Conservation Times Vol 2, No. 1.2: April-June 2021 Honouring Nature Conservation BEARS ENTERING HOUSE IN ZANSKAR What feeling will it cause..? Kirti Chavan, Conservationist--Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust (SLC-IT) Email:
[email protected] A bear-proof box being placed inside a house in Zanskar could be because humans in general do not expect complex cognitive behaviour from animals. Aristotle's idea of Scala Naturae or the natural ladder of all matter and life, places humans above everything living and nonliving, but primatologist Frans de Waal thinks otherwise. Although intelligence in chimps and dolphins is somewhat widely accepted, many of us are still awestruck when we come across incidents that bring out animal intelligence. Tool-using behaviour: Incidents such as elephants in Assam, checking the Bears entering houses in Zanskar, what feeling will it cause.... current flow on an electrical fence and eventually, figuring out the spot where Zanskar in North Indian Himalayan enclosure and killed a sheep. The the current is the weakest, and breaking heights outlines Bears' intelligent commotion alerted the villagers, and its way through the fence. Or an behavioural traits in face of humans, within minutes a mob of people incident such as in Bangalore, where an a new insight – Editors encircled the livestock enclosure. What Indian Pond Heron was seen using happened next was, as he described, a pieces of bread as bait to catch fish. One of the most curious stories I have pure spectacle. Unable to climb out of Animals are very smart when they need heard as a conservation scientist based the enclosure, the bear started grabbing to do things to survive, says de Waal.