From animal behavioural ecology to conservation ecology...

The lively singing of songbirds at dawn, the exquisite nests of the weaver birds and the leaf cutter ants, and the beautiful murmuration of the starlings in mid-air, has always delighted us, humans. Since my childhood, I have been intrigued by such animal behaviours and have ended up being absolutely amazed by the activities of these tiny organisms. Such a tiny brain and yet so supremely capable of executing great performances-the wonderful behaviours!

In my PhD research, I have investigated the phenomenon of Phoresy which involves hitchhiking of nematodes onto the rider-the fig wasps. Exploring the hitchhiking behaviour of nematodes , has been a beautiful journey for me as I got the opportunity to enter into their worlds filled with chemicals. Today, as an ethologist, I have realized the importance of studying animal behaviors, especially in today’s world of changing climatic conditions due to global warming and in the current fragmented landscapes that has pushed several animal species to extinction.

Local and global changes in the habitat through introduction of alien species, over-hunting, habitat fragmentation, air and water pollution, can alter the animal behaviours and inflict serious damage on the ecosystem functioning and on the trophic cascades.  The conversion of forest lands into agricultural lands to feed the exponentially growing human population, reduces the natural niches of the animals and thereby, could change their behaviours drastically with time.

We all love to stay in cities with better facilities for leading more comfortable lives. Thus, the transformation of the villages, towns to extravagant cities have been rampant. However, this phenomena of urbanization has had severe impacts on the behaviour of animals. The bower birds have been found to use blue plastic straws, that they collect from their urban landscapes,  to decorate their nests to attract mates. Similar behavioral changes can be expected to become frequent with the increasing levels of human intervention.

Climate change has changed the movement of the migrating birds. The night’s artificial lights have affected the nocturnal courtship behaviour of fireflies , reducing the firefly population numbers. Therefore, nature conservationists and science policy makers, should make their conservation plans and strategies for land-use management, after considering, the animal behavioural changes occurring in the landscape.  If not, then our future generations would grow up listening to tales of beautiful behaviours of several animals that would be extinct in their era!

#nature_beauty #animal_behaviour