ALL ABOUT SPITTING COBRAS

This is indeed a very beautiful snake, belonging to the cobra family. The snake is named so because of its exceptional power to spit venom from far away on the creature, as a sign of WARNING instead of biting it in the first reaction and taking its life.

The snake is able to do so due to the amazing structure of its fangs. The fangs of a spitting cobra have a distinct whole, which is clearly visible under observation. When the snake pressurizes its venom gland, the venom is ejected through these small holes (one present in each fang) the ejection is similar to the spanker that we use. 

 IMAGE: right-spitting cobra ; left- non-spitting cobra

A fully grown adult snake can spit its venom up to a distance of 10ft and that too very accurately.

The snake is famous to attack directly into the eyes of the visible threat, which causes instant temporary blindness, and the snake gets time to escape. If this venom is not washed properly and quickly, it may result in long term suffering of pain, swelling and temporary blindness, and may also cause complete and permanent blindness if not treated within proper time. This is because the venom affects the cornea or the retina, resulting in permanent blindness.

Many varieties of this snake are found in different parts of the word. Spitting cobras may grow up to a length of 8ft.

Spitting cobras support cannibalism, i.e. they feed upon other spitting cobras, they also feed upon small mammals, rodents, lizards, frogs and other snakes.

The most amazing fact about this specie is that some of them give birth to young ones.

The most common threat to these creatures is the GREAT MONITOR LIZARD. As soon as the monitor lizard sees this snake the lizard attacks it, rips it apart with is strong denture and enjoys its meal for the day.

Some of the varieties of spitting cobra are:
*Red spitting cobra

*Mozambique spitting cobra

*Brown spitting cobra: largest of its kind, recorded length 9ft

*Equatorial spitting cobra

The colour of the species may vary from continent to continent like RED, YELLOW, BROWN, BLACK n even PINK.

(IMAGE SOURCE INTERNET)

Tips for meeting a dog for the first time..... :)

 1. Don’t approach the dog. Pretend you are ignoring the dog. Dogs prefer not to be examined by strangers.

2. Always ask the dog’s owner for permission to meet their dog. Assuming they say yes, follow the steps below. Otherwise the dog may get violent, and may attack.

3. Always stay calm, put on an easy smile, or slowly blink your eyelids. Keep your body loose. All these signal to the dog that you are not a threat. If the dog sees u as a threat, it may be dangerous for you.

4. Do not create direct contact with dogs eyes. As by doing this you may seem to be a visible threat to the dog.

5. Turn your body so you are not facing the dog. Again, being face-to-face is polite to most of us, but can signal threat or aggressive intentions to a dog.

6. Do not crouch over the dog. Its threatening to the dog !!

7. Allow the dog to come to you. Most dogs are naturally curious and they will let you know if they are interested in you.

8. If the dog shows interest by sniffing you with a relaxed posture, wagging tail (NOT ALL DOGS WILL WAG AND NOT ALL WAGGING IS FRIENDLY), perhaps looking at you with soft eyes – then you can slowly offer the dog your hand for investigation.

** IT IS SEEN THAT SOME DOGS AND CAT, INCLUDING THE BIG-CATS, WAG THEIR TAIL WHEN PREPARING TO ATTACK. **

9. Let the dog sniff your hand, if he/she wants to, and then gently touch the dog on the shoulder, neck or chest. DO NOT TOUCH OR TAP ON THE HEAD OF THE DOG IN THE FIRST MEET, AS HE SHE MAY GET THREATENED BY THIS ACT OF YOURS.

10. The dog will clearly tell you if he/she wants more interaction or if he/she is finished with you. Listen to him/her.

11. IF AT ANY TIME DURING THE INTERACTION THE DOG BACKS AWAY, STOP WHAT YOU ARE DOING AS THIS INTERACTION MAY GET MUCH WORSE.

SPARROW REHABILITATION REPORT LUCKNOW

The project on Sparrow Rehabiliation was conceived by Sir Arun Krishnamurthy, a passionate environmentalist,  who has been a great source of inspiration for all volunteers. 

The project took place in the grounds of La Martiniere College on the 18th of December, 2011 where volunteers from both La Martiniere Boys’ & Girls’ joined hands to protect the sparrow community. The project work started with the help of sample nests sent by Arun sir from Chennai. He coordinated with the volunteers regarding other requirements that helped our project gain momentum.

The nests that we constructed were made out of scrap wood shafts collected from the school campus.  Narayan Bhaiya  (carpenter at La Martiniere Boys’ ) too, along with the enthusiastic group of boys and girls, had immense fun sawing the wood into the required sizes. The girls especially had a great time drilling holes into the nests, though their slender yet strong hands were vibrating more than the drilling machine itself!

The pieces were then nailed together and the nests were painted in camouflaging green hues to attract birds to habitate in them.

Dr. Denzil John Godin, an ornithologist visited the busy work station and gave valuable insight and information regarding nest building, ornithology[ study of birds], Oology[study of birds’ eggs] and correct usage of binoculars for observing birds. He also showed us his collection of eggs that he has been collecting since his teenage. In his short visit,  Dr. Godin  suggested that we create a group and following his advice,  we created WILD which stands for Working for the Indian Living Diversity and it will work under Arun sir’s group EFI [Environmentalist Foundation of India].

The work resumed after Denzil sir left, with even more zealous and enthusiastic workers.  After constructing a sufficient number of nests, the exhausted group took a refreshing tour round the school and learnt about the rich natural heritage that the campus is so proud of and we are so fond of !!

Various locations have been marked for installing the hand-made nests with the help of Mr. Hamlin and the rest of the WILD group.

The group will meet again in the month of March for giving the final strokes of success to the project.

This report would be selfish without a note of thanksgiving to all the volunteers of this project as well as a few more personalities for their respective contribution in the great work, Miss R. Ali (teacher at La martiniere Girls’ ) for her much needed support,  Mr. A. D. Hamlin (teacher at La martiniere Boys’ ) for his extremely valuable assistance in the group activities, and  though his name has been mentioned so late, Mr. C. A. McFarland (Principal of La martiniere Boys’ ) is the hero without whose support, encouragement and financial assistance, this project could not have existed.

Abhinav Kumar Saxena coordinated the group and its activities, Ayushi Johari designed the logo of the group “WILD” with immense creativity and innovation,  Supriya Swarup gave the group its tag line “Do your bit to nurture the wild, come support WILD”, Radhika Mathur got the “WILD” t-shirts made, Nikhil Keswani , our mechanical engineer (:p), was the expert in machine work, Sagar Kapoor, our official photographer did wonders with his Canon DSLR camera, Hemang Chaturvedi did unbelievable hard work that included monkeying on the trees, Ananya Agarwal donated us wood for the nests, (sparrows should really thank him ) ;)

Parnika Madar, Aakarshika P, Devbhuj Bundela, Samarth Gupta, Shadab Hasan, Rupali Dubey, Umang Agnihotri,  Kane A Bennett, Radhika Sharma, Sohail Afzal, Apoorva Singh,  Akshat Kumar, Mohammad Musab, Nikita Nayak, Devika, Deepan Keswani are also righteous of appreciation for their good work.

Indian Tigers skin flooding blackmarket : TIBET

A disturbing trend in Tibetan communities is driving the illegal tiger and leopard skins trade. In

recent years, Tibetans have been increasingly wearing traditional costumes at their local festivals

that include tiger, leopard and otter skins. The minimal use of tiger and leopard skins on trims of

clothing was once only found in eastern Tibet among a small fraction of the population, but has

now become a fashionable practice among Tibetans from the Tibet Autonomous Region, western

Sichuan, Qinghai, northwest Yunnan and southern Gansu provinces. In Lhasa and other towns in

the Tibetan region, cat skins are openly sold in shops and the mass media is glamorizing Tibetans

wearing wild animal furs in an effort to promote tourism to Tibetan areas. There actions in turn

further driving up demand for skins in Tibetan areas of China.

Nearly 200 tiger skins have been confiscated in China over the past 5 years, coinciding with a rise

in wild tiger poaching in nature reserves in India, Nepal and Southeast Asian countries. Some

experts now put the total number of individual tigers remaining in the wild at between 3,000 and

5,000 individuals.

Through this project, which was generously funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation,

Conservation International (CI) worked with Chinese NGO partners and government agencies to

promote public awareness of the issues surrounding the tiger and leopard skin trade. CI is pleased

to report that we have witnessed a reduction in the use and sale of tiger, leopard and other skins

even within the short time frame that we have been monitoring. CI is one of the few

environmental NGOs that has been working in this region, and our years of work have given us

access to partner with local Tibetan NGOs who are keen to cooperate to reduce and one day

eliminate this problem. CI also attempted to tackle this trade and consumption issue by

increasing the capacity of local communities, NGOs and government agencies. The wildlife trade

is an extremely complex issue; however, in this particular case, the source, transit routes and end

markets are clear, and the Tibetan consumers, who are by nature religious and respectful of all life, were found to be very amenable to stopping their consumption once they understood the

repercussions of their use on wild populations and that purchasing such products was illegal.

Our new member………… :) a PRAYING MANTIS…… :)

Our very own photographer Sagar Kapoor…… has got a new pet…and that too means that we have got a new member in our group….. J

He found this creature in his garden…and he adopted it….. J he has this one with him for 3 to 4 days…the creature is a praying mantis…..……… J

Facts about PRAYING MANTIS:

The praying mantis is named for its prominent front legs, which are bent and held together at an angle that suggests the position of prayer. The larger group of these insects is more properly called the praying mantis. Mantis refers to the genus mantis, to which only some praying mantis belong.

By any name, these fascinating insects are formidable predators. They have triangular heads poised on a long "neck," or elongated thorax. Mantis can turn their heads 180 degrees to scan their surroundings with two large compound eyes and three other simple eyes located between them.

Typically green or brown and well camouflaged on the plants among which they live, mantis lie in ambush or patiently stalk their quarry. They use their front legs to snare their prey with reflexes so quick that they are difficult to see with the naked eye. Their legs are further equipped with spikes for snaring prey and pinning it in place.

Moths, crickets, grasshoppers, flies, and other insects are usually the unfortunate recipients of unwanted mantis attention. However, the insects will also eat others of their own kind. The most famous example of this is the notorious mating behaviour of the adult female, who sometimes eats her mate just after—or even during—mating. Yet this behaviour seems not to deter males from reproduction.

Females regularly lay hundreds of eggs in a small case, and nymphs hatch looking much like tiny versions of their parents.

The one we have with us is probably a Female youngster….. J

Sexual dimorphism

Looking at external differences between males and females

Antennae:

Males generally have longer and thicker antennae than females do. This can be seen most clearly when the mantis is adult, but as the nymph grows to become an adult it steadily develops the longer antennae. When comparing male and female nymphs you see that the female has thin hair-like antennae while the male has thick antennae. Species of the Empusidae family have males with feathered antennae (‘hairy’ antennae) while the females have smooth antennae.

Body size:

Some species have a very clear difference in body size between males and females, for example the Orchid Mantis and the Budwing Mantis. As the mantis nymphs grow, you can start to notice that some nymphs stay behind in size compared to the others. These are the males. When adult the difference is even more obvious as neither of the sexes will grow anymore.

Body type:

Male praying mantises are generally much more slender than female praying mantises. This can be seen especially well when looking at the thorax. Most species have a pronounced widening in this area, for example the shield of the Dead Leaf Mantis (Deroplatys desiccata), and males have a much smaller widening than the females. This effect becomes more and more pronounced as the mantis nymph becomes older.

Length of the wing:

This difference can only be seen in adult mantises. The wings of a male praying mantis are generally longer than those of the females. The wings of the females reach to the end of their body or even do not reach that far, while the wings of the male are never shorter than the body. The wings of the male generally reach past the end of their body, sticking out a bit from the back. This is because male praying mantises will fly to find a mate, while females generally are to heavy to fly.

working with Russel's viper

The creature is simply amazing…and beautiful…… J

This snake was found in the vicinity of La Martiniere College, Lucknow…. And as per my knowledge this was the 6^th in 12 months……found in area…… J

The snake was caught by the workers working at our garden…… J

The snake was just a baby but haan, still dangerous to work with…. Cannot even tell the approximate length, but yes it was small in size…. Mr. C.A. McFarland, our principal called me up that morning….and told me that the workers had found a PYTHON in the garden…. They also took it to the lucknow zoo, but they refused to keep the creature…so firstly thinking that it was a python, we decided to keep the snake with us until it grows to a sufficient length to survive on its own….. J

AS THE PYTHON IS FROM THE FAMILY OF BOA-CONSTRICTORS i.e. THE NON VENOMOUS TYPE… SO THE CREATURE IS AN EASY PRAY OF BIRDS LIKE EAGLES, HAWKS and OWLS etc.
THE SNAKES FROM THE BOA FAMILY KILL THERE PRAY BY CHOCKING IT TO DEATH…..

So we finally decide to keep the snake with us, at school only…….

The snake was kept in a wooden box….with lots of ‘bhusa’ to keep the thing warm… J


SNAKES ARE COLD BLOODED CREATURES SO THEY REQUIRE LOTS OF HEAT TO MAINTAIN THERE BODY TEMPERATURE….

The snake was with us for about 4 days….. I managed to click some pictures of it, as our photographer (:p) was not available at that time…so we were not able to get clear pictures of the snake, but yes we managed to click some… we sent those pictures to some of the biologists for the confirmation of the species….and thank god we did that……….. J

Till time we bought mouse to feed the snake, used to change the grass every day…. Until we realised that it was not a python….

One fine night one of the biologist replied WARNING us that it was a RUSSELL’S VIPER…..

3^rd MOST POISONOUS SNAKE IN INDA…AND ALSO A CREATURE THAT CLAIMS MAXIMUM OF THE SNAKE BIT DEATHS ALL OVER WORLD……

The mail came to me just the night before we were planning to take the snake in our hands and have some measurements of it…… God saved us that day….. none of us was a professional…..none of had a practical knowledge about the work….and god know what would have happened if we had done so….

So the snake was left near the river GOMTI, and was wished a very, very happy future by all the members of WILD…….. J

By the end I managed to hold the creature by its tail….. J and that was really the best experience…… I know I shouldn’t have done that…but the snake was going in the wrong direction…which was harmful for both the snake and the students standing there……

These are some of the last pictures of that snake.....

Working with bats

we do work with different type of creatures........
v have worked with a RUSSEL'S VIPER..........
and now are working with bats.... INDIAN MOUSE TAILED BAT....
this specie is at the LEAST CONCERN just now.....
but as v were working in the area if these creatures so we decide visit there living area.... :)
and i must say these creatures are beautiful....amazing they are.....
the one we were able to catch was a male bat according to me....... the creature had a wing spread of 5 inc. each......
Thanks to one of our member Sagar Kapoor, we were able to get some beautiful pictures of the creatures/

Bats are insectivores.. for caution: beware while handling bats that they are successful carriers of rabies virus.


the creatures live in big groups........and these groups are really big......


the tail of the bat holds the clue of there specie............. :)