Matriarch grandmas, aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews: elephants, much like us, have complex social lives. But Asian elephants from southern India could be changing their social lives, to adapt to…
The call of the western hoolock gibbon, a series of whoops, hoots and tones that rise in a crescendo, is background music in the villages of Meghalaya. Mornings begin with this…
This week’s environment and conservation news stories rolled into one. To receive a weekly email with a roundup of our stories, please sign-up to our newsletter. Toxic debate rages on over…
He is the most loved as well as feared among the 521 captive elephants, presently under private ownership in Kerala. So, it was with bated breath that Thrissur, the state’s…
When one species encounters another, also occupying the same habitat, splitting up the resources available can help avoid competition. This is the strategy adopted by gharials and mugger crocodiles in…
Roughness of the terrain is an essential factor driving tiger gene flow in the northern Western Ghats as well as in Central India, finds a new study. Additionally, in both…
With a little over 5,000 people, the small Goan island of Chorao is known for its diversity of birds and dense mangrove vegetation. And nestled among the mangroves is an…
Waterbirds in southern Rajasthan, such as the black-headed ibis prefer not only to roost in rural and relatively undisturbed areas but also in highly disturbed urban sites that are close…
Deserts are harsh ecosystems defined by high daytime temperatures that can dehydrate bodies quickly and low night temperatures that demand warm shelters. Despite the extremes, deserts are sanctuaries to a…
For about a year now, P. O. Nameer and Kiran Thomas have been walking the slopes of Chinnar Wildlife Sanctuary in Kerala looking for a special kind of squirrel. Called…
Imagine your home, a vast open space with gentle hillocks, grassy fields and massive boulders, is slowly encroached upon by a growing city, hungry for land. The hills are levelled,…
The year 2019 is here, and with it there is a general feeling of excitement, which we all feel when something is "new". Before the feeling gets old, let's take…
The plateau of Chalkewadi in the Satara district of Maharashtra is a wide and open landscape. “One can see for miles on end,” says Amod Zambre. In the wee hours…
With forest cover projected to shrink in the elephant landscape of northeast India, conservationists and a handful of growers of the iconic Assam and Darjeeling teas are experimenting with a…
On a wet rainy day in 2014, Kiran Marathe was busy looking for loud, clamorous cicadas hiding in the bushes, in Verlem district in South Goa. Marathe, a young 20-something…
India’s maiden inter-state tiger relocation, from Madhya Pradesh in central India to a tiger reserve in the eastern state of Odisha over 600 km away, has sparked a controversy with…
Termites are often perceived as nightmares in human habitats, devouring wooden structures and ravaging crops and trees. But within their own homes, some of these farmer termites have sneaky tricks…
Consider the common black rat Rattus rattus. Although native to southern India, the black rat, also called a ship rat because of its habit of boarding ships, has been scoring…
Bright blue-and-yellow melon butterflyfish (Chaetodon trifasciatus) that exclusively feed on corals, tweak the way they eat, to survive on bleached reefs of the Lakshadweep archipelago, in the Arabian Sea waters,…
In the famous cartoon series, Yogi Bear and his friend Boo-Boo frequently get into trouble with park rangers for stealing picnic baskets in the fictional setting of Jellystone National Park.…
