The beast is us

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Dame Daphne Sheldrick

Dame Daphne Sheldrick

I came to know about Dame Daphne Sheldrick through our book Giant Hearts. She graciously offered to write the preface and I discovered the extent of her work in Africa. I also discovered this picture of her on the web and somehow, this fragile old lady holding a young African elephant that looks absolutely overpowering and affectionate, made me wonder. This is supposed to be, with the Asian elephant, the horrible beast source of conflicts.

Now, if you consider the Greeks and the Turks, the Chinese and the Japanese, the Zulus and the Boers, the English and the French, etc. you see that we humans, are impossible to live with. Elephants are “in conflict” with us because of our inability to co-exist.

Some may say: “but farmers really suffer from elephants.” This is true. But, first remove the illegal settlements and reduce the provocations (like stopping a car near an elephant). And second consider the fact that nothing is done to organize activities at the regional level (like advising farmers on which crop to grow and helping them to shift to a better kind of agriculture). From my experience, when elephants are undisturbed and not attracted by our food, they are calm and peaceful animals. We see them every day crossing the Trust’s property not bothered one bit by our presence (we slowly come indoors), our noise or even low conversations. Not once in two years have I felt threatened.

As many in conservation biology say, the conflict is actually mostly a human – human conflict and not really a human – wildlife conflict. This is true with all of wildlife all over the world. As far as the elephant is concerned, conflict has a lot to do with management. But can we manage biodiversity if we can’t tolerate our neighbor? Can we do it if we don’t want to help the poor farmers?

Jean-Philippe Puyravaud

The road to freedom and speed limits

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Tourists in Bandipur

Tourists in Bandipur

We live near the Masinagudi – Ooty road, coming from Mysore. It is a small road because it crosses protected areas. However, getting out of the jungle on the road, is being caught in a worse type of jungle. During the week, the first vehicle you are likely to encounter is a jeep taxi rushing madly, honking all the way, carrying people who are probably not in a hurry. Your next vehicle will a “vegetable express”, a small truck whose mission in life seems to be providing the Ooty market with unripe material: the speed at which they go prevents any cabbage from reaching maturity. During the weekend, you will meet medium sized buses and SUVs. Which is the most dangerous is difficult to say. Small buses are dangerous by nature because the tourists (who are probably not in a hurry either), need to be offloaded in Ooty for reasons that have been forgotten long ago. Lately, I found that the Toyota Fortuner drivers were particularly bad because, like elephant or tiger experts, they seem to think that the qualities of their pet toy -big, fast, powerful- are transferred to them. They take up the middle of the road, to be skillfully avoided by civilized people.

In spite of the attractive notice boards of the Forest Department: NO parking, NO cooking, NO photography, NO feeding animals, people do just the opposite. Each time we travel to Masinagudi (8 km away), we see a violation of some rules. The speed limit, scantly indicated, is 40 km per hour, to avoid road kills. In an area where tigers seem to be recovering from extinction, no driver is aware that, beyond the speed limit, he can kill a tiger crossing the road. Over speeding is so common that I came to believe that we own the slowest vehicle in the region. People also park their vehicles to picnic the jungle, preferably in front of the NO boards. They leave their trash behind, tease animals and risk their lives. With the present violation of laws, the respective departments can easily earn Rs 1,00,000 per month in fines between Masinagudi and Ooty.

Why being repressive when people need a little bit of freedom (and pay taxes to enjoy the reserves)? With dangerous and at the same time fragile wildlife, there is nothing much to do but apply the law (it is not right now). This brings us to the other part of the question that we must ask as conservation biologists: where are the lucrative infrastructures, activities and locations where people can have a little bit of freedom and fun without creating problems for the environment?

Jean-Philippe Puyravaud

Joy of discovery – Material physics

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Large (African) elephant collider. Thanks Martin Colbeck!

Large (African) elephant collider. Thanks Martin Colbeck!

Even though we belong to this narrow field of conservation biology, we have an eye on other sciences, including physics. Not a very knowledgeable eye though, don’t ask for explanations. Our vision is sufficient however to know that when facts falsify theories, revolutions happen. This is exactly what happened to Suchitra Sebastian (the serious scientist of the family), condensed matter physicist at the University of Cambridge. She and her colleagues have discovered that samarium hexaboride behaves both as a conductor and an insulator in a way that is still unexplained by theory. This was the first time ever such an explosive news about the properties of matter occurs so closely to us, prompting us to share the joy of this discovery.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/20150702-paradoxical-crystal-baffles-physicists/

Jean-Philippe Puyravaud

Elephant mortality paper – Article sur la mortalité des éléphants

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Elephant dung with plastics

Elephant dung with plastics

http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.o4332.7436-42

We recently published a paper (link above) on elephant mortality to analyze the causes of elephant mortality in some reserves of the Nilgiris Biosphere Reserve. Poaching has decreased although it remains a threat, but others such as disease, accidents and “unknown” causes of death are on the rise. The “unknown” cause of death is the second highest after poaching over thirty years and is increasing. Why is that so? All causes of death may not be identifiable when carcasses are highly decomposed. But then, if detection is becoming better, missing the cause of death because of decomposition should decrease. Because of this paradox all efforts should be made to identify better the cause of death and if impossible (in case of advanced decomposition), it should be mentioned in the databases. Plastics, that are so widespread in the reserves, could be an increasing cause of mortality by intestinal blockage and nothing is seriously done to address this pollution. However tedious it may be, some dissection and/or collection of samples should be performed, because “unknown” should not become equivalent to “concealed“. Moreover, database maintenance could easily be improved and made available to the public.

Nous avons récemment publié un article (lien ci-dessus) analysant les causes de la mortalité chez les éléphants dans des réserves de la Réserve de Biosphère des Nilgiris. Nous montrons que le braconnage a baissé, bien que restant une menace, alors que d’autres, tels que les maladies, accidents et causes ‘inconnues’ augmentent. Les causes ‘inconnues’ sont les plus importantes après le braconnage sur environ trente ans et cette catégorie augmente en importance. Pourquoi ? Toutes les causes de mortalité ne peuvent pas être identifiées en cas de décomposition avancée. Mais si la détection s’améliore, le fait de ne pas reconnaître la cause de la mort devrait diminuer. A cause de ce paradoxe, il faut faire au mieux pour identifier la cause et si impossible (en cas de décomposition), le noter dans la base de données. Les plastiques, tellement répandus dans les réserves, peuvent augmenter la mortalité en provoquant des blocages intestinaux, mais rien de sérieux n’est fait pour adresser cette pollution. Aussi difficile que cela puisse être, il faudrait faire quelques dissections et/ou collecter des échantillons, car ‘inconnu’ ne devrait pas devenir synonyme de ‘caché’. De plus, la maintenance de la base de données pourrait aisément être améliorée et disponible pour le public.

Priya Davidar