Art of recognising animal behaviours
The latest book of Janaki Lenin “Every Creature Has a Story: What Science Reveals about Animal Behaviour” makes an attempt to recognise the random activities of wild creatures which may seem nothing but unconscious and involuntary movements of their organs but these animated peppings may actually be suggestive of their various dispositions. The book features a selection of 50 essays from her column in the online news portal The Wire. Lenin offers an explanation for the diverse and disparate range of creatures featured in it.
Lenin endeavours to reason the activities of motley creatures varying from nightingale, wasps to even the rodents and many other wild critters.
Nightingale songs don’t only say — ‘I’m a King Bee, Baby’, ‘Stay Out of My Territory’, and ‘Won’t You Be My Love’, she writes in the first chapter. The eye of the chameleon makes for fascinating reading. It was intriguing to know that chameleons can actually watch two things at the same time? “Each eye is controlled by the opposite eye of the brain so the brain’s left hemisphere knows what the right eye is doing and the right hemisphere the left.”
A piercing warble of a tiny tailor bird while he struts around the hedge to catch the insects may sound hysterical but it might be a call for mating or a distance encounter with potential predator or a warning to keep the other birds at bay.
Discoveries enlisted by Lenin could help predict how various animals will adapt to climate breakdown and loss of habitat.As all organisms face a trade-off between reproducing and surviving and consequently try to adapt with laws of nature.