Tale of 2 Tomistomas

Apologies to all for such a long gap, but April and May (so far) has been a very busy period for me. April began with Croc Bank Docent training program for the 2010 batch on 3^rd and 4^th. A few of the docents couldn’t make it but we are planning a separate training program for them.  This was followed by a TGMP camp from 5^th to 9^th. That was fun.  It is always fun with Gerry Martin around! I guess changing a few things in every workshop keeps it interesting; keeps it alive.

                       


We had a brief staff meeting on the 10^th finalizing almost everything regarding the big upcoming event; Tomistoma transfer from Ahmedabad Zoo! Yep, ‘Godzilla’ was finally coming to Croc Bank. With a big help from Air India, Ahmedabad Zoo and several friends (Prachee and Rishit in particular!), the transfer was a super smooth one. Thanks to all the friends in media, there was great coverage throughout the event in both the cities, Ahmedabad and Chennai. Personally, for me it was a big achievement considering ‘Psycho’ (our male) and ‘Godzilla’ are the only surviving male and female Tomistoma in the country. Also, there was a silent pressure to start conservation breeding of Tomistoma since that is one of our major focuses and there is a need.

Psycho - Tomistoma schlegelii

Tomistoma population in the wild is comparable to Royal Bengal Tigers; under 2400, making them one of the most endangered crocodilians – now extinct in Thailand. But that figure unfortunately doesn't grab a lot of attention. So much depends on the ‘charisma’ factor! Luckily there is an active group of dedicated conservationists working for Tomistoma. Tomistoma Task Force will provide you with more details.

Godzilla’s capture on the morning of 16 April was rather quick. Amazingly she didn’t react much! After experiencing Psycho’s capture to measure and weigh him in early 2009, I had imagined some action with Godzilla. Psycho was snapping, rolling, snapping, pulling the rope, snapping, trying to throw people off his back, snapping… and hence was called ‘Psycho’. He was 11 feet long then and weighed 130 Kilos.

Godzilla was welcomed at Chennai airport by around 25 media people. She was a big star. We quickly loaded her in the truck and she was off to Croc Bank. I stayed with the wooden crate at the back of the truck. The ride was bumpy but lead me to a flashback. Godzilla was one of the first animals that I ever saw! I was a nuisance child forcing my parents (or whoever was baby-sitting) to take me to the zoo almost every day! I was 3 when I saw her first and I remember my parents telling me that I used to spend long time staring in the enclosure. May be I was planning this transfer since then!

Gz in her old enclosure

Considering Ahmedabad my home and Croc Bank my workplace, I was taking Godzilla from my home to my workplace and as per the breeding loan deal, will take back 50% of the babies back to my home. How cool is that!

We reached Croc Bank and I could see at least 32 welcoming hands. Godzilla’s enclosure was all ready. It was only a matter of few minutes and she was let free in her new home. She wasn’t disturbed at all for the rest of the day.

Next day we had an official opening followed by a press conference. Godzilla looked all confused.

Gz in her new enclosure

Everything was different. Huge enclosure with strange substrate and weird looking shade providers. She was experiencing a big vegetated enclosure with soil and leaf litter for the first time in 35 years! We were excited but there were a few doubts. Her age was a big worry. She is 38 already. Will she be able to produce eggs? We hoped for the best.

Introducing her to Psycho is another challenge. It has to be a soft introduction. Both the animals will have to convince us that they are compatible; no love life till then.

They are sharing the same enclosure and the pond within but with a divider keeping them apart. On land and above the water surface on pond, casuarina fencing separates them but allows seeing, hearing and smelling each other. The pond underwater is separated by a wall. The wall has a window with metal bars which allows olfactory senses to work underwater. All thanks to Gerry and Ralf for this idea and it works really great.

Psycho was obviously curious about the intruder. Knowing him, he will kill anything that threatens his territory or will die trying; something not to look forwards to but to be always kept in mind.

Psycho (left) and Gz's (right) first interaction

Fortunately, Psycho was cool with Godzilla. Such a relief! He was in fact showing a lot of interest with no signs of aggression. He would hang out on the same side of the enclosure as she and when she goes underwater, he goes near the underwater window and displays some cool croc communication in forms or short grunts, growls, bubbling, etc. Last week I saw him with his head raised and mouth open. I could see his throat vibrating but no sound! This was probably some sort of subsonic communication. Awesome!

I started from Croc Bank at 03:00 hrs for the airport on the 24^th. I was on my way to Goa to attend the 30^th International Sea Turtle Symposium. This was the first time it was being organized in India; a huge opportunity for Indian biologists / conservationists to network with the rest of the world. The flight was via Mumbai with a 4 hour stopover. Now what can I do in Mumbai?

“Mallika!”

This was perfect. I hadn’t met her in 3 years and she was in Mumbai. It was a brief meet but all worth it.

The symposium was quite a different experience for me. I had never seen so many turtle (marine) conservationists in one place. Met some great personalities like Jack Frazier and Peter Pritchard. Rom, who started Sea turtle conservation in India back in early 70’s, was also around.

Stay arrangement was awesome. I was sharing a room with Dr. Patrick Aust, Croc Bank Director, in Taj Vivanta, Panaji. I was in love with luxury, totally.

On the evening of last day, I was alone in my room when Rom, Janaki and Jack Frazier came over. Patrick had gone for a swim in the awesome rooftop pool. Rom was getting ready for the evening party when Janaki first mentioned about the unfortunate croc attack in the Andamans. The victim was really unlucky as this was the first time ever that a Saltie (Crocodylus porosus) was seen on the beaches of Havelock Island! Sad.

I got back on 30^th late night – straight to bed, only to wake up to a surprise. Ganga, our senior keeper discovered a nest in Godzilla’s enclosure!

"A nest?"

"Nest?"

I really need to check this before I believe it.

Gz's mound nest!

Well, there it was… a mound nest made of raked up fallen leaves, soil, twigs and fallen branches. 2 feet high and around 3 feet wide. She had built a nest! A real freakin’ nest! This was the first time she made one, ever, in all 38 years of her life! That's some real strong instincts. 

This was within 2 weeks of her being at Croc Bank! This is crazy! It is so amazing; how fast they adapt when exposed to a suitable habitat. This was one of the most amazing behaviors I’d ever seen in crocs……until 2 days later, when we found eggs in the nest!

All 12 eggs were perfect in health.

Worried about her productivity? Not any more!

The eggs were obviously infertile since she hasn't mated yet, but I candled each egg carefully with high hopes of reporting parthenogenesis in crocs for the first time. No Damn Luck!

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Trip to Gharial capital

Gavialis gangeticus

The Gharial Gavialis gangeticus is one of the most endangered crocodilians in the world, with less than 200 breeding adults left in the wild. Historically, gharials were found in the river systems of Pakistan, Northern India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Bhutan and Nepal. Now gharials are wiped out everywhere except a few small areas of India and Nepal.

Edward and Derek (I really can’t spell or pronounce their Chinese names!) from the university of Hong Kong reached Croc Bank, late night on 20 February, 2010. They were awarded a fully sponsored field trip by the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation. They were to spend a week at Croc Bank and a week at Croc Bank’s field base in Chambal River Sanctuary, experiencing Croc Bank’s field projects.

So who’s gonna escort them to Chambal..?

Yep, me! :)

We left for the airport at 05:30 in the morning. I didn’t notice we were flying spice jet till I actually took out the e-ticket to acquire boarding pass. It was one of the worst 2 hours and 32 minutes of my life! The legroom was ridiculous. I was using ‘concertina locomotion’ on my way out of Delhi airport!

It was a long drive to Gharaita where our field station is based. We reached at around 7 in the evening. Dark outside. No electricity. Cold. Tripped over a stone and almost got bitten by the sleeping dog!

Anyway, we were waiting for Dr. Jeff Lang and Shailendra Singh, both were on their way back from Etawah. Ravi, the education officer working with the freshwater turtles project did welcome us and offered nice hot tea. Jeff is heading a gharial radio telemetry project (Gharial Conservation Alliance) and Shailendra works with Turtle Survival Alliance. They both arrived in a short while. It was time for dinner by then. We had a nice introductory session with Jeff and Shailendra while having dinner.

“So, where do you guys want to sleep? You have your sleeping bags, right?” asked Jeff.

“Yes we have sleeping bags and we can sleep anywhere. No worries.” I said with a casual smile.

“Ok, we have a couple of cots up on the terrace. We can arrange for one more” said Jeff.

We went up there and whoa! It was COLD. Really cold. People who know me would know how much I hate cold. I realized I’ll look like a chicken if I now say that “Well, maybe I can sleep downstairs. It’s nice and cozy there.” So I was just nodding away with a weird smile. We set up a couple of cots for Edward and Derek. The third cot was covered with Jeff’s gear and I had my fingers crossed. :)

“You can sleep downstairs tonight and maybe we can arrange for a cot here tomorrow. Hope you don’t mind.” announced Jeff.

“Don’t worry Jeff. I’m fine anywhere, really” I said, again casually. But inside my head, I was “YES! Phew.. :)”

It was a rather good night. Nice and cozy in my sleeping bag, which has a 10 deg C comfort level by the way.

Next day started with a breakfast discussion with Jeff. He gave an overview of his project. They have been tracking 10 gharials for over a year now. A lot of interesting findings including habitat preferences, parenting behavior and some intelligent behavior! Jeff mentioned findings about the habitat preference and the main factors influencing it. Female gharials tend to stick around in areas with deep waters during the dry season and nest on the sand bars (raised islands in the river), making sure the babies, when they hatch out, have enough water and food to survive till the rains come. Males choose areas with females and food availability and end up making the same choice as females – deep waters. Same goes with juveniles and sub-adults. Smaller males maintain their distance from the big dominant males, quite naturally. You can very well map out the ‘gharial colonies’ on Chambal River in the dry season. During the monsoons everything changes; Chambal River gets flooded inevitably with high water levels everywhere, flushing out a lot of babies. This is when the gharials move out of the nesting areas. They have also documented a very cool movement pattern of gharials from wet season to dry season to wet season again. They seem to know the area they cruise pretty well. This movement pattern may hint towards their ‘home ranges’ but it is too early to conclude anything. A few more years will reveal a lot more information. Jeff also witnessed parental behavior of a caring father gharial. Jeff was trying to take some good shots of some of the hatchlings when this male appeared out of nowhere and stood guard, protecting the babies.

We also had a chat with the trackers, Pankaj and Anand. Jeff says he’s really fortunate to have these guys as trackers. The best advantage is that they are locals with their village not far from our base. They know the terrain, weather, animals, people and culture; some of the main qualities of a good tracker. They both come from a fishing community and so are well aware of the Chambal river system. I was acting as a translator in the conversation between the students and trackers. I also cleared out some of my queries. It was interesting to know that the local community is amazingly ignorant about the animals. They think Muggers Crocodylus palustris and Gharials are the same species and call them muggers! In spite of them looking and behaving a lot different. In case there’s an attack by a mugger on livestock or humans, gharials are equally blamed as the villagers think they are the same. Plus they see the gharials as major competitors for fish and think that if there are no gharials, there won’t be a protected area and they’ll have easy access to the river and its resources. This shows the extreme importance of educating locals.

Mugger Crocodylus palustris in Chambal

We went gharial watching for the next couple of days with Pankaj and Anand. This was another first for me; seeing gharials in the wild. I must say, these two guys have perfected the tracking business. We carried a big antenna and its smaller cousin, a foldable antenna. Within no time the receiver units were connected to the antennae and the search begun.

Tracking gharials

The first time I got a signal,…. beep beep, beep beep, I was jumpin! Woo hoo! That was awesome! What next? What next? I recalled Jeff saying “After the beeps, we try and observe the animals for 2-3 hours and note everything they do” and that’s exactly what we did. We went down the ravines (yeah exactly like you see in the movie ‘Bandit Queen’) and to the river bank.

Chambal is wild!

The terrain is not easy. It’s usually a few kilometers walk to the observation spots; hot, sweaty, tiring, but worth every step. Chambal is a wild place – ducks, pelicans, cormorants, storks and the best of all and my favorite - the birds of prey. I saw more birds of prey than anywhere else; Ospreys, Bonelli’s eagles, Booted eagles, Steppe eagles, Laggar, Kestrels and a couple that I could not identify.

“…19, 20, 21” Pankaj was counting.

I wondered what he was looking at with his binoculars. I tried to spot the ‘target’ myself.

“F……ish!” there were gharials! 24 at least. That was crazy. I wanted to WOW loudly but was well aware that’ll freak them out. Finally, I got to see gharials in the wild. Awesome!

We sat down looking at the gharials. The trackers took out their field notebooks and started recording location of the gharials, count, activity, sketch of the river and position of gharials, everything. GPS coordinates are also taken. The trackers follow the protocol religiously; pretty impressive.

Life is in slow motion for crocodilians. You can fill up 5 pages in one hour if you’re studying primate behavior, but with crocs you barely fill up half a page in a day.

The croc is basking.

Basking.

Basking.

Still basking.

It ate a fish…………………….. no it didn’t.

Went in water. Can’t see it anymore.

End of day.

Studying crocs, not easy.

So we were enjoying the gharials while our tracker friends were busy taking data. My binoculars occasionally would set a higher angle to spot the distant raptors. I was so happy, almost forgetting about the long walk back. But hey, that’s exciting too.

Leith's sand snake Psammophis leithii. Spotted on our way to the river bank.

Edward and Derek were having a great time taking tons of photos. We were also chatting with the trackers about their experiences with dacoits – the most famous ‘wild life’ of Chambal. It seems it isn’t as bad as it used to be a few years ago, but there are still a few dangerous folks around. The far-famed dacoit queen ‘Phulan Devi’ ruled her territory not far from where we were sitting. Just then Anand pointed a boat at distance. ‘Chambal Safari Lodge’ it read.

“Don’t worry. The gharials won’t get scared. They know the boat” said Pankaj.

I recalled the conversation we had with Jeff. He was talking about the intelligence level of gharials and capability to learn. If it is a survey boat (the boat that was used during their catching when the transmitters were fitted), they vanish underwater even before you see the boat coming. But they have figured out the tourist boats pose no threat and so they are surprisingly tolerant of them, even the babies! They differentiate based on how the boat  looks and sometimes based on how it sounds!

The tourist boat didn't seem to bother the otherwise extremely shy gharial

I told Jeff about the enrichment training that I do with the crocs at Croc Bank and how they can analyze, learn and modify their behavior to get the best results. This could be linked to their behavior in the wild as well. I showed him some of the croc enrichment training videos. “Whoa!” , “Bloody hell..” , “Wow..” , “Wow…“ , wide open eyes,  were some of the expressions. “Man, that is new!” I was happy to hear that from a croc researcher of his caliber. We discussed about this whole new concept of learning capabilities of crocs and how it can be explored more to understand them better. I remembered Ralf mentioning its importance in dealing human-croc conflicts. Jeff encouraged me to document the training sessions as much as I can and well, I’m gonna do it!

Back to the field. Derek pointed out “Is that a Jackal?” No Derek, that’s a WOLF! Wow!  Another first for me, right there, on the opposite bank. I wish I was there on that bank, or may be the wolf on this bank. Feeling blessed with an awesome luck I asked Pankaj “Are there dolphins here?”

“Yes!”

Not long before we spotted a few behind the gharials! Ganges river dolphins! I was thrilled. This just could not get any better. 

It was getting dark now.

“We better leave. Not a safe place after dark.”  announced Pankaj.

I fortunately got my jacket along. It was getting colder as it was getting darker.

“What pugmark is that?” I asked

“Dog?!? ” said Pankaj

“You guys have huge dogs here”

Pankaj came to have a closer look and said “oh these are of Hyena’s”!!!

Striped hyena Hyaena hyaena pugmark

Chambal is awesome. 10/10! I loved it there. By the end of our trip, we saw around 100 gharials of all sizes and a bonus of all the other wildlife. I’d love to go back again, any day (except the winters!). In fact, I just received an email from Samir (Assistant director, Croc Bank) requesting a couple of visits to our base. Man! ain’t I happy!!!

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Siamese Crocodile enrichment training

"Thai" & "Komodo" are real fun to work with!

These are Siamese Crocodiles; fast and bold - a super combination. This is one of my favorite species. I consider them as one of most physically capable crocs. Komodo used to respond same as Thai but you can now see the difference training makes. It is so much easier to manage Komodo now, Phew..

Spectacled Caiman enrichment training

"Johny" is one of the fastest learners.

Johny is an adult Spectacled Caiman, who is also one of the new 'students'! This was my 10th session with him. That's quite impressive considering its only 10sessions x 15 mins = 150 minutes of training work!

American Alligator enrichment training

"Ally" loves her training sessions!



Ally, a 6 year old gator enjoys the enrichment program as much as I do!
This clip shows a small 'sequence' of commands that she loves to do.

Ninja turtles

Psycho is not exactly a decent name for a croc but that’s what I call our male Tomistoma. He never really got along with the female and now I’m trying to get him a new bigger female. May be… he likes big girls! ;)

There are 14 species of crocs here at Croc Bank; around 2200 individuals, and they truly are ‘individuals’. They are all so different; each with a unique personality. They all have their choices, likes and dislikes. Animals in captivity provide such great opportunities to dig deeper into their way of living and observe some really cool behavior. Croc Bank is thus one awesome place. With so many crocs around there’s always something happening; audible communications, gestures, displays, fights to name a few.

Feeding time is always fun. Fun for crocs, fun for us. Especially when you can see the otherwise ‘shy’ crocs so actively feeding/foraging. Most of the crocs are opportunistic feeders. They will eat what they can catch.

The Mugger was faster than the egret this time.

Gharials are different. They are specialist feeders, feeding almost exclusively on fish. They are built for catching fish, though I have documented one instance of a Gharial eating an egret. But that was one freak incident. They’re happier with fish on the menu. That’s why we are able to house the breeding stock of Batagur kachuga and some other turtles with Gharials. But this is not the only species tolerating turtles.

These three species; African Slender-snouted Crocodile Mecistops cataphractus (left), Tomistoma Tomistoma schlegelii (center) and the Gharial Gavialis gangeticus (right) are fairly big, the latter two being one of the largest. But they have never really harmed any of the Melanochelys trijuga (Indian Black Turtle) living (and breeding like rabbits in some!) in the same enclosure. Interestingly, they have one physical characteristic in common. Hmmm.. what could that be? The shape of the snout? Yes! They are all narrow snouted crocs. Gharials have a somewhat delicate snout built to catch fish. So delicate that it may break in a fight! The Slender-snouted Croc and Tomistoma are not restricted to fish only. Small mammals, birds, reptiles (except turtles) are part of their diet, even monkeys in case of Tomistoma! The teeth formation in these species is interesting too. Most of the teeth are sharpish and narrowish, built for ‘catching’, not many for crushing. Same with the jaw muscles. This could probably explain why they are not into turtles. But in spite of this explanation, who would want to challenge the mighty Tomistoma, that too Psycho?!?

I hope these little pirates don’t push their luck too far!

What the f...ish ?

It is finally raining here now. Monsoon is late but I’m happy it is here. More than me, the crocs are happy. The water level had gone down quite a bit in some of the natural ponds. This resulted in some really tensed days for them. They either had to fight for a dip or defend their part of the ‘pool’ from others.  After the rains you can see a kind of a smile on their face! Rain is good for all. We now see tons of tiny toads and frogs all over the place. You've got to be careful or you’ll step on a few on every walk. They are mostly seen doing two things; eating or getting eaten up! Well, that’s life. Everything seems livelier during the rains though.

I was having a cup of hot coffee in my office, which is in the Croc Bank laboratory building, while it was raining outside. It was cozy inside and I was entering some animal data into the system. Just then Akanksha called.

“There are some fishes walking around in pen 10!”

“What???”

“Yeah. They are. You coming?”

I hung up the phone and headed towards the said enclosure. On my way, I was wondering what fish could that be. I recalled we did have some Climbing perches. These are often referred to as Climbing gouramis (Anabantidae). They possess a special structure in their head called labyrinth organ which allows them to breathe atmospheric oxygen. Primarily a freshwater egg-laying fish; often guarding the eggs and young. Unlike the name, they cannot really climb perches, unless of course the perches are laid low. Really low.

They are often kept by fish enthusiasts. They look quite dumb with the large eyes, mostly spending time sitting on the floor and ‘looking’ at you. They are commonly seen gulping air at the water surface.

Climbing perches travel in search of water when their ponds dry up; they walk with jerky movements, supported by the spiny edges of the gill plates and propelled by the fins and tail. But what could stimulate walking during rains when the ponds are full?!?

I reached the enclosure and sure the Climbing perches were WALKING!

“WOW!”

It was just amazing to see them walking. This was the first time ever I saw a fish walking! Well, I have seen mudskippers before but these were walking on proper land, managing their way through hurdles like leaf litter, stones, bricks.. That was so cool! I remembered that when I take groups for guided tours, I always mention about these fishes. We have a few in Batagur dhongoka and Lissemys punctata exhibits. I tell the group things that I was told about this fish but actually seeing them walking is just another thing.

About 10-15 were out of the water and were walking on the inner side of the enclosure boundary wall. I spent of some time there wondering why are they walking out of water now? I went back to my office as it started raining hard again. After about 20 minutes, Akanksha came to my office with a big smile on her face.

“At least over a 100 were out walking when it was raining heavily! Many are still out.”

Fortunately the rain halted for a while now. I ran out with the camera.

“What the f…ish?!?”

So many of them were walking around, in a straight line! Oh that was crazy! They all came out from one end of the pond and walked for almost the entire distance of the enclosure wall inner periphery. A m a z i n g stamina I'd say! They were following the wall and that’s a long distance considering the size of the enclosure. People who've been here would know. This is Rambo’s enclosure, opposite director’s house. I managed to take the following video before it started raining again.

I still kept on wondering what would make them walk during the rains? In fact they were more active when it was raining really heavily! I noticed one thing this time. There were small puddles along the wall. The fishes would walk to the puddle, halt completely submerging themselves in the little available water, till many of them gathered in the same pool; then they would start walking again. I came to this probable conclusion.[Please note that this is my little theory.  This is what I think.]. With so many of them in the same pond, there must be tough competition for everything including food. So if a water body reaches its carrying capacity, they probably disperse to newer water bodies and populate them. This also means population expansion of the species; one of the main evolutionary goals. Distance from one big water body to another is not fixed. The fish doesn’t know if the distance is long or short. If short, no problem, but if long, the small puddles during the rains provide best pit stops! Plus they are not continuously exposed to predators. Cool thinking!

But wait a minute, I read that they usually walk out under the cover of darkness, but our fishes were walking during the day time! Another mystery to solve, eh? This becomes a bit more complicated especially when there are a few hundred egrets sitting on trees above the pond! Walking in daylight would be just dumb, right? But hey, no predator is active when it is pouring. Wow! How did the fishes figure that out?

Ahmedabad's favorite bloodsport

Bird life of Ahmedabad city is impressive. My checklist of rehabilitated birds is of 126 species; all from in and around Ahmedabad. People visiting from other places often get amazed by the diversity of birds that are now part of the ‘urban environment’. But by bad luck, this city also becomes a death trap for thousands of birds every year. Yes, I am talking about the Mass Bird-Killing Sport, also known as Uttarayan – The Kite Flying Festival (14 & 15 January). This is the worst time of the year for resident birds, the critically endangered White-Rumped Vultures topping the list. About 25% of the total Vulture population of city either die or is grounded for life, every year. 

This Vulture ran out of blood before reaching the hospital. The impact of crashing into tar road tore its crop.

This is one of our most 'important' birds. What a shame.

Also, this is the time when many of the species including Vultures have young ones in nests. This means if the parents die, the babies will too. More bad news. This is the winter migration time and Ahmedabad falls in the migration route. We have done immense awareness and education though various medium regarding the same. Almost everybody in Ahmedabad knows what exactly happens during ‘Uttarayan’ yet a very small percentage have shown concern and stopped participating in the sport. For the rest, the entertainment value is far greater than anything else. In this case, Uttarayan is nothing less than a free bird-hunting season; a cold-blooded sport with no restrictions. For those who have no clue what I am talking about, please go through the presentation below. I had made this a few years back with the aim of sensitizing Amdavadis, but I seem to have failed.

I don’t think we need anything more than plain common sense to make the decision.