Chirps of a Forest Bird

ಇವತ್ತು ದೀಪಾವಳಿ ರಜೆಗೆಂದು ಮನೆಗೆ ಬಂದಾಗ , ಮನೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಎರಡು ಮೂರು ಸೌಂಡ್ ರೆಕಾರ್ಡರ್ ಗಳು ಬಂದು ಕುಳಿತಿದ್ದವು.  ಅವು ಏಕೆ ಬಂದಿದೆ ಎಂದು  ಕುತೂಹಲದಿಂದ ಕೇಳಿದಾಗ,ಈ ಉಪಕರಣಗಳನ್ನು ಜೀವ ವಿಜ್ಞಾನಿ Dr. ಕೆ. ವಿ ಗುರುರಾಜ ಅವರು ಕೊಟ್ಟಿದ್ದು, ಇವು ಕಾಡನ್ನು ಕೇಳುವ  ಹೊಸ ಅಧ್ಯಯನದ  ಪರಿಕರಗಳೆಂದು ಎಂದು ತಿಳಿಯಿತು. ಆದರೆ ಕಾಡು ಕೇಳುವುದೆಂದೆಂದರೆ? ಕಾಡನ್ನು ನೋಡಬಹುದೆ ಹೊರತು, ಕೇಳಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಿಲ್ಲ ಎಂದಲ್ಲವೇ?     ಕೇಳಬಹುದು. ನೀವು ಎರಡು ನಿಮಿಷ ಹೊರಗಿನ ಪರಿಸರಕ್ಕೆ ಕಿವಿಗೊಟ್ಟು  ಕೇಳಿ. ಅದು ಮರುಭೂಮಿಯಾಗಿದ್ದರು ಯಾವುದಾದರೂ ಸದ್ದು ಕೇಳಿಸುತ್ತದೆ. ಅದು ವಾಹನಗಳ ಸದ್ದೇ ಆಗಿರಬಹುದು. ಅಥವಾ ಹಕ್ಕಿಗಳ ಚಿಲಿಪಿಲಿಯೇ ಆಗಿರಬಹುದು. ಅಥವಾ ಎಲೆಗಳೆ ಆಗಿರಬಹುದು. ಇಂತಹ ಸದ್ದುಗಳನ್ನು soundscapes ಎನ್ನುತ್ತಾರೆ.                ಹೀಗೆ ಕಾಡಿನಲ್ಲಿ ಸಿಗುವ ಸದ್ದುಗಳನ್ನು ರೆಕಾರ್ಡ್  ಮಾಡಿ ಅದರ ಮೂಲಕ ಕಾಡನ್ನು ಮತ್ತೊಂದ ದೃಷ್ಟಿಕೋನದಿಂದ ನೋಡಬಹುದದಲ್ಲವೇ? ಇದಕ್ಕೇ ನಾನು ಕಾಡನ್ನು ಕೇಳಬಹುದು ಎಂದಿದ್ದು. ನಾನು ಮೊದಲೊಮ್ಮೆ camera traps ಗಳ ಮೂಲಕ ಕಾಡಿನ ಚಲನವಲನಗಳನ್ನು ಗಮನಿಸುವ ಬಗಗೆ  ಬರೆದಿದ್ದೆ. ಅದು ಕಾಡು ನೋಡುವ ಪರಿ. ಇದು ಕಾಡು ಕೇಳುವ ಪರಿ.  ಕಳೆದ ವಾರವಷ್ಟೆ ಈ  soundscapes  ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಓದಿ...

  How do leaves have a specific pattern? Why does lighting appears in a specific shapes which looks like tree branches ? (at least it looked like that to me :P) Why do succulents looks like a geometry diagram? Well, it’s all science. These are called Fractals. Now, what exactly are fractals? According to Encyclopedia of Britannica, ” Fractal , in mathematics, any of a class of complex geometric shapes that commonly have fractional dimension”. In other words, Fractals are the repeated patterns.They can be found anywhere. From lightings to leaves, these are present. And as the encyclopedia said, it is a part of Maths – which is a great example for how maths can be applied in our day-to-day life. Of course, they can be found in every part of the science, from astronomy to computer science. But I’ll talk about fractals in nature today. Back in 1918, a mathematician called Felix Hausdorff introduced this concept. We can find these almost anywhere. Look at a tree. The branches have ...

  It was back in my 4th grade. I was walking back from school. Suddenly a flock of different birds passed over my head shouting loudly. There were 2-3 woodpeckers, bee-eaters, and 4 other types of birds. I wondered, how birds of different species can become a flock… They weren’t fighting at all. Instead, they were flying and resting on trees for some seconds and flying again. After I reached home, I asked my father about it. He said it was called mixed hunting. A (rowdy) bird called Drongo chased all these birds and created a group of various birds and hunted with them! For the 9-year-old me, Drongo was a dominating bird who is rude to other birds… But now, these drongos are my favorite. Especially racket-tailed drongo – which has long tail streamers and ivory black feathers. After learning about group hunting, I read several books and articles about drongos which made me see them as villains of the bird society. These birds are extremely clever. They can mimic other birds’ calls a...

  You might be wondering why this banyan tree is talking. Well, because it is time to talk. I’ve been in this world for almost 200 years. I was born in the Asiatic cholera pandemic time. And now I am dying in the time of covid pandemic time. Between these two pandemics, I’ve seen amazing changes. I’ve been the witness to many historical incidents. I’ve seen your growth, your developments, disruptions, your success, and your failures… Ah, it feels like, yesterday, you humans invented your first airplanes. But now, thousands of planes fly over my head every day. When I was born, this place was a complete forest. I had so many friends to talk with. Now, I’m alone. Around me, there are shops, malls, and huge buildings. It was just yesterday, you were arguing whether plants are lives or not. But now, you are developing devices to talk with plants! It feels like yesterday, you people were talking about first space travel. Now, I’m hearing things about living on Mars. You developed very f...

  Since I was a kid, my father used to tell me the stories of camera trapping the wild animals and many of his own experiences with them. I’ve heard tons of stories by him, especially about big cats. In his stories, there was one thing in common – forest officers. When I was 11, a pair of trap cameras came home. We used to fix them in the forest almost every day. Every winter, we find one or two camera trap footages and several leopard pugmarks near our house. My grandmother always tells a lot of stories about leopards killing puppies. The stories of dogs and calves who went missing mysteriously… also with all these stories, Keneth Andreson’s stories about man-eating tigers are always my favorite. My father showed me a lot of videos about camera trapping and tigers and big cats. This is how I started to like big cats. After listning to all the big cat stories, yesterday I watched an amazing movie on amazon prime called ‘Sherni’ which means tigress in Hindi. It mainly revolves aroun...

 ಅದು ಆಗಸ್ಟ್ ತಿಂಗಳಿನ ಸಮಯ. ಅಪ್ಪ ಮತ್ತು ನಾನು ರಾತ್ರಿ ಎಲ್ಲಿಗೋ ಹೋಗಿದ್ದವರು ಮನೆಗೆ ಹಿಂದಿರುಗುತ್ತಿದೆವು. ಕಾಡಿನ ಆ ರಸ್ತೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಅಪ್ಪ  ಇದ್ದಕ್ಕಿದ್ದಂತೆ ಕಾರು ನಿಲ್ಲಿಸಿ ಎಲ್ಲ ಲೈಟ್ ಗಳನ್ನು ಆಫ್ ಮಾಡಿ, ಒಂದು ಮರದ ಬುಡ  ನೋಡುತ್ತಿರಲು ಹೇಳಿದರು. ನನಗೆ ಮೊದಲು ಆ ಮರವನ್ನು ನೋಡಿದಾಗ ಏನೂ ಗೊತ್ತಾಗಲಿಲ್ಲ. ಕೆಲವು ನಿಮಿಷಗಳ ನಂತರ ಅದು  ಹಸಿರು ಬಣ್ಣದಲ್ಲಿ ಹೊಳೆಯಲಾರಂಭಿಸಿತು.ಫೋಟೋ ತೆಗೆಯಲು ಹೋದರೆ ಫ್ಲಾಶ್ ಲೈಟ್  ನ ಬೆಳಕಿಗೆ ಏನೂ ಕಾಣಲೆ ಇಲ್ಲ. ನಂತರ ತಿಳಿದದ್ದೇನೆಂದರೆ ಅದು ಹೊಳೆಯುವ fungus. ಇದು ಮಳೆಗಾಲದಲ್ಲಿ ನಮ್ಮ ಕಾಡುಗಳಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಳೆಯುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂದು.  ಎಷ್ಟು ಆಶ್ಚರ್ಯವಲ್ಲವೇ? ನಾವೆಲ್ಲರೂ bioluminescence ಜೀವಿಗಳ ಬಗ್ಗೆ ಪುಸ್ತಕಗಳಲ್ಲಿಯೋ, ಅಥವಾ ಟಿವಿಯಲ್ಲೊ ನೋಡಿರುತ್ತೇವೆ. bioluminescence ಎಂದರೆ ಜೀವಿಗಳು ನೈಸರ್ಗಿಕವಾಗಿ  ತಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಬೆಳಕನ್ನು ಹೊಮ್ಮಿಸಿಕೊಳ್ಳುವುದು ಎನ್ನಬಹುದು. ಇವು ಸಾಮಾನ್ಯವಾಗಿ ರಾಸಾಯನಿಕ ಕ್ರೀಯೆಯ ಕಾರಣದಿಂದಲೇ ಆಗುತ್ತವೆ. ನಾವೆಲ್ಲರೂ ಮಿಂಚುಹುಳ (firefly )ಗಳನ್ನು ನೋಡಿರುತ್ತೇವೆ. ಕೆಲವು ಜೆಲ್ಲಿ ಫಿಶ್ಗಳು, ಸಮುದ್ರ ಜೀವಿಗಳು ಸಹ ಇದನ್ನು ಬಳಸುತ್ತವೆ. ಅವು ತಮ್ಮ  ಸಂಗಾತಿಯ ಹುಡುಕಾಟಕಾಗಿಯೇನೋ ಈ ಗುಣವನ್ನು ಬೆಳೆಸಿಕೊಂಡಿವೆ. ಆದರೆ ಈ fungi ಗಳು? ಇವಕ್ಕೆ ಅಂತಹ ಯಾವುದೇ ಕೆಲಸವಿಲ್ಲ. ವಿಕಾಸವಾದದ ಪ್ರಕಾರ  ಇವು ಈ ರೀತಿ...

  25th May, 2050 ”Why Areca nuts in our farms aren’t growing ?” I asked. ”I don’t know..” My big brother, Mahesh sighed. I am Mira , a 9 year old girl from the farming background. But now, me and my 3 friends were wondering why there no enough crops in their farms. From last year. the whole area didn’t had enough crops to feed on. What happened? ”Let’s find out! Let’s go and ask someone” Ramu suggested. He seemed pretty excited. ”What are you going ask anyway?” Chaitra asked, crossing her arms. ”Let us see what they say” Mahesh said. Chaitra nodded. We all went to find the best person to answer – our grandmother. After searching for a while, we finally found her! You know where she is? Near the Mango tree! But this year, we don’t have any mangoes. There are three other people with her. They looked like they were some officers. What she’s doing there anyway? ”Grandma?” Chaitra called. Grandma turned at us. The officer-looking people turned too. What they are doing here? ”What are yo...

  I am a whale. A completely normal baby blue whale.And I am here to tell my story. Well, our kind is known to be the biggest mamal on the earth. No matter how big we are in size, we are not living happily. Once upon a time, there were many whales in the ocean. Not now. I see my friends getting killed every day. I don’t know when it’s my turn. My mother died last month, she ate some wierd-algae-like-things( I heard it is called plastic), thinking of food and died. I am lonely now. I heard that another blue whale which lived far.. far away from here, was hunted by humans. illustration by  Yulia Ivashchuk  , dribble One day, when I was very small, I saw a little sea turtle eating a piece of plastic. A week after it was dies. Why this plastic is coming to oceans and killing us? Is plastic is a monster? I’ve seen humans dumping it into the ocean. These days, all the marine animals are dying. My mother always use to tell me ”Never swim near the humans” and when I didn’t obyed ...

''ನಿಮ್ಮನೆ ಹತ್ರ ಮಳೆ ಶುರುವಾತ? ನಂಗಳ ಬದಿಗೆ ಈಗಲೇ ಶುರು ಆಗೋಜು. ಹಪ್ಪಳ ಇನ್ನೂ ಒಣಗಿತ್ತಿಲ್ಲೇ, ಈಗಲೇ ಶುರುವಾಗೋತು ಮಳೆ. ''  ಮೊನ್ನೆ ಯಾರೋ ಮನೆಗೆ ಬಂದಾಗ ಹೇಳುತಿದ್ದ ಮಾತುಗಳಿವು. ಹೌದು, ಅದಾಗಲೇ ಮಳೆಗಾಲ ಅನ್ ಅಫೀಷಿಯಲ್ ಆಗಿ ಶುರುವಾಗಿ ಬಿಟ್ಟಿದೆ. ಇದು ಅಸಹಜವೆ ಆದರೂ, ನಮ್ಮಲ್ಲಿ ಮಳೆಗಾಲದ ಸ್ವಾಗತಕ್ಕೆ ಎಲ್ಲಾ ತಯಾರಿ ನಡೆಯುತ್ತಿದ್ದಾಗಲೇ ಮಳೆ ಶುರುವಾಗಿದೆ. ಮಳೆ ಜಿರಲೆ( cicada ) ಗಳ ಸದ್ದು ಸಂಜೆಯಾಗುತ್ತಿದ್ದಂತೆ ಶುರುವಾದರೆ, ಮಳೆಗಾಲ ಶುರುವಾತು ಎಂದರ್ಥ. ಮೊದಲ ಮಳೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ನೆಲ ತೊಯ್ದಾಗ ಬರುವ ಮಣ್ಣಿನ ಸುಗಂಧ (ಇದನ್ನು petrichor ಎನ್ನುತ್ತಾರಂತೆ ).. ಎಲ್ಲವೂ ಚೆನ್ನ.  ಶಾಲೆಗಳು ಈಗ ತೆರೆದಿದ್ದರೆ, ಇಷ್ಟು ಹೊತ್ತಿಗೆ ಹೊಸ ಬ್ಯಾಗ್ , ಪುಸ್ತಕ ಎಂದೆಲ್ಲಾ ಪೇಟೆಗೆ ಓಡಾಟ ಶುರುವಾಗುತ್ತಿತ್ತು. ಜೊತೆಗೆ ರಜೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಕೊಟ್ಟಿದ್ದ ಹೋಂವರ್ಕ್ ಮುಗಿಸುವ ಕೆಲಸವೂ ಶುರುವಾಗಿರುತಿತ್ತೇನೋ. ಆದರೆ ಈ ಬಾರಿ ಅದೇನೂ ಇಲ್ಲವಲ್ಲಾ.  ಮಳೆಗಾಲ ಎಂದರೆ ಕಾಡು ಹೂಗಳ ಸಮಯ. ಈಗ ಸೀತಾಳೆ (orchid ) ಅಥವಾ ಸೀತೆ ದಂಡೆ ಹೂವು ಅರಳುವ ಸಮಯ. ರಾಮಾಯಣದ ಸೀತೆ ವನವಾಸದಲ್ಲಿದ್ದಾಗ ಈ ಹೂವನ್ನು ಮುಡಿದು ಹಾಲು ಕಾಯಿಸಿದ್ದಳು ಎಂದೂ, ಅದಕ್ಕಾಗಿ ಈ ಹೂವಿಗೆ ಹಾಲಿನ ಪರಿಮಳ ಇದೆಯೆಂದು ಕತೆಯಿದೆ. ಶಾಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾವ ತರಗತಿಯ ಬಾಗಿಲಿಗೆ ಹೆಚ್ಚು ಸೀತೆ ದಂಡೆ ಇರುತ್ತದೆ ಎಂದು   ನೋಡುವುದೇ ಖುಷಿ.  ಈ ಸೀತಾಳೆಯಲ್ಲಿಯೇ ಎರಡು ಮ...

When I was little I used to imagine tress teaching to younger tress... Do they? The normal answer is NO. But according to scientists , the answer is YES   But after finishing an amazing book called: Hidden Life of Trees, my all thoughts turned upside down. My science teacher recommended reading this book. One day, I and my father were searching for something else and found that book. We bought that book immediately. It was an amazing read that I couldn't stop reading, even in PE period in school! I've written one about  trees communicating  with each other, in this blog before. But this book not only discusses tree - talks, but it also talks about how do they live in a community, how a tree works!    The author Peter Wollheben is a german forest officer and he wrote this book by his observations in his forest. He also wrote another book called Inner Life of animals in this series. He gives examples by his observations in the deciduous forest.  ...