Topical

Animal Kingdom

Animal Kingdom

Let me begin by confessing that I am not a pet lover. Probably, the exact opposite. But cats and dogs have their own qualities, especially as a pet. They are especially good companions for lonely people. Everyone understands how to communicate with pets. However, stray cats and dogs are a different kind of fish. They can be quite a nuisance to public at large. However, that is not the topic of discussion here.

Recently Times of India carried couple of articles by two bio-acoustic scientists on how animals communicate with each other and with other species. I have heard the term bio-acoustic scientist, for the first time in my life, which exemplifies my ignorance of the subject. But what I read was really fascinating.

Only the other day I was watching a wild life program on the Discovery channel. Shot in Serengiti, a wild life reserve in Tanzania, which I had visited a few years back, it depicted stories of families of lions, foxes, wild dogs, monkeys and crocodiles among other things. It shows how crocodile lays her eggs in the sand near the river, and how the monkeys try to steal them. The pack of monkeys always has a leader and that leader is selfish, a trait similar to the humans. Generally, monkeys help each other by warning them about the dangers of the jungle. In this case the monkeys steal the eggs for themselves and then their leader arrives. The leader shoes them aways and hogs all the eggs. When the crocodile comes back, it is natural for the monkeys to warn the leader of her arrival. But the pack stays silent, probably resentful of the selfish behaviour of the leader, the crocodile attacks the leader who somehow manages to escape. All this is possible only when there is a communication between the monkeys.

The articles in the Times of India mentions that the communication within the group of monkeys is very complex. They help each other, warn each other of dangers, form groups, even conspire against one another and have a hierarchy of sorts within themselves. They communicate through their calls. Perched on top of the trees, they warn other animals too about presence of a predator in the vicinity.

The story of the crocodile is even more interesting. When her eggs are ready to hatch, the baby crocodile, still in the egg, communicates with the mother that it is ready to come out. The mother crocodile then crunches the egg ever so softly between her teeth and gives birth to the baby.

After moving to Thane, I have been very fortunate to have lot of greenery around my complex. Staying on the sixth floor allows me a panoramic view of my surroundings. The Yeur hills are within a stone’s throw from my place. The morning walks in the Sanjay Gandhi national park is one of the suprem pleasures I have enjoyed ever since moving to Thane.

Being close to the jungle we do get animal visitors occasionally. The other day, there was a monkey sitting in the balcony of our neighbour. It then went into the kitchen of another flat but then left without much ado.

Thane also gets visits of Leopard sometimes. A couple of years ago, one was spotted near the D-mart. One visited the Jupiter hospital also.

I normally wake up to the sparrows chatting with each other rapidly in my balcony. They come to nibble at the plants my wife has cultivated over the years. Sometimes, I wake up to the whistles of Kingfisher sitting in one of the trees.

When I was working, we used to get up around 4.45 in the morning. Sipping a cup of tea in our hall and watching the bird life come to life in the trees in front of our full-length French windows is an experience I will never forget. There is bird population of every kind in these trees. Apart from sparrows, crows, pigeions, we have parrots, kingfishers, sun birds, bulbuls, the mynas, the herons, the white cranes, the kites, Bhardwaj and so many other species I do not recognise. Only yesterday, two white cranes playfully chasing each other in the skies in front of my window was a sight to behold.

My afternoon nap is invariably disturbed by a cacophony of birds of all kinds chatting with each other in high pitch.

It is a common misbelief that parrot talks like human. Parrot only imitates human sound exactly, but does not understand a thing about what it is saying. Did you know parrots in captivity can live as long as fifty years?

The birds communicate with each other through their whistles and songs as the sounds are famously called. It is a very complex communication system which the scientists are trying to decipher. Birds probably devised their communications system even before the sapiens started speaking. So much for the history of humans.

We are now learning how the animals communicate with each other, in times where, sadly, humans are losing out in communicating with each other. Parents to children, spouse to spouse, friends to friends, groups to groups, nations to nations, there is a loss of communication. It is time we took a leaf out of the book of animal kingdom.

18/02/2024