about 20-25 km/h (13-16 mph), and can reach of speeds of up to a 70 km/h (44 mph) when it is running to escape from impending danger to its life. Hopping is largely energy efficient for kangaroos because of the way its body is designed and zoologists believe this fast and energy efficient method of travel has evolved because of the need to regularly cover large distances in search of food and water – rather than the need to escape predators.
The kangaroo has a very strong tail and it can stand on its tail like a tripod. Also when the kangaroo moves at slow speeds, it uses the tail to form a tripod with its two forelimbs then raises its hind feet to move forward. It is said that kangaroos can also swim in emergencies. Many have witnessed kangaroos jumping into waterways and swimming away to escape predators. If pursued into the water, it is also said that a kangaroo might use its forepaws to hold the predator underwater so as to drown it.
The pouchy mom kangaroo is indeed a distinctive animal and is also a marsupial - which has a pouch on its belly to rear its baby. A kangaroo carries its baby in its pouch and usually have one young annually. The young kangaroo, or joey, is born alive at a very immature stage; after a gestation period of 33 days an embryonic young weighing about  one gram is born. This ‘jellybean’ will then crawl up from its mother’s cloacae into the pouch where it will attach itself to a vacant nipple and there it will stay for around the next 34 weeks. After emerging from the pouch the young will continue to suckle from its mother for a further four months.  After several weeks, little joey becomes more active and gradually spends more and more time outside the pouch, which it leaves completely when its about 7 to 10 months of age.
Even when quite large the joey still drinks milk from a teat in its mother’s pouch and will jump into its mother’s pouch head first when frightened. Even after they grow up, they sometimes jump into the pouch with utter difficulty, to try to fit into it - luckily the mother tolerates the young.
The kangaroo can have three young simultaneously, all at different stages of development, one in diapauses, one pouch young and an at-foot joey. Mating occurs at any time of the year but only with receptive females. Kangaroos also have a reproductive adaptation called “delayed implantation.” The fertilized egg will cease development and wait.
Depending on the growth of the joey in the pouch or the weather that season, the fertilized egg will begin development when the mother kangaroo is ready. Kangaroos raise on average three young every two years.
The kangaroo is a herbivore that mainly feeds on grass. They are more active at dusk when the environment is cooler. It is said that on the Australian coat of arms the emu and the kangaroo were selected as symbols to represent the country  because they are always moving forward and never move backwards – indicative of progress.
There are 47 varieties of kangaroo, ranging in size from the two-pound Rock Wallaby to the 6-foot, 300-pound Red Kangaroo. When the Europeans first arrived in Australia, the Red Kangaroo was the biggest mammal on the continent. With the settlers came foreign species that pushed the indigenous  kangaroo down the list, to rank 13, behind the introduced camels, buffalos, bantengs, cattle, horses, donkeys, pigs and several species of deer. The kangaroo doesn’t have a natural predator in Australia, but people have introduced animals such as dingo dogs that have started hunting kangaroos.
Male kangaroos often “box” among themselves, playfully, for dominance, or in competition for mates. The dexterity of their forepaws is used in both punching and grappling with the foe, but the real danger lies in a serious kick with the hind-leg. The sharpened hind claws can disembowel an opponent, so it can also be dangerous to go closer to a kangaroo as an accident can happen anytime. But in the wild, it is fascinating to watch the kangaroo opponents fight each other in the way human opponents do ‘kick boxing’.

Published olakdbimaNews on 28.04.2012

Did animals sense the tsunami coming?

Panic resulted from last week’s tsunami warning.While we are all dependent on the Meteorology Department and the Disaster Management Centre to warn us about an impending tsunami, animals are said to be have acute senses that help recognize environmental changes. There are some very interesting accounts of how animals responded just before the tsunami waves hit in 2004.

According to the National Geographic website, and eyewitness reports, in 2004, elephants are said to have screamed and run to higher ground, dogs had refused to go outdoors, flamingos had abandoned their low-lying breeding areas and  animals at zoos rushed into their shelters and could not be enticed to come out. Some speculate that the animals have a ‘sixth sense’ that we do not posses, but wildlife experts believe that animals are endowed with more acute hearing and other senses that might enable them to hear or feel the earth’s vibration, tipping them off of  approaching disasters – long before humans realize what’s going to happen.

The concept of an animal’s ‘sixth sense’ was also raised as very few animals had died at the Yala National Park, which was also devastated by the tsunami wave. A number of human lives were lost, but most of the animals managed to escape. So it is clear that animals somehow sense impending disaster and could run inland to get themselves away from the disaster. Perhaps, their ability to run fast, and knowledge of the terrain too, helped in their escape.

Even other experts say that animals can sense changes in the environment. In an interview for National Geographic, Joyce Poole, an elephant expert conducting  research on acoustics, said the reports of Sri Lanka’s elephants fleeing to higher ground didn’t surprise her. She said that research on both acoustic and seismic communication indicates that elephants could easily pick up vibrations generated from the massive earthquake-tsunami, she said.

Elephants during earth tremors

Poole has also experienced this firsthand.  “I have been with elephants during two small tremors, and on both occasions the elephants ran in alarm several seconds before I felt the tremor,” she said at the interview.

One of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries is Japan, where devastation has taken countless lives and caused enormous damage to property. Researchers there have long studied animals in hopes of discovering what they hear or feel before the earth shakes. They hope that animals may be used as a prediction tool. Some U.S. seismologists, on the other hand, are skeptical. Though there have been documented cases of strange animal behavior prior to earthquakes, the United States Geological Survey, a government agency that provides scientific information about the earth, says a reproducible connection between a specific behaviour and the occurrence of a quake has never been made. “What we’re faced with is a lot of anecdotes,” said Andy Michael, a geophysicist at USGS. “Animals react to so many things -being hungry, defending their territories, mating, predators, it’s hard to have a controlled study to get that advanced warning signal.”

In the 1970s a few studies on animal prediction were done by the USGS, “But nothing concrete came out of it,” Michael said. Since that time the agency has made no further investigations into the theory.

Published on LakbimaNews on 22.04.2012

Today is Earth Day: Road to the Earth Summit: RIO + 20

Today is World Earth Day. The world’s environment keeps on degrading due to acts of humankind, which is also adversely affecting all its inhabitants. To address these issues of sustainability, environmentalists gathered in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro in 1992. World leaders and others will convene again in Rio to review what has been achieved, and to discuss how to face future challenges. ZooLander reports on RIO + 20:

World Earth Day is celebrated annually with the aim of raising awareness and appreciation of mother earth, and is celebrated in more than 175 countries.  22nd April is also going to be renamed as International Mother Earth Day, by the United Nations, with the aim of highlighting “Earth and its ecosystems are our home” and that “it is necessary to promote harmony with nature and the Earth”. This new description for 22nd April, will apply from 2015 if world leaders agree, but until then it will be the Earth Day, as it has been celebrated around the world since 1969.

There are so many Environment Days, so why another special day allocated as Earth Day..?

It is because we are using the earth’s resources unsustainably and if this mayhem continues, even humankind that initiated this destruction will be severely impacted. Most of us are taking the earth’s resources as a given. But it is not the case and there is a limit to all the resources. Earth’s human population reached 7 billion and is expected to rise further. In this context the resources of the earth will not be sufficient and if not wisely used, will collapse all the life-supporting systems on the  palnet. These which provide us clean air, water and even the ability to produce enough food for all, will come to an end.

Human activities even lead to other disasters. The high level of carbon dioxide and other green house gases already causes global warming that leads to climate change. As a result there are earthslips, prolonged droughts and fierce thunderstorms  recorded.

What is the solution..? The earth’s population is on the rise and how can we make it  a non-losing situation..? For a long time the buzzword given as the solution is ‘Sustainable Development’. Sustainable development is the use of the earth’s resources to meet human needs while conserving the environment; the needs can be met not only in the present, but also for generations to come.

But have we been successful in achieving ‘Sustainable Development’ is the question that will be discussed by world leaders and their delegates at the upcoming ‘Earth Summit’ planned to be held in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro. Named as The United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development or in the shorter form ‘Rio + 20’, this year is a milestone summit, as it also commemorates the 20th anniversary of the original ‘Earth Summit’ held in June 1992 – with the aim of achieving sustainable development.

The objective of this conference is to secure renewed commitment to sustainable development and to meet new and emerging challenges by focusing on different areas. The delegates will discuss 7 different areas in preparation for Rio+20 covering areas of decent jobs, energy, sustainable cities, food security and sustainable agriculture, water, oceans and disaster readiness – which are becoming daily challenges in this era.

So let’s hope there will be a fruitful outcome from Rio+20 Conference 2012.  After all Venus is too Hot; Mars is too Cold and we can only live only on Earth. So let’s save Mother Earth..!

Published on 22.04.2012on LakbimaNews

Avurudu Panchi a game with cowries Meet a live cowry at the Zoo Aquarium

Avurudu is still fresh  in our homes. Relatives who have not met up in a while are still visiting and Avurudu games that were forgotten are now being played. The rattle of the Panchi is also heard, though it is not as common as in the past.  But do you know that cowries which are used  in a game of panchi are in fact the shell of a sea mollusc and you can get a rare chance to see one alive, and its in the zoo’s Aquarium?

The panchi rattle was a familiar sound during the Avurudu season, decades ago. This clatter sound brings to mind the shiny stones hitting at one another and which pitch on different sound levels. Even if you have never played a game of panchi before, you would have seen it in Avurudu telecasts. But have you paid attention to these attractive milk white and yellowish cowries used in a game of panchi?

On initial look, these cowries’ looks like some kind of stones. But they are in fact the shells of the marine snail popularly known as cowry.  There can be different colours and shapes of cowry shells that belongs to different species, but the yellowish white cowry known as money cowry is mostly used in the game - panchi.

These cowry shells often float to the beach, and you can pick up plenty of them. But since these creatures live in the sea, only deep sea divers could see them live. But have you thought that you could also get a chance to see a live cowry one day? Yes, you can. What you have to do is to visit the zoo’s aquarium. There is no description about the live cowry in the tank it lives in, but you may go to the tank of the marine moray eel. This eel is a nasty looking neighbour for anybody, but even he seems to be tolerant of the live cowry that has suddenly come to share his tank. There is no description or at least mention about the presence of this cowry in the tank indicating that the cowry could be an accidental addition, by its look this cowry seems to be a tiger cowry.

Mollusc in the sea

Cowry is actually a kind of a sea snail which is a mollusc which lives in the sea. Scientifically, they belong to a family of Molluscs Cypraea. The cowry shell is oval shaped like an egg, but the underside is flat. There is also a long, narrow, slit-like opening known as the aperture which is often toothed at the edges. The soft body of the sea snail and the broad muscular foot it uses for crawling could be retracted into the shell, when it feels danger approaching.

The cowry shells are extremely smooth and shiny because in the living animal, the shell is nearly always fully covered with a skin: the mantle. The shell-producing this mantle tissue has two special folds that extend outside the shell in the cowry. These mantle folds keep the shell clean and polished, and prevent damage to the shell surface. The mantle is covered with frilly, branched projections called papillae that look like small fingers. The functions of the papillae are not clear: they may provide camouflage for the animal by breaking up the snail’s outline; or may allow absorption of oxygen from seawater.

The cowry uses its mouth tube to feed on. The Algae is its main diet in their natural habitats and is mostly active at night. During day time it usually hides in its natural habitat, but the cowry in the zoo can be seen attached to the glass wall of the tank throughout the day.

Cowri in Dehiwala Zoo with its neighbor
- Murray Eal

Travel using fleshy foot

The cowry travels by using the “foot” that can be extended from the aperture of the underside. This muscular organ is long and is spread underneath the body and the cowry is able to move forward by making a sort of ripping motion using its foot, say marine experts.  When it moves, the snail leaves behind a bit of slime, which coats the area that it is trying to move along on.  If you watch a snail on a dry surface, you can see that it leaves a trail of slime behind it.  Sea snails are very slow moving creatures and could spend the better part of a day just trying to travel across the yard.

The eyes of the cowry can be found at the base of one pair of tentacles; however, some other species of snails don’t have eyes at all.  They breathe through gills or sometimes through a thin tissue layer called the mantle that wraps around the body of the snail like an envelope.  Sea snails use their gills like a fish would, to retrieve oxygen out of the water.  The gills are found in the cavity of the mantle.

Other sea snails

If you visit the beach, you would find many different kinds of cowries and other shells. These are differently coloured and differently shaped. There is enormous diversity of sea snails say marine biologists. Marine snails make up the majority of the snail family population and they can often be found in fresh water as well as in  salt water. 

Sea snails do have teeth -- not in the common perception of what teeth look like.  They technically have radulas, a very hard organ that looks like a ribbon in appearance and has tiny rows of teeth on it. Some will only have a few teeth while other snails have thousands.  As the teeth wear down, new ones grow. They do not exactly chew their food but rather grind and tear it.  Sea snails are often popular in aquariums, as an accessory, to eat debris from the sides of tanks.

Predators of cowry

The very narrow toothed aperture of the cowry shell keeps the adult sea snails out of danger, frustrating predators. However there are some smart predators which learn the art of how to reach the softer parts of the cowry. Some tropical crustaceans can break the dorsum of a cowry shell and some mollusc-eating cones can inject venom to the cowry’s flesh. The cone then extends its stomach into the cowry shell through the slit and completely digests the flesh.

However, the octopuses are the most fascinating cowry hunters. Some octopuses can make a small hole in the strong cowry shell using a special barb/tooth and an acidic secretion. In the beaches, have you noticed some of the cowry shells have strange looking holes on them..? Perhaps those are the unlucky victims of these cowry eating octopuses.

Game of Avurudu Panchi

Being shiny objects, cowries are often used in jewellery by coastal communities. In some other instances, the cowries have also been used as money. These are known as ‘money cowries’ and the ones used in playing panchi. They are small in size and is of a yellowish marble, off white colour.

When playing panchi, there are two groups and they use lead-filled cowries in a coconut shell and rattle it inside shaking hard and releases them on to another coconut shell. After each toss of the cowries, those that had come to rest with the flat surface upturned scores a point. The points scored by each side are registered by moving one or more of a set of pawns, along a pattern of squares outlined on a wooden board, towards a home-base. The first team to take all the pawns to the home base wins.

Remember - the live cowry can be seen in the murray eel’s tank, at the zoo aquarium. So make a visit this Avurudu season to observe a living cowry which is not a common sight.

Published on 15.04.2012

Day of the Jackal - Canis aureus naria alias Naria

Last Sunday 1st of April was Fool’s day. Got snared by a cunning joke last Sunday..? On the 1st of April, ZooLander visited the zoo to meet the Jackal family
– most famous for fooling others..!!

Jackals are some of the most difficult animals to photograph and the ZooLander team’s experience was not easy either. These creatures  walk from one corner to another restlessly, without waiting in one place, fooling those who attempt to photograph them, resulting in our photo shoot attempts most often ending up with blurred images or capturing only Jackals in part  - sometimes only the tail, though we clicked while the Jackal was in full frame. But last Saturday, quite unusually the Jackal duo was out of their enclosure and in a playful  mood.
Perhaps Jackals were in a thinking mood, getting ready to celebrate the next day– the 1st of April - April Fool’s day. Interestingly the Jackals performed in front of us, as if chiding us for wasting our time in trying to snap them, so many times (rasthiyadu). Perhaps, the Jackals had decided, to be featured in LakbimaNews on the ZooLander page to mark their day - April fool’s day, them being the best in the animal kingdom to fool others..!
Whatever the reason this gave the Zoolander team an opportunity to take good photographs of the Jackals.
Here are some interesting facts about these great cheaters of the animal kingdom.Jackal known scientifically as canis aureus naria is the only wild canine found in Sri Lankan forests.  Have you noticed the third part of that scientific name..? Yes, it wasn’t a mistake, and as the name indicates ours is a sub species of the golden jackal, and to recognize that it is a subspecies, it was named  canis aureus naria.
They are also called the Sri Lankan Jackal and are also known as the Southern Indian Jackal as they can also be found in India. On the Asian mainland, the Sri Lankan jackal is found in most southern parts of the Indian Peninsula. The golden jackal (canis aureus), also known as the common jackal is indigenous to the north and north east Africa, south eastern and central Europe according to popular web based Wikipedia.

Social Species
Jackal is a social species. They usually live in pairs in the wild. Sometimes the current offspring or offspring from a former litter can also be associated with them making them a perfect jackal family. However, sometimes they can also be found alone roaming around Sri Lanka’s wilderness areas mostly in the dry zone. It is also said that jackal pairs are good lovers and their courtship rituals are remarkably long, during which the breeding pair remains almost constantly together - sometimes about a month. Though they are cunning to outsiders they are perfect partners as both should be cunning enough to keep the other with them.
After a gestation period of 60 - 63 days, golden jackals give birth to a litter of 1 - 9 young. They are weak  and after a few weeks, the parents start giving regurgitated food  in addition to the milk. Young jackals reach sexual maturity between 1 and 2 years of age.

Masters in adaptability
The jackals are adaptable to changes in their environment and can be found on the edges of villages, sometimes intruding into poultry farms to grab a chicken at night and getting caught. Jackals are carnivores: usually hunting  on small birds, eggs, and rodents. They  are also omnivorous and opportunistic foragers feeding on fruits and vegetables too.
Jackals are in the habit of hiding food when they get more than what they can feed on. This also helps them build a store which helps them to eat at times food is scarce. In areas where jackals have access to beach land, it is said that they also dig turtle nests looking for tasty eggs to feed on.
Jackals could be seen even in isolated patches in Colombo suburbs. In a recently published book The diversity of Sri Lankan Wildlife’ authored by Jayantha Jayawardane, there is an account about a group of jackals being spotted in a garbage dump in the Piliyandala area.
The jackal’s howl is the unmistaken sign that betrays  its presence, but is getting silenced as most areas are getting urbanized.

Trickster in the wild
Cunning is the most apt description for this little canine. Folklore gives many examples of their smartness, but sometime back a famous environmentalist reported a clever trick played by a jackal in Yala. Jackals being opportunistic feeders most often steal food from the prey of other predators such as leopards. The leopard is in the habit of eating enough to satisfy its hunger and guarding the carcass for a few days with the aim of eating the balance some other time. A hungry jackal who found an unattended carcass carefully approached it, but being greedy  had forgotten to pay attention to the surroundings.
The leopard had appeared from nowhere, and becoming angry on seeing the jackal getting a free meal out of the its hard earned kill, had charged towards the jackal and easily caught it. But that isn’t the amazing part. Not trying to flee, the jackal had played dead. The leopard had shaken the apparently lifeless jackal and as no movement was sensed, left its grab, thinking the jackal dead. Then, the jackal looking around suddenly starts running and escapes from the leopard, fooling the powerful predator...! Such is the cunning of the jackal.

Jackals, Foxes, Coyotes, Wolves and Dogs - all confusing..?
Canidae is the biological family of carnivorous and omnivorous mammals that includes wolves, foxes, jackals, coyotes, and domestic dogs. A member of this family is called a canid.Canids form one of the most prominent families of carnivores, with 36 interesting taxa in 13 genera that occur throughout most of the world. Foxes, dholes, dingoes, wolves, jackals, coyotes and various dogs comprise the family, and they find human raised livestock irresistible prey. As a family, canids occupy every continent except Antarctica. The grey wolf, alone, was originally the most widely distributed terrestrial mammal; its successor to the throne is another successful canid, the red fox. Thus, canids have borne a high proportion of the conflict between humans and carnivores.

Published on LakbimaNews on 08.04.2012 

Nature’s Weather Forecasters

Do animals have built-in weather detectors? 
Nature’s Weather Forecasters

23rd of March was  World Meteorological Day. Before the discovery of sophisticated weather forecast equipment and satellites, it was simply animal and plant behaviour that had warned our ancestors of weather changes. Animal behaviour can still be used to predict weather, and ZooLander looks at some of the animals that have the ability to predict weather patterns.
Today meteorologists use satellites and there are state-of-the-art weather stations around the world to monitor the weather, and for forecasting. However, even with  the modern technology of  today, there are so many variables, that 100% accuracy in weather forecasting is difficult. But our ancestors with traditional knowledge could predict the weather by animal and plant behaviour, with acumen gained from generations before. Some farmers even looked at these nature’s signs to decide on when to cultivate and surprisingly these signs often were accurate.
Birds, bees, colours in the sky, formation of clouds and the colour of falling rain, are some of nature’s signs for predicting weather.
The swallows are perhaps the most common weather forecasters known to  many Sri Lankans. Their Sinahala name wehi lihiniya translates into English as ‘rain bird’. It is believed that if they fly low, then rain will follow by evening. This prediction is often more accurate than weather forecasts that are relayed over TV  or Radio. But how do swallows know that it would rain? Or is this   just another myth?

Wehi lihiniya - or rain birds
Zoologists who studied the movements of swallows found that there is actually a scientific basis to their behaviour. Swallows that often fly high, come down mainly because the insects which they feed on, descend to lower levels on rainy days. Scientists explain that this could happen due to changes in  ‘air pressure’ shortly  before rain. The impact of air pressure could control the movements of the little insects, more than that of birds, resulting in the swallows having to come down to feast, just before it rains. It is in fact the insects that sense the change, but it is the wehi lihiniya that gets the credit in issuing the warning about the oncoming weather changes -- in the manner of a skilful meteorologist.
Scientists have conducted research on several species of birds, and confirm that they are able to foretell the weather, although it is yet to be established, to exactly what degree. In other countries this phenomena has also been tested with some other birds like the black cockatoos. It is said that these birds will fly down from hills and mountains and will glide towards coastal areas, particularly in the early mornings when heavy rain and storms are imminent. A further explanation for this behaviour could also be the changes in plant behaviour such as  opening of  seed pods in certain trees, due to the changes in air pressure.

Birds’ nests too could give clues
In some villages in India, the village folk look at a particular bird species to have an inkling  about the upcoming rainy season. This bird builds nests on trees and if the nests are toward the top of the trees, then heavy rains follow. But if they are lower down, there will be less rain think these villagers with centuries of experience. An Indian researcher having studied this phenomenon also found that the basis could be interpreted as, when the nest is near the centre of the tree, close to the trunk, it means heavy rains. But if birds build their nests on the tips of the branches, it means scanty rains and a drier season and the birds do not have to worry too much about getting their nests destroyed by heavy rains and winds.

Fish
Both saltwater and freshwater fish have been known to change their behaviour prior to weather changes.  An explanation put forward is that shallow dwelling species such as the plankton can sense atmospheric pressure and temperature changes, and change their behaviour.  This may then trigger a reaction along the food chain.
Many species of fish will ‘bite’ prior to an intense change in the weather.  Quite often fish will swim nearer to the surface and will take bait quickly before the rains come. Several species of freshwater fish that frequent the upper reaches of rivers, streams and creeks are often caught near the mouths of rivers and creeks before flooding rain spells.
Researchers observed this type of behaviour among a group of sharks as they tracked the sharks’ movements during tropical storm Gabrielle and hurricane Charlie. When the barometric pressure dropped just a few millibars - an occurrence that causes a similar change in hydrostatic pressure - several sharks swam to deeper waters, where there was more protection from the storm.

Ants
Ants are the most reliable weather forecasters on earth, say researchers.  A change in the weather is inevitable if the ants behave in a manner which is out of the ordinary.  They will be extra industrious and work frantically to clean out nests, construct and move into new nests, and gather food, when heavy rains are on the way.
Ants building cones or crowns around their nests on the ground, is an excellent indication that rain is on the way.  When ants build nests on top of fence posts or old stumps, rain is imminent, as per  folklore. Nests can also be found in or around any object that the ant deems to be higher than ground level --  when rain is on the way.

Do animals have a sixth sense?
Yala National Park was severely damaged by the 2004 Tsunami. Lots of visitors to the park were killed, but very few  large animals had died. It is said that the animals almost ‘flew’ away from the marauding sea. It is said that elephants in Thailand had moved inland to higher ground, just a few minutes before the Tsunami. Scientists say the elephants could sense the vibrations in their feet. It could be the same in the case of  earthquakes when animals seem forewarned.
It is believed that birds and bees too can sense earthquakes. A few minutes prior to the earthquake, everything becomes completely still - no movement or sound.  Birds stop singing and chirping and flying around.  Insects cease making noises and moving about, and there is a total silence and stillness.  Seconds before the earthquake dogs will start howling and other animals become agitated.  After the earthquake has passed, the silence is felt again for a couple of minutes.
It is said that animals could be having a sixth sense helping them to make weather predictions. But scientist believe they just have the five senses which we all possess; however they are successful predictors that have more powerful senses helping them make accurate predictions...

Published on LakbimaNews on 01.04.2012 

Celebrating Aquatic Animals, Commemorating World Water Day

Aquatic Life in a Water World

March 22 is World Water Day. Water is essential for all of us and we cannot live without drinking water. In fact it is believed the life of the Earth began in water, so Earth is indeed a water planet. ZooLander looks at the amazing diversity in aquatic animals.

We can live for a few days without food, but can we even think of surviving without water. But there are some animals that need water based mediums to live in, as if their very survival is dependent on water. These are aquatic animals and live in water for most or all of their life. We breathe through our lungs, but most of these aquatic animals, like fish, use their gills, a special organ that can extract the oxygen from water. However there are other aquatic animals such as whales and dolphins that breathe air directly from the atmosphere.
The environments these aquatic animals live in are of two types - freshwater or saltwater. Creatures that live in saltwater mediums like the oceans are known as marine species. Zoos and aquariums are the best places for observing these animals and the best place in Sri Lanka to study marine species in captivity, is at the aquarium in the Dehiwala zoo. Diving or snorkeling is the other option, if you want to see them in their natural habitat.  As many of us cannot swim or dive in to the vast oceans and as it is also a specialized technique that needs to be learnt and practiced, the majority has to go to aquariums to study these beautiful animals.
The zoo aquarium is full of freshwater fish. There are lots of endemic fish species that are native to Sri Lanka, which cannot be found anywhere else in the world. This section in the aquarium is the most important and interesting corner to watch. There are other interesting river fish from other parts of the world too that you can observe at the aquarium. Zoolander has previously reported on the aquarium’s freshwater inhabitants - the giant Amazonian fish Arapima, notorious Piranha and the endemic Sri Lankan fish Pathirana Salaya. There are other  interesting fresh water fish swimming in lit-up tanks, placed in darkened passages.
The aquarium is also home to many varieties of marine fish. Those who are associated with corals are the most beautiful of them. Can you recall the Moray eel that Zoolander reported on sometime back? It’s an interesting creature found in coral habitats. On a visit to the Dehiwala zoo, one can observe many such aquatic creatures in the aquarium.
Whales and Dolphins are the most popular aquatic mammals, but none of them can be seen in captivity in Sri Lanka. However, the Dehiwala zoo is not without a representative of the aquatic mammal family. The performing sea lion is the only aquatic mammal at the Dehiwala zoo and with the daily performances, it is one of the most popular characters, entertaining visitors.
Amphibians are another aquatic form of animals that can live both on water and land and the aquarium still has its corner for frogs.

Fish gills
Have you gone to the fish market to buy fish? Or have you seen the fish on the kitchen table ready for cooking? If not, have a look at the head of a small or medium sized fish and you will notice the gills, which are used for breathing by taking oxygen from water. But how do these gills function? Have you ever given a thought to it?
The gills allow fish to absorb oxygen from the water and in the fish they do the work, of lungs. In lungs, blood in tubes flow near the surface of tiny air sacks, oxygen transfuses from the air in the sacks into the blood, and carbon dioxide transfuses from the blood to the air in the sacks. A fish’s gills work exactly the same way, except that it is water in the gill structures that handle the transfusion, and are visible dangling in the open water instead of being hidden inside the lungs.
Gills themselves have a car radiator-like appearance. Most fish have 4 gills on each side, consisting of a main bar-like structure that has numerous branches as those found on a tree, and the branches consisting of even smaller branch-like structures. This arrangement of cells allows for a very large surface area when the gills are immersed in water.
Functionally, the mechanism for pumping water over the radiator-like gills seems to vary depending on the species of fish. In general, a fish is able to reduce the pressure in its mouth cavity by lowering the floor of the mouth and widening the outer skin flap that protects the gills, called the operculum. This increase in volume lowers the pressure within the mouth causing the water to rush in. As the fish raises the floor of their mouth, an inward fold of skin forms a valve of sorts which doesn’t allow water to rush out. The pressure is then increased compared to the outside of the mouth and the water is forced through the operculum opening and across the gills.
This wonderful organ, the gill, has allowed fish for millions of years to enjoy the wonder that is underwater basket weaving. The next time you see a fish swimming around you can smile to yourself knowing that they are working much harder than us to breathe.

Fish that can live outside water
If you happen to watch the popular Sinhala TV programme Atapattama, you may have seen a large Gourami fish that comes out of the water and even allows children to cuddle it for about 15 minutes outside water. It became fascinating news and got much publicity. But fish experts say this is not a new phenomena and fish like the Gourami have the ability to live outside water for a longer time as they have another special organ in addition to gills that allows them to absorb atmospheric oxygen. This organ is called a labyrinth organ which acts as a lung helping the fish to breathe in air, allowing labyrinth fish to take in oxygen directly from air, instead of taking it from the water in which they reside with the use of gills. The labyrinth organ helps the inhaled oxygen to be absorbed into the bloodstream. As a result, labyrinth fish can survive for short period of time out of water, as they can inhale the air around them, provided they stay moist.
Labyrinth fish are not born with functional labyrinth organs. The development of the organ is gradual and most labyrinth fish breathe entirely with their gills and develop the labyrinth organs when they grow older as per the experts who studied this fish variety. It is not unique to  Gouramis -- if you remember ZooLander wrote about this special organ, when reporting about the zoo aquarium’s Dino Fish - Arapaima. The Arapaima lives in the Amazon and they too have the labyrinth organ.
Aquatic creatures are very interesting animals, even though we are not as familiar with them as with land animals. The zoo’s aquarium will provide a good opportunity for you to observe these fish. How they breathe underwater, how they swim, how they interact. Why not make a visit to the zoo once again and carefully observe these aquatic marvels and be delighted by them

Interesting facts about fish and other aquatic creatures

1. Sea turtles absorb a lot of salt from the sea water in which they live. They excrete the excess salt from their eyes, which makes them look as though they’re crying.
2. Prehistoric turtles may have weighed as much as 5,000 pounds.
3. As it gets older the cockle just adds another layer to its outer shell. To work out their age you can count the rings on them just like on a tree.
4. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
5. A male angler fish attaches itself to a female and never lets it go. Their vascular systems unite and the male becomes entirely dependent on the female’s blood for nutrition.
6. Beavers can hold their breath for 45 minutes under water.
7. The sailfish is the fastest swimmer, reaching 109 km/h (68 mph).
8. The slowest fish is the sea horse, which moves along at about 0.016 km/h (0.01 mph).
9. The heart of a blue whale is about the size of a small car.
10. The tongue of a blue whale is as long as an elephant.
11. The largest jellyfish ever caught measured 2.3 m (7’6”) across the
belly with a tentacle of 36 m (120 ft) long.
12. Fish and insects do not have eyelids - their eyes are protected
by a hardened lens.
www.whereincity.com

About World Water Day

International World Water Day is held annually on March 22 to focus attention on the importance of fresh water and advocating for the sustainable management of fresh water resources.
An international day to celebrate fresh water was recommended at the 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED). The United Nations General Assembly responded by designating 22 March 1993 as the first World Water Day.
Each year, World Water Day highlights a specific aspect of fresh water. This year’s theme is “water and food security”.

Published on LakbimaNews on 25.03.2012 

Reversed roles in International Women's Day --> Will Male Mantises, Spiders protest for Equal Rights?

A few weeks ago we were all shocked by the news that a new bride had been killed by the groom while on their honeymoon. However to mantises andsome spider species, this kind of thing is rather a fact of life - the male sacrificing its life during courtship to the female partner. In contrast to behaviour in human society, it is not the female that ends up being the victim, but the male.

Human society is male dominant, but in the case of mantises or spiders it is the reverse. The female mantises are many times larger than the male. When the time comes to mate, the male mantis approaches the female carefully. He flaps his wings, sways his abdomen and makes a few circles around the female. Then copulation begins. Leaping on her back, he begins to mate. But this is often the male’s last act. While the male is busy making love to its partner, the female tears off her unwary male’s head. The female mantis eats the head of the still-mating male and then moves on to the rest of his body.

Mantises are formidable predators. They have triangular heads poised on long necks (elongated thorax). Typically green or brown and well camouflaged amongst the greenery in which they live, mantises lie in ambush or patiently stalk their quarry. They use their front legs to snare their prey with reflexes so quick that they are not visible to the naked eye. Their legs are further equipped with spikes for snaring prey and pinning them down.

The Praying Mantises got their name on account of their prominent front legs, which are bent and held together at an angle that suggests the position of prayer. But though they seem cultured and in prayer, the females are by no means virtuous. “If you put a pair together and come back later, you’ll just find the wings of the male and no other evidence he was ever there,” say researchers who investigated this interesting phenomena recognized as sexual cannibalism. Sexual cannibalism has fascinated biologists ever since Darwin. It is not limited to mantises, but is also found in other invertebrates, including spiders, midges and perhaps horned nudibranchs.

Honeymoon widows

This is also the sad fate of male Black Widow spiders. Black widows are notorious spiders identified by the coloured, hourglass-shaped mark on their abdomens and in fact they get their name from their habit of killing the male on first mating, leaving the female a ‘widow’. Female black widows mostly feed on their male partners after mating. The females are bigger than the males and also contain more venom, which is at least three times more potent than that of the males’, research reveals. Thus, even if a male bites the female in self-defence, on being bitten by the female, he would succumb to his death more rapidly and is therefore more likely to be eaten.

In fact the spider’s bite is much feared because its venom is reported to be 15 times stronger than a rattlesnake’s. If a human is bitten, he/she will expereince muscle aches, nausea, and a paralysis of the diaphragm that can make breathing difficult. However, contrary to popular belief, most people who are bitten suffer no serious damage, let alone death. But bites can be fatal to small children, the elderly, or the infirm. Fortunately, fatalities are fairly rare; the spiders are non aggressive and bite only in self-defence, such as when someone accidentally sits on them. So the male black widow doesn’t stand a chance at all, if a female bites it.

To feed, black widows puncture their insect prey with their fangs and administer digestive enzymes to the corpses. By using these enzymes and their gnashing fangs, the spiders liquefy their prey’s bodies and suck up the resulting fluid. These spiders spin large webs in which females suspend a cocoon with hundreds of eggs. The spiderlings disperse soon after they leave their eggs, but the web remains. Black widow spiders also use their webs to ensnare their prey, which are mostly flies, mosquitoes, grasshoppers, beetles and caterpillars. Black widows are comb-footed spiders, which mean they have bristles on their hind legs that they use to cover their prey with silk, once it is trapped. You will be relieved to know black widow spiders are found only in America and Australia.

Some other species of spiders such as the red-backed spider too shows this sexual cannibalism and also the horned nudibranch which is a mollusc which lives on the sea floor. Human scientists who are from male dominant societies still debate on why this kind of strange behaviour evolved in these species. There are several theories and most scientists believe that the voracious appetite of the hungry females lead to the cannibalism. The males are vulnerable at the time of mating and the hungry females don’t waste a chance to change their honeymoon beds to dinner tables. But experiments have also suggested that it is a strategy that females use to select the best fathers for their offspring.

Monogamy to the extreme

In some cases, sexual cannibalism may characterize an extreme form of male monogamous behaviour, in which the male will sacrifice itself to the female. Males may gain reproductive success from being cannibalized by either providing nutrients to the female (indirectly to the offspring), or through enhancing the probability that their sperm will be used to fertilize the female’s eggs.

Some zoologists also propose the theory that males too played a role in the evolution of sexual cannibalism by surrendering themselves to the female. They believe this act of submissiveness increases male reproductive success, as their bodies nourish the mothers of their offspring, raising the odds that those offspring would successfully hatch and grow up to produce their own offspring, thus carrying on the father’s genes. Research has also revealed that cannibalized males father twice as many offspring with a female that mates with other males. In this perspective, it can be considered as the ultimate fatherly sacrifice.

Scientists also say that cannibalism provides the males, extra time to put a plug in a female’s sperm receptacle. Researchers have also made an interesting observation of the orb-weaving spiders where the males suddenly die, as they mate - the male’s death may be a strategy for preventing other males from mating with the female as in death, its sexual organ becomes stuck in the female’s receptacle. Even if she feeds on the rest of his body, the organ remains, preventing further breeding.

It is believed different species could have different reasons for preying on the mating male. Scientific research reveals that all of the above reasons could be true. Whatever the reasons, these male mantises and spiders sacrifice themselves on their honeymoon night. So if human society can dedicate a day to the cause of betterment of the female, then perhaps the males of the mantises and spiders should form a few NGOs, protesting to initiate a day dedicated for males in their society. Don’t you think?

Insects in the Zoological Gardens

Insects conquered the earth before humans, and still are one of the largest groups of animals on earth. There are many interesting insects and many of the modern zoos have a separate section to showcase this amazing world of insects. These insect zoos are in addition to butterfly gardens that are an attraction in many zoological gardens. The insect section of the Malaysia zoo set up recently is a refuge for over 200 species. Mantises, stick insects, tarantula, scorpions, Madagascar’s hissing cockroaches are some of the insects that are the usual attractions and are kept in these insect zoos.

Dehiwala Zoo has a butterfly garden which is still under repair and this also used to have a few leaf insects and stick insects other than butterflies, in its glory days. Let’s hope once the repairs are finished, we will once again get a chance to observe interesting butterflies and other insect

Published on LakbimaNews on 18.03.2011

Scavenger sage-named

The zoo is also home to many interesting raptors: birds that hunt other animals. This week, ZooLander reports about the Brahminy Kite - one of the most common Raptor species in our country, often found abandoned in the zoo -- both in captivity and free ranging.

In ancient India, the Brahmanas were a common sight. Even when the Europeans invaded that country, there were Brahmanas who were dressed in a reddish-brown cloth wrapped around their bodies. The European invaders fought to capture these areas; no sooner things got settled, they started observing the strange new world they had stepped into. They first found the Brahmanas who were meditating in the jungles dressed in reddish-brown clothes. Then came the ornithologists; almost all of them were nature enthusiasts, even military officers and administrators would  spend their  time looking at the sky during their leisure times.  It didn’t take long for these ornithologists to note the reddish-brown patches that soared high in the sky.

Beautiful raptors
Observing more closely, they realized these to be beautiful raptors, with colourful wings, similar in colour to the reddish-brown clothes of the Brahamanas. Legend has it, that it led to this bird of prey being named the Brahaminy Kite. Another theory says that this bird is being treated as a sacred symbol by the Brahmin cast of India, and hence it was named Brahminy Kite.
However, the Brahminy Kite is also considered a contemporary representation of Garuda which is a sacred mythical bird in Hindu legend. Hindus believe Garuda is the vehicle of God Vishnu, and is depicted as having a golden body of a strong man, a white face, red wings, and an eagle’s beak -- complete with a crown on its head which are most of the characteristics of the Brahminy Kite. The Garuda, the ancient deity, is said to be a massive bird that is even large enough to block out the sun.
No matter how the bird got its name, Brahminy Kite is a beautiful bird which has a  distinctive and contrastingly coloured reddish-brown or chestnut coloured plumage, a white head and breast, with black wing tips. The juveniles are brownier when young, but acquire the normal coloration no sooner they reach adulthood.
Brahminy Kite is a master of adaptation that has managed to adjust to the changes in the environment and survived even in busy populated cities such as Colombo. Today, Brahminy Kite is the only medium sized raptor one can observe in the city of Colombo. Its secret also lies in its feeding habit being primarily a hunter; but it can also survive by scavenging and birds commonly found in large numbers, in mass waste dumping sites.

Brahminy in the Zoo
Right - you can see them in the sky flying at a distance. “But where can I see a Brahminy Kite closer... or where will I get a chance to go so close and touch one of these majestic birds..?” you may ruminate. Without any hesitation, ZooLander recommends that you visit the Dehiwala Zoo to have a closer encounter with the Brahminy Kite...
The Brahminy Kite enclosure is located at a far corner of the Zoo. There are a couple of Brahminy Kite pairs in this cage and their unmistakable scream -kweeaa or kyeeer, when active, can be heard at a distance.

Kids’ Corner
But at the zoo you can also have a more intimate encounter with a Brahminy kite, if you visited on a week day or on a Saturday,  the ‘Kids’ Corner’. In the zoo, have you noticed that there is an area dedicated to  children..? Known as ‘Kids’ Corner’ this is where some of the tamed animals are taken out and allowed to interact with children, under the guidance of members of the Young Zoologists’ Association. A Brahminy Kite too is also often taken out to this open area in the Kids’ Corner allowing the Zoo visitors and especially kids to have a one on one encounter with the beautiful raptor. Some of the brave kids also dare to touch the eagle and a gentle touch without hurting the bird is allowed. But remember, touching overly can amount to harassment; everyone is advised to careful not be a nuisance to this cute Brahminy          Kite.
Brahminy Kites are not saints as their  names denote, as they actively hunt for prey. They hunt small prey such as fish, crabs, frogs from water and rodents (mouse, squirrels), reptiles on land etc. Scanning and hunting for food using their eagle eyes, the Brahminy Kites forage both over water and land, soaring 20-50m above the surface. When they spot prey, they descend fast and snatch the prey using their sharp talons. Brahminy Kites don’t dive into the water, but can skilfully pick the fish that come onto the surface unaware of the danger lurking in the sky. They eat their food on the wings. However, in the zoo they do not need to kill animals as they get a free meal everyday. Brahminy Kites in the zoo are usually given a fish diet.

Major scavenger in the city
However, as mentioned earlier, the Brahminy Kite is also a major scavenger in the city, garbage dumps being their favourite ‘restaurants’, a habit which has helped them survive even in populated areas. In Colombo, too, you can find a number of Brahminy Kites near garbage dumps. Sometimes over 30 Brahminy Kites can be seen hovering above, looking down to pick carrion  or an unwary mouse that comes to feed on the dump. In natural areas, it is said that the Brahminy prefer mud flats.

Brahminy Kites are also aerial acrobats, mate on or near the nest, its breeding season in South Asia being from December to April. The Brahminy Kites build bowl shaped nests, usually on top of large trees. Both parents take part in nest building, using small branches and sticks, lining the nest with leaves. They like to build the nests closer to a good food source, such as a water body where they can catch fish in abundance to feed the young -- or a good dumping ground where they can scavenge easily. Brahminy Kite eggs are dull white or bluish-white and are oval shaped. Brahminy mothers often lay a clutch of two eggs. The mother Kite has to incubate these eggs for about a month and both parents take part in feeding the hungry fledglings.
Juvenile Brahminy Kites have a different plumage often displaying a uniformly dark brown plumage, white parts streaked with buff. In flight a pale patch at base of primaries is seen and it is difficult to distinguish these juveniles, from the Black Kites (which have square tails) and immature White-bellied Fish Eagles.

Brahminy Kites are found in many parts of the world including the Indian Subcontinent, Southeast Asia and Australia. Known as Elang Bondol in Indonesia, the Brahminy Kite is also the official mascot of its capital city, Jakarta. In Australia, the Brahminy Kite is identified as Red-backed Sea-eagle, perhaps because they are not familiar with Brahmanas and do not associate the colour similarities.

Brahminy Kite is not a threatened bird species; however their populations are  declining in some areas. It is their adaptability to city life which gives them a lifeline and helps in their survival. At your next visit to the Zoo, take a closer look at the Brahminy Kites.


Published on LakbimaNews on 11.03.2012

Motherly love of a savage beast

Crocodiles are seen as ruthless killers lurking in the waters ready to attack humans. People also say that they are so ruthless that the mother crocodile even feeds on its young. Are crocs that savage?
Two weeks ago, ZooLander reported about the giant crocodile which was killed because it hunted a man that went near the marsh it lived in. Human-crocodile conflict has existed in many areas, with occasional attacks unfortunately tagging these aquatic reptiles as ruthless man-eaters.
‘Crocodile mothers are so blood thirsty, that they eat their young just as they emerge from the eggs’ is something most people believe. There are many who say they have witnessed croc mothers eating their young. Yet even the most menacing creatures in the animal kingdom usually care for their young. So what made crocodile mothers so ruthless?
There is a saying which goes ‘the eyes don’t lie’, but if you do not observe everything closely, even what your eyes see can be deceiving. It was herpetologists who first observed that crocodiles do not eat their young. Crocodiles being held in captivity helped inmaking this observation. What people see as croc moms trying to eat their young is in fact them carrying them in their mouths to a more secure place.

The young are vulnerable, that’s why they got mommy
Crocodiles usually build their nests on the bank of a river, or near a lake, an area where both land based and water based predators lurk. Though crocs are one of nature’s deadliest animals, their babies are still vulnerable to predation. This gentle act by crocodile mothers most definitely help save the lives of lots of their young for sure. And though they carry their babies in their mouths, they are ever so careful not to bite them. Like a cat moving its cubs to safety by lifting them from the skin of their necks carefully, croc mothers too take extra care not to close their deadly jaws while the babies are inside.
Scientists also believe there is chemical recognition between mother and juveniles, so she can recognize her own offspring and the young crocs also use several types of calls to communicate with the mother crocodile to solicit her protection. However, the young crocs are fair game for other adult crocodiles! The female will try to defend them, but quite a few crocodiles are eaten by larger crocs before they reach maturity. Scientists say this cannibalism actually serves a purpose - when populations are healthy, and there is no need for large numbers of juveniles to enter the population, their mortality is very high. However, if the population is low and needs to recover, the survival rate of the juveniles becomes much higher and many more survive to become adults. It’s a tough life being a crocodile!
This journey into the water, caught between jaws with a series of sharp teeth, would definitely be a memorable first tour in life, for croc babies. But this act is not the only behaviour that shows the gentle, caring side of a crocodile mother.

The importance of temperature
First of all, the crocodile mother ensures her babies get a comfortable bed until they are hatched. Croc mothers usually build a mound from vegetation and mud, and then dig a hole at the top, into which they lay their eggs before covering them over. A clutch of eggs can have as few as 8 eggs and as many as 80. Crocodile eggs take about 85 days, or almost 3 months, to incubate.
There is also amazing findings which say, that the sex of the embryos of the eggs, are decided by the temperature to which they are exposed in the nest. Scientists have found that crocodile embryos do not have sex chromosomes, and unlike humans their sex is not determined genetically, but by temperature. If the eggs are exposed to a temperature of around 31.60C (890F), these eggs will turn in to male crocs while the females are produced at slightly lower and higher temperatures. The decomposing vegetation in the nest mound provides warmth to the eggs, while the mother stays close by, guarding the nest site.
Guarding the nest is not a habit prevalent in other reptiles, which just lay eggs and moves away, leaving the babies to survive on their own. However, unlike other reptiles, crocodile parental care doesn’t stop there. The mother will guard the nest until the eggs are ready to hatch. Then when she hears the babies (called “hatchlings”) calling from within their eggs, she will open the nest and help them come out. Mother crocodiles will sometimes help the babies hatch by gently cracking the eggshells in their mouths.
The baby crocs form a ‘crèche’ - a small group that the mother will defend vigorously. Not a bad mother to have, you might say! Eventually, after several weeks or months, the juvenile crocodiles split up and disperse to try and find their own habitat, saying good bye to their beloved mother that had taken care of them, so very well.

Love even in captivity
There are facilities, similar to zoological gardens, that are specifically made for crocodiles. The most famous one is the Madras Crocodile Bank located in India. However Zoolander also found an interesting research conductede by the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in Florida, USA. They usually separate the eggs once the mother croc lays them in the mound nest, and hatch them in artificial incubators. But when they let a mother take care of its young instead as part of the study process, they reapedsome very interesting results.
They had selected a Siamese crocodile for this experiment in the year 2000. One week after the eggs were laid, the zoo based researchers gently opened the top of the nest and checked the condition of the eggs. After they allowed the eggs to hatch naturally, one morning 7 weeks later, they had noticed the mother croc lying on top of the nest. Her head was cocked sideways, seemingly listening.  After the lapse of an hour the hatchlings began coming out of the nest. As the zoo researchers watched, the female slowly used her front legs to pull dirt away from the top of the nest. When she uncovered a hatchling, she gently picked it up in her mouth and carried it to the water.  If she uncovered an egg that was not yet hatched, she gently broke the egg with her mouth, scooped up the baby and again carried it to the water. Sometimes the hatchlings were still attached to the egg by their yolk and both baby and egg would be carried to the water.  One little guy had quite a struggle - the egg he was attached to started to fill up with water and began to drag him under.  He was pulled partially under water before he managed to wiggle his way free.
All this goes to prove that zoos too can be used easily, to research the behaviour of animals. The Colombo zoo too, will soon provide many opportunities to study the behaviour of the animals in captivity, with the aim of relating these behaviours to animals in the wild.  Research, in fact, opens our eyes to the real situation, as in the case of crocodiles.
Many of us believed that crocodiles were just ruthless blood thirsty man-eaters, but they are as gentle as human moms, when it comes to parental care. True, they are dangerous animals in their territories, but let’s not make outcasts of them and have a grudge and kill them whenever a crocodile is sighted.

Published on LakbimaNews on 04.03.2012