BEARS ENTERING HOUSE in ZANSKAR What Feeling Will It Cause..? Kirti Chavan, Conservationist--Snow Leopard Conservancy India Trust (SLC-IT) Email: [email protected]
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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. in the Himalayas has come from a sheep and goats that were running The tool-using behaviour in non- village called Abran, located in Stod helter-skelter inside the enclosure. It human species gets the most eyeballs Valley. This particular village reported stacked the sheep one on top of the because according to science, such the highest number of house break-ins other, eventually building a platform behaviour shows physical intelligence, by bears in Zanskar. The village that was high enough for the bear to motor-learning skills and behavioural headman narrated an incident about a climb out of the enclosure. Albeit flexibility in a species. These skills are bear that had entered a livestock strange and somewhat entertaining, this commonly seen in primates because of story also demonstrates the bear's their opposable thumb, but it is not This issue is devoted to incredible capacity for problem uncommon for brown bears to use Mountainous Ecosystem. solving, and it is behaviour that has tools. been observed by researchers and bear Hence some interesting items The brown bears are one of the most trainers in many parts of the world. on such habitats and their widely distributed bear species in the wildlife. - Editors Animal intelligence has fascinated the world, although their global range is human mind for a very long time. This shrinking. Their ability to adapt makes Conservation Times 1 them one of the most resilient species with a locking mechanism that can only on the planet. Once found across the be engaged with folding digits, MOUNTAINOUS entire northern hemisphere, brown something that the bears anatomically bears are now locked in small regions lack. The idea was not to challenge ECOLOGY with isolated populations. In India, the bears' intelligence but to rely on it. Anand Mishra, Himalayan brown bear (Ursus arctos Hoping that the bears find the task of isabellinus) is one such threatened breaking into the containers futile and President, TWSI population of brown bears that occurs just not worth their time. Email: [email protected] in the great and the trans-Himalayas. The bear proof food storage containers Mountains have House break-in: In response to climate are still being tested. Five such always inspired change, the Himalayan brown bears are containers have been set up in homes of h u m a n s . S i n c e possibly adopting a new survival people who have reported the highest childhood, we have strategy in the trans-Himalayas. There frequency of break-ins by bears. The been looking at has been an exponential rise in reports people who have received these them with degrees of house break-ins by bears in search of containers have given positive of uncertain images food. For the villagers of Zanskar this is feedback. One of the recipients of the – t o o b i g a n d a new phenomenon that only started container is a tea stall owner, he difficult to scale. My about seven to eight years ago. They reported that a bear tried to open the childhood memories are shadowed by had never seen or heard of bears container, but eventually lost interest the record Tenzing Norgay and coming into the village and breaking and left. Another recipient, a single Edmund Hillary had created by scaling into homes, stealing sugar, rice and woman household, said that she saw a Mt. Everest the first time. Much later I butter. bear enter the house and it did not even learnt greater significance of this bother trying to open the container. The ecosystem as suppliers of almost all Based on a survey conducted by the bear walked around in the kitchen and that we need to survive. Snow Leopard Conservancy India eventually left when it could not find Trust (SLC-IT) in 2018, the people of Mountain lands are characteristically anything to eat. Zanskar claim that the bears enter the scattered but diverse habitats. Barring village in cover of darkness. They are Such field testimony gives a glimpse of some studies on wild mammals, not somehow able to locate homes with hope that we can rely on the much has been attempted on vegetation vulnerable doors, windows or even intelligence of the bear. Hopefully, it aspects of hill systems. Lord Hanuman walls. There have been instances will recondition the bears to eventually is celebrated for having fetched the where, after probing the walls with stop trying to break into homes of “Sanjeevani” herb to revive the breath their forelimbs, the bears were able to people. Or on the downside, the bears of Lakshamn according to the narration find a loose brick, which they may pick other easier targets. in the Indian holy book, Ramanayana. effortlessly removed and started It was believed that the herb would be digging a hole big enough for them to found across the Dronagiri hills, north get inside the house. of Uttarakhan State in India. Several plants have been proposed as possible The bears love to interact with their THE 2021 candidates for the Sanjeevani plant, surroundings, natural or made by including: Selaginella bryopteris, humans. They seem to invariably either LAUREL PRIZE Dendrobium plicatile (synonym find a solution to a problem or figure out Desmotrichum fimbriatum), Cressa that it is probably not worth their time. cretica, and others. A search of ancient We cannot put a cap on the level of IN POETRY texts at Council for Scientific and intelligence in bears or any animals for Industrial Research laboratories did not that matter. It is true they may not be The Laurel Prize has been established as an annual award for reveal any plant that can be definitively capable of designing a diesel engine or confirmed as Sanjeevani. solar powered water pump, but they the best collection of nature or probably are very good at calculating environmental poetry to highlight The largest and highest area of energy cost on tasks they engage in to the climate crisis and raise mountain lands occurs in the meet their essential requirements such awareness of the challenges and Himalaya-Tibet region. The longest as acquiring food. If we put in the right potential solutions at this critical nearly continuous mountain range is steps to mitigate the problem of house point in our planet's life. First prize that along the west coast of the break-ins by bears, by making the will be £5,000. Americas from Alaska in the north to access to food a lot more energy Chile in the south. Other particularly The Laurel Prize will open for intensive, there is a good chance the significant areas of mountain lands submissions 1st January 2021 – bears may become less motivated to include those in Europe (Alps, break-into kitchen stores. According to 16th April 2021. Submissions will Pyrenees), Asia (Caucasus, Urals), a study conducted in southwest be accepted from publishers of New Guinea, New Zealand, and East collections that were published Africa. Colorado, USA, the use of bear-proof th th garbage containers has helped bring between March 16 2020 – 16 April 2021. Biodiversity Science says: It is down human-bear conflicts by 60%. emphasized that the topography of Bear-proof methods: To explore the Like to contact : mountainous areas is the most critical bear-proofing idea, SLC-IT developed [email protected] controlling factor for ecological a bear-proof food storage container structures, functions, and processes. 2 Conservation Times CONSERVATION HIMALAYAS' MISSION HANGRANG VALLEY SNOW LEOPARD CONSERVATION Santosh Kumar Sahoo, Chairman, Conservation Himalayas explored area with paucity of information about the population Email: [email protected] distribution of the snow leopards and their prey base status. Conservation Himalayas began its first ever snow leopard habitat and population exploration in the Hangrang Valley in 2017 with a snow leopard questionnaire survey and human snow- leopard conflict appraisal community meetings to ascertain from the local shepherds about the snow leopard movement, issues relating to cattle depredation by the snow leopard (CHENKU in the local dialect in Hangrang Valley) in the Hangrang valley area.