CAN YOU see it?” I asked my fellow researcher one evening in the summer of 2022. “Not yet,” the researcher replied, “but I am sure it is hiding somewhere inside. There is no way for it to escape.”
The two of us, along with three other researchers, were looking for Dritto, a male garden lizard (Calotes versicolor) that had escaped from our experimental plot at the campus of the Gandhi Krishi Vigyana Kendra in Bengaluru. I was certain that the lizard had escaped from the fenced plot.
For the last five days, the lizard had been frequenting one area of the plot. We suspected that it had found a way out through here. Dritto eventually returned to the plot, but five days later, it escaped again. This time, we confirmed its escape route. This indicated that in the three months since it was under observation, the lizard had gained a spatial understanding of the plot.
Dritto was one of the nine garden lizards my team and I had been studying as part of a project with The Rufford Foundation, UK, to understand how the spatial learning abilities of reptiles help them forage for food. The fenced plot, a 2 m by 2 m vegetable cropland, was divided into patches with different pest infestations. We explored whether the lizards would be able to identify patches based on the location of pests. The results showed that reptiles indeed had the ability to choose a “better” foraging patch and remember it.
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Denne historien er fra July 01, 2024-utgaven av Down To Earth.
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The Golden 100 Days
India prepares battle blueprint for the next pandemic
CULINARY MASTERPIECE
The sour culinary melon from southern India remains underutilised despite nutritional benefits and a potential to provide food security
Over to panchayats
Can the government's move to align panchayat targets with UN's Sustainable Development Goals help India meet the global deadline?
Genetic rescue
Odisha to introduce two female tigers to Similipal forests to improve genetic diversity of its melanistic tiger population
Standing up for period rights
Women of Maharashtra's Madia tribe take steps to root out superstitions about menstruation, end the practice of living in isolation
PUT THE PATIENT FIRST
Draft guidelines on passive euthanasia exclude the interests of terminally ill patients: A letter to the Union health minister
Dead end
West Bengal moves to discontinue Kolkata’s trams despite calls to revive the city’s oldest and cleanest mode of transport
A river lost
Unchecked discharge of industrial effluents and inadequate sewage treatment facilities have turned the Hindon water toxic. ROHINI KRISHNAMURTHY tracks the river's journey though seven Uttar Pradesh districts, starting from its origin in Saharanpur
RECKLESS DISREGARD
India is set to expand seaweed cultivation along its coastline by promoting Kappaphycus alvarezii, a known invasive species that has smothered coral reefs in the Gulf of Mannar over the past two decades. Should the country instead focus on its native species?
Joining The Carbon Club
India's carbon market will soon be a reality, but will it fulfil its aim of reducing emissions? A report by PARTH KUMAR and MANAS AGRAWAL