The octopus who knew too much

With the FIFA World Cup 2010 about to reach its climax, the whole world (of humans) waits with bated breath to find out the new champions. But the oracle octopus Paul seems to know it all. Here's a cartoon I sketched to depict the situation.

By the way, Paul tips Spain to lift the cup. I couldn't be happier if he's proven right :-)
Viva Espana!

A few quick facts on birds

"I realized that If I had to choose,

I would rather have birds than airplanes"

- Charles Lindbergh (1902-1974),

Interview shortly before his death, 1974

Here's a compilation of a few quick facts about birds. I got to know about most of them through Mr. Harish Bhat's talk yesterday.

• Total number of bird species in the world today = 8600
• Number of bird species found in India = 1200
• Number of bird species found in Karnataka = 525
• Number of bird species found in IISc campus = 120
• Number of bird species endemic to the Western Ghats = 14

A Pelican can carry upto five kilograms of fish plus two litres of water in the pouch under its beak.

 There are no parrots in India! What we commonly refer to as parrots are actually parakeets.

A couple of vultures reside on the IISc main building.

Many bird species migrate in V-shaped formations so that it is

 easier to cut through the air.

The Great Indian Bustard is an endangered species today with less than 400 of them left in India (out of which 10 are in Karnataka). There was a time in the mid 20th century when we had 15000 of them. A peculiar aspect about this bird is that it requires a 'runway' of about 50 metres before it can hurl itself into the air! The chief reasons behind its dwindling numbers are three-fold - poaching by man, predation by wolves, and slow reproduction (a female lays only one egg an year)

National Wildlife Week Celebrations

2-8 October, 2008 was the National Wildlife Week. Here at CEDT, we celebrated it in our own little way. On Wednesday, 8th October, we had a series of interesting talks and presentations that had the auditorium bursting at the seams. Professor Raman Sukumar, Chairman, Centre for Ecological Sciences (CES), IISc talked about the forest cover of India and the issue of forest fragmentation that is a major threat to many wild species. He shed light on the historical, social, cultural and ecological perspectives pertaining to wildlife conservation and human-animal conflict. He then went on to answer several thoughtful querries from the inquisitive audience. 

Professor Sukumar's talk was followed by an intriguing presentation by renowned wildlife photographer, Kalyan Varma. Through a collection of exquisite photographs, he narrated an absorbing story about the huge impact that something as trivial as a cup of tea could have on wildlife habitat destruction. The idea was reminiscent of the butterfly effect.

Next we had a PhD graduate from CES, Natasha Mhatre giving a preview of her book, Secret Lives. The book is about the highly diverse - yet little-known - wildlife present inside the IISc campus. It will be published by IISc press and shall be released during the IISc centenary conference to be held in december. She then showed a documentary titled "Snakes in the city" which vividly depicted all the twelve species of snakes found in campus. One can have a look at the wildlife at IISc, as captured by Natasha through her lenses, on the following link: 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/natasha_mhatre/sets/72157600163890338/

On Monday, 13th October, we had one more afternoon session in continuation of the National Wildlife Week celebrations. Professor HS Jamadagni, Chairman, CEDT, IISc presented on "CEDT's work on Application of Technology for Conservation". Notable, among other things, was the camera trap project which has met with considerable success. Camera traps are systems that can take pictures of animals in the wild automatically, without requiring the presence of an operator. You can see some of the photographs taken by CEDT's camera traps on the following link: 

http://www.cedt.iisc.ernet.in/index.php?title=Pictures%20Gallery&page=camtrap&pid=7&Cid=4

Mr. Harish Bhat, Ecologist at CES, IISc presented on "Ornithology: a Beautiful Science". He discussed - with colourful anecdotes - about numerous species of birds found in south India. He talked about their peculiar behavioural and migration patterns. 

All in all, the event was an eye-opener of sorts for engineers like me. One thing is for sure. I shall shortly embark on a campus exploration trip to check out the elusive wildlife that exists within. And the outcome of those explorations shall constitute yet another blog post :-)