рдЧрдВрдЧрд╛ рд░рд┐рд╕рд╛рд▓рд╛ рдХрд╛ рдПрдХ рдЧрд░реНрд╡реАрд▓рд╛ рдЬрд╡рд╛рди (1908 Watercolour by Major Alfred Crowdy Lovett. National Army Museum, UK)
Portia spiders are small jumping spiders that belong to the Salticidae family. They are among the most intelligent arthropods because they hunt other hunters. This is possible because Portia spiders are skilled at creating and executing complex hunting strategies. While some spiders wait for prey in their silk webs, Portia spiders are active hunters. They stalk their prey and then pounce on them.
It has been observed that when this spider needs to kill another spider that builds webs, it tricks it by creating vibrations that mimic the struggles of trapped prey. The web-building spider thinks that something is caught in its web and comes out to investigate, giving Portia the opportunity to attack. Moreover, Portia spiders are known to exhibit social behaviors, which is not common among Salticidae spider species. I encountered this spider at Sawai Madhopur (Rajasthan).
Portia spiders are active hunters. They stalk their prey and then pounce on them.
Author sees a cheetah prowling near the camp in search of dogs
Rousselet and Buckie 1882
5
c. 1880
Sind, Rajputana, Punjab, Central, southern, and N.W. India.
Cheetah Reported
Murray, 1884
6
c. 1884
Central, Southern India, north-west from Khandesh through Sind and Rajputana to the Punjab, commonest in Jaipur and Hyderabad (in the Deccan)
Cheetahs reported
Sterndale, 1884
7
1889
Jaipur, Rajasthan
Coursing with Cheetahs
OтАЩshea, 1890
8
1892-93
Alwar, Rajasthan
Tame Cheetahs seen
Gardner, 1895
9
1892
Punjab, Rajputana Central India up to Bengal
Cheetahs reported
Sanyal, 1892
10
c.1907
Central India, Rajputana, Punjab
Cheetahs reported
Lydekker, 1907
11
c.1920
Northern India, Punjab, Rajputana, Central India, Central Provinces, almost upto Bengal
Cheetahs reported
Burke, 1920
12
c.1932
Rajputana, Central India, Central Provinces, Punjab
Cheetahs reported
Alexander & Martin-Leake, 1932
References :-
Divyabhanusinh & R. Kazmi, тАШAsiatic Cheetah┬аAcinonyx jubatus venaticus┬аin India: A Chronology of Extinction and Related ReportтАЩ,┬аJ. Bombay Nat. Hist. Soc┬а116, 2019. doi: 10.17087/jbnhs/2019/v116/141806
V. Sharma & K. Sankhala, тАШVanishing Cats of RajasthanтАЩ, in P. Jackson (ed.),┬аThe Plight of the Cats. Proceedings from the Cat Specialist┬аGroup meeting in Kanha National Park.┬аIUCN Cat Specialist Group, Bougy-Villars, Switzerland, 1984, pp. 117-135.
W. Rice,┬аTiger-Shooting in India: Being an Account of Hunting Experiences on Foot in Rajpootana During the Hot Season, from 1850 to 1854.┬аSmith, Elder & Co., London, 1857.
Divyabhanusinh, The End of a Trail: The Cheetah in India (2nd edn.) Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2002.
Authors:
Dr. Dharmendra Khandal (L)┬аhas worked as a conservation biologist with Tiger Watch – a non-profit organisation based in Ranthambhore, for the last 16 years. He spearheads all anti-poaching, community-based conservation and exploration interventions for the organisation.
Mr. Ishan Dhar (R) is a researcher of political science in a think tank. He has been associated with Tiger Watch’s conservation interventions in his capacity as a member of the board of directors.
Cover photo caption & credit: Human-wildlife conflict is as old as mankind itself. A revealing cave painting from Bundi. (Photo: Dr. Dharmendra Khandal)
According to most experts, it is becoming increasingly evident that human-wildlife conflict is on the rise. Almost every other day, ┬аshocking videos and photographs of tiger attacks proliferate all over the media. There seems to be an overall consensus over the fact that conflict between humans and wildlife is increasing rapidly. However, no one ever bothers to ask that while the numbers of tigers and leopards have come down from the lakhs to the thousands, and with current populations only a meagre 5-10% of their erstwhile numbers, why is there an elevation in human-wildlife conflict? Some answer that given the exponential rise in the population of humans, perhaps the tiger’s prey base has also reduced, hence an increase in attacks. Well, let’s see what historical┬аrecords have to tell┬аus.
Rudyard Kipling, by John Collier, ca.1891. Despite changing times and outlooks, Kipling is still synonymous with the Indian jungle as a result of the popularity of The Jungle Book, adaptations of which continue to be immortalized in film.
One of the more unique historical records of human-wildlife conflict, was found in the town of Bundi in Rajasthan, and it ┬аwas written by none other than the celebrated Victorian era British author and poet, Rudyard Kipling. Kipling was in fact, born in India.┬аHe also received the Nobel Prize for Literature at the relatively young age of 41, and is still the youngest individual to have ever won the prize. Most are familiar with his collection of fictional stories titled “The┬аJungle Book” , centered around a protagonist named Mowgli, and his interactions with different kinds of anthropomorphic wildlife in the central Indian jungle.
Kipling described his observations of the number of victims of tiger attacks recorded in a Bundi dispensary, all the while sparing the reader none of his trademark wit. He wrote that between 1887 -1889, he travelled through many parts of India, including Rajasthan, and whilst walking down a street in Bundi one afternoon, someone suddenly called out to him in “rusty” English, “Come, and see my dispensary”.
Bundi in the present. (Photo: Dr. Dharmendra Khandal)
This came as a bit of a shock to Kipling, for at the time, the only people said to be conversant in English in the whole town were two teachers at a local school. The unprecedented third, was a local doctor who had studied 20 years previously at the Lahore Medical College, and ran a charitable dispensary. However, the good doctor’s proficiency in English was not that of a first language speaker. The doctor proceeded to describe the different kinds of patients that visited him, and how his 16 bed dispensary functioned. According to Kipling, there was a crowd of some 25 -30 people, and he approved of the dispensary. The dispensary’s patient records were also written in English, where none of the ailments were spelled correctly (“Asthama, Numonia, Skindiseas, Dabalaty”), but also contained figures under a rather curious heading, “Loin-bite”. When Kipling asked the doctor what he meant by this, the latter responded in Hindi, “Sher se mara” (Kipling was fluent in Hindi, it was believed to be his first language). Following which Kipling humorously commented, ” it was ‘lion bite’ or tiger, if you insist upon zoological accuracy”. Both tigers, and leopards could have been behind the attacks, the chances of a lion being very slim for obvious reasons.┬аAccording to Kipling, tigers used to injure approximately 3-4 people in Bundi every week.┬аToday, this figure dwarfs the current figure for the entire state of Rajasthan, and bear in mind, this was just a small town.
It appears that as a consequence of the easy availability of cameras, and smartphones, an increasing number of videos and photographs of cases of human-wildlife conflict are rapidly proliferating in the media. Where there are humans and wildlife, conflict is inevitable, ┬аto learn the art of living with it is necessary. Indians, it must be said, know this art relatively well.
Today the jungles of Bundi have become tigerless, but the government is now paying attention to the area, and seeks to prepare it for the tiger’s return.┬аWith the unprecedented success of the adjacent Ranthambore Tiger Reserve, the residents of Bundi have also become aware of the benefits of tourism revenue, and eagerly await new tigers.
References:
Rudyard Kipling. (1899).тАЬThe Comedy of Errors and the Exploitation of Boondi,тАЭ in┬аFrom Sea to Sea; Letters of Travel, vol. 1 (New York: Doubleday & McClure Company), 151.
Authors:
Dr. Dharmendra Khandal (L)┬аhas worked as a conservation biologist with Tiger Watch – a non-profit organisation based in Ranthambhore, for the last 16 years. He spearheads all anti-poaching, community-based conservation and exploration interventions for the organisation.
Mr. Ishan Dhar (R) is a researcher of political science in a think tank. He has been associated with Tiger Watch’s conservation interventions in his capacity as a member of the board of directors.
Cover photo caption & credit: Human-wildlife conflict is as old as mankind itself. A revealing cave painting from Bundi. (Photo: Dr. Dharmendra Khandal)
Dr. Dharmendra Khandal (L)┬аhas worked as a conservation biologist with Tiger Watch – a non-profit organisation based in Ranthambhore, for the last 16 years. He spearheads all anti-poaching, community-based conservation and exploration interventions for the organisation.
