Dissection
Watched a NaGeo story about frogs having vanished from human vicinity. Those colorful creatures have indeed vanished gradually.
Made me remember how our college lecturer (in PU Biology lab) had slain a frog in the 'frog dissection' class. He had shown us and explained about frog's organs and shown how its heart pumped out even after separating it from the frog's body, to all of us in the batch. It was the same for the other batches of Biology students, as well (one frog said 'bye bye' to its life for each batch of students). He had practically shown and described about the different parts of the frog's anatomy which now I hardly remember ;) poor frog... had to part with its life for literally no use. Perhaps none of us who watched the dissection in the lab that day remember anything about the frog's anatomy now (though one can always look up in some encyclopedia if needed). We also were made to dissect cockroaches... and all that for some 10 marks in Practicals. fancy that! ;)
Wikipedia article cites these reasons for the drastical decline in frog population:
"Pollutants are one cause for this decline, but other culprits include climatic changes, parasitic infestation, introduction of non-indigenous predators/competitors, infectious diseases, and urban encroachment."
can't agree more. The last time I saw some really colorful species of frogs was some 6 years back, in the little tank of the huge park in front of our home in Shimoga. The park had loads of them all around. Go west, towards malnad, and you'll find wide varieties of them in Arecanut fields and the thick vegetation so unique to the malnad region. But, frogs here in Bangalore have been a rarity to spot.
btw, have you seen sparrows in Bangalore anywhere? I've been in Bangalore for past 5 years, but surprisingly, I'm yet to spot a sparrow in Bangalore! Looks like they've all vanished!
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I remember seeing lots of sparrows when I was real young (like in primary school). After that they vanished.
I remember reading somewhere that all over the world as towns become cities, it is the sparrow which gets pushed out and the pigeon which finds a place. This is due to their nesting habits which are enabled/disabled in the new high rises. But, I actually prefer a sparrow to a pigeon any day.
The last time I saw sparrows in Basavanagudi was in the mid-80's. I do remember seeing them in the late 80's in the (then) outskirts such as JP Nagar and Banashankari. The most sparrows I've seen these days are in Foster City, CA!! and near our office building in Alameda, CA.
V.
same here :) I miss the chirping sound of sparrows that greeted lovely mornings in shimoga. Sparrows used to sit in a huge line on the wires in front of the park, chirping around in the pleasant sunlight... which used to be so nice to watch.
The most sparrows I’ve seen these days are in Foster City, CA!! and near our office building in Alameda, CA.
wow! Interesting facts to know about Foster city... A planned city like Chandigarh? (I reckon its much better planned). The most interesting thing to know about it was that it was built on "engineered landfill in the marshes of the San Francisco Bay"
cool!
Foster City is indeed a beautiful place. I haven't been to Chandigarh so I can't compare, but it's not a planned city a la Chandigarh which was initiated by the Government; it started out more as a private layout. Check this out if you are intersted in FC's history
http://www.fostercity.org/community_info/Introduction-to-the-History-of-Foster-City.cfm
The site has photographs so you can judge for yourself how better planned it is :)