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- Denis Giles
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Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
According to a research study, people lie at least once a day, but even that number is probably a lie. However, humans are not the only species on earth that are capable of deception. You will find as much danger and intrigue in the animal kingdom as in a Tarantino film. Many primates, especially the common chimpanzee, display the ability to deceive in order to gain competitive advantage. Such acts range from the simple, as in a chimpanzee deliberately leading his troop away from a hidden food stash, to the relatively complex, like a subordinate chimpanzee exploiting the fear of darkness of a superior chimpanzee in order to stop his bullying behaviour. Their lying is not malicious or mischievous, it is only to improving their own chances of survival. Nor is it only their own kind that primates seek to fool. There is the infamous case of Koko the gorilla blaming a kitten for the mess he had made in his den. Sounds exactly like any teenager!
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- Denis Giles
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Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
In the book/film ‘Sophie’s Choice’, the protagonist is forced to choose between the lives of her two children. How would you decide? Many meat eaters try to justify killing animals by claiming they can neither feel nor think. They place intelligence as the primary criterion that warrants continuation on the planet. Here is proof that all creatures great and small are both wise and wonderful.
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- Denis Giles
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Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
Locusts are a group of short-horned grasshoppers that migrate long distances in swarms, crossing over many countries. They devour leaves, flowers, fruits, seeds, bark, and destroy plants by their sheer weight as they descend on them in massive numbers.
Four species of locusts are found in India: Desert locust (Schistocerca gregaria), Migratory locust (Locusta migratoria), Bombay Locust (Nomadacris succincta) and Tree locust (Anacridium sp.).
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- Denis Giles
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Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
Last week a barasingha strayed into a field in Panchkula. She ate a ball of wheat, only to find it was a homemade bomb and her jaw and throat were blasted off. Passersby saw her sitting calmly on the side of the road, bleeding. They sent for the forest department. Those worthies arrived in 4 hours and then took her to a local doctor who gave her a paracetamol injection and then sent her off to the Morni wildlife centre. She was dead on arrival. This kind of incident makes me sick with anger. The useless forest department is full of untrained flatfoots, and the useless animal husbandry department has no trained or even kind vets.
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- Denis Giles
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Maneka Sanjay Gandhi
Health and fitness advisors often emphasise on seafood for muscles, high protein, weight loss etc. Few of them have studied the immense health risks that come with eating seafood.
Mali Ston is an Adriatic Sea coastal town in Croatia, known all over the world for its unique farmed oysters, of which 5 million sell every year. For centuries, rows of oyster-filled underwater farm beds have spread through the bay. An annual oyster tasting feast has tourists pour in. In 2019 they have had to cancel it because the Institute for Marine and Coastal Research in Dubrovnik has detected norovirus in the oysters. The virus has been caused by the sewage from the town pouring in all these years into the bay. Norovirus is a dangerous virus, causing over 20 million illnesses and hundreds of deaths annually. Symptoms, which include chronic vomiting and diarrhoea, can become very severe, very quickly, requiring the need for emergency treatment.