ADAM'S ANIMAL STORIES
Adam's Animal Stories - News
[The following story is reprinted here from The Times of India newspaper, Mumbai India, October, 2002]
Ahmedabad: Antoli village in Vadodara has been witness to a special bond. One that defies logic. What makes it special is the fact that the lead players in this love story are a leopard and a cow.
Sounds uncanny? Ask the people of Antoli, who have been witness to this rendezvous outside the village.
The playfulness of the leopard and fearless love of the cow has changed the villagers. Around midnight, the leopard walks out of the maize crops standing in the adjacent fields into the neighborhood of the farmers. After surveying the surroundings, it walks slowly towards the place where the cow has been tied. The villagers stand transfixed for hours as they watch the spectacle.
As the leopard comes close to the cow, anxiety fills the air. The big cat then slowly rolls over and raises one of its legs, sending the pulse of the villagers shooting up. "The cow's dead," remarks one. But the playmates have other plans.
The big cat only lands its paw gently on the cow's head and makes purring sounds. The cow responds by letting out a soft moo and licking the leopard! Obviously in a playful mood, the leopard sits in front of the cow as if wanting to be cuddled. And both share a quiet but playful time for a few minutes even as the overawed crowd of nearly 100 stares in disbelief. Some are on roof-tops, some stand in the streets and some more are just frozen on their feet.
But soon it's time for separation. The leopard is obviously not very happy with the human presence barely 20 metres away. For, it slowly gets up and makes its way back to the forests.
Trying to explain the strange behaviour, conservator of the forests, H.S. Singh, says, "Sometimes, animal behaviour can get modified. In this case, the leopard has, perhaps, passed the sub-adult stage and lives in a rural area which is not strictly a wild environment." 4-12-2003 EMPANGENI, South Africa (AFP) - The matriarch of a herd of elephants in South
Africa opened a gate with her trunk to free antelopes being held at a camp in
the east of the country. Lawrence Anthony told the SAPA news agency Tuesday
that a private game capture company had rounded up the antelopes at their
camp near Empangeni to relocate them for a breeding programme. The team were
settling in for the night when the herd of 11 elephants approached, he said.
"The herd circled the enclosure while the capture team watched warily,
thinking the herd were after lucerne (alfalfa) being used to feed the
antelope," he said. The herd's matriarch, named Nana, approached the
enclosure gates and began tampering with the metal latches holding the gates
closed. She carefully undid all the latches with her trunk, swung the gate
open and stood back with her herd.
"At this stage the onlookers realised this
was not a mission for free food, but actually a rescue," Anthony said. The
herd watched the antelope leave the camp before they walked off into the
night. Ecologist Brendon Whittington-Jones said: "Elephant are naturally
inquisitive -- but this behaviour is certainly most unusual and cannot be
explained in scientific terms."
8-12-2003
New Delhi, Aug. 11: The government is all set to give protection to the country’s revered ‘Gomata’ by introducing a Bill in Parliament during the current session for a nationwide ban on cow slaughter.
A meeting of the Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, on Monday approved a proposal to this effect, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj told reporters after the meeting.
Once the Bill is passed by Parliament, the decision to ban cow slaughter would be “binding” on all States under the seventh schedule of the Constitution, Swaraj said, adding after the enactment of the legislation, the export of beef would also be banned.
The Bill would be brought under Entry 17 of the concurrent list which provides for prevention of cruelty against animals, she said.
Till now, the law was made under Entry 15 of the State list which provided for preservation of animals and States were free to enact legislations in this regard under Article 252(1) of the Constitution, she said.
The draft legislation on the cow slaughter ban was put forward in the Union Cabinet by the Agriculture Ministry, Swaraj added.
She declined to give further details of the Bill, citing the fact that Parliament was in session.
Meanwhile, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh on Monday announced that the State government was seriously considering a proposal to declare cow as the State animal.
He had recently said at a press conference that the proposal to declare cow as the State animal has not been considered by the State government so far.
Parrot's oratory stuns scientists
By Alex Kirby - BBC News Online environment correspondent
Please see the BBC report by clicking here. Published: 2004/01/26 15:27:18 GMT
© BBC MMIV
I saw a documentary this evening on a big crocodile in Lake Tanganyika in Africa. In this, they showed a scene -- the first-ever-filmed -- of a particular ritual of Hippopotami: They carry out a funeral rite, of sorts, huddling around a dead cow and kissing it and licking it gently, tenderly nuzzling it for some time. All at once, they turn their backs to the dead one and they lie down side by side, encircling it, thus preventing the crocodiles from eating. There they remain, with sorrowful expressions, for about two hours, whereupon they all get up and leave.
Amazingly, the dead animal in this case was a water buffalo. A different species!