the fastest on earth is not Usain Bolt ... not Cheetah or Peregrine Falcon !!!

On that day in  Sept 1988, we witnessed the spectacle of a man turning around after passing approx 60m – then raising his hand and still finishing in 9.79 creating a new WR.  Ben Johnson, the Canadian sprinter was rescinded the medal disqualified for doping. 

Mites, along with ticks, are small arthropods belonging to the subclass Acari  and the class Arachnida. The scientific discipline devoted to the study of ticks and mites is called acarology. In soil ecosystems, mites are favored by high organic matter content and by moist conditions, wherein they actively engage in the fragmentation and mixing of organic matter.

Usain Bolt now is the fastest man on earth – holding both the 100M and 200M World records – he is the reigning Olympic champion in three events, the first man to win six Olympic gold medals in sprinting, and an eight-time World champion.  Even Usain Bolt,  cannot outpace greyhounds, cheetahs, or the pronghorn antelope, according to a light-hearted comparison of the extraordinary athleticism of humans and animals in the Veterinary Record. Often we have read that the fastest land animal is the Cheetah which has a recorded speed of 96–120 km/h (60–75 mph). The Peregrine Falcon is the fastest bird, with a speed of 389 km/h (242 mph).  The fastest animal in the sea is the Black marlin, which has a recorded speed of 130 km/h (80 mph).

Humans can run at a maximum speed of 23.4 miles per hour (37.6 kilometres/hour) or 10.4 metres per second, which gives them the edge over the Dromedary camel. Cheetah is much faster and there are many animals which run faster than the fastest man.  Most Quizzers would answer that Cheetah is the fastest animal on land – Scientists would say differently !

To them – insects too are animals ….the Australian tiger beetle could run at a speed of 171 body lengths every second. On the other hand, a cheetah can run at around 16 body lengths every second. However, both these speed demons pale in comparison to P. macropalpis. The tiny mite is only around the size of a sesame seed but it can travel an astounding 322 body lengths in a single second.  So, the fastest land animal is Southern California mite (Paratarsotomus macropalpis), according to a team of researchers from the Claremont Colleges.

It is not speed and distance parameters alone but the body length – the mite was recorded to be running at 322 body lengths per second; which is equivalent of Usain Bolt running at 1,300 miles per hour. The presumed title holder Cheetah by this yardstick moves at a measly 16 body lengths per second. Since the mite’s body size is smaller than a sesame seed, it’s unlikely that the mite could actually beat Usain Bolt, with his great stride, in a one-on-one race. 

“Both relative speed and stride frequency increase as animals get smaller,” Pomona College biologist Jonathan Wright, who led the team, said in a summary of the research. The research team used high-speed cameras to record the mites’ speed in the laboratory and in their natural environment. Extrapolated to the size of a human, the mite's speed is equivalent to a person running roughly 1300 miles per hour.  The mite is local to Southern California and is often found running along rocks or sidewalks. Although it was first identified in 1916, little is known about its habits or food sources.The mites also are adept at stopping and changing directions extremely quickly, attributes the researchers are investigating further for potential insights that may be relevant to bioengineering applications.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

10^th Sept. 2014.

elephants block ambulance ~ suffering of a pregnant woman

Heard of the word ‘depredation’ (n) – the dictionary meaning is ‘an act of attacking or plundering’ ~ often this is associated with damage caused by pachyderms.  We read about ‘human-animal’ conflict…. ~ it is  the interaction between wild animals and people and the resultant negative impact on people or their resources, or wild animals or their habitat. It occurs when growing human populations overlap with established wildlife territory, creating reduction of resources or life to some people and/or wild animals. 

You hear of elephants walking to human domain, blocking roads etc., quite often in Coimbatore… sometime back tension was simmering on the proposed elephant corridor in Ooty foothills. While conservationists say this is essential to restore the man-nature balance, farmers and property owners question the State government’s decision to acquire 7,000 acres of fertile land for it. The whole area from the Bandipur reserve forest in Karnataka, adjoining the Mudumalai wildlife sanctuary of Tamil Nadu and the foothills of Ooty, was once untouched “tusker territory”, say wildlife activists.  It is stated humans have now intruded into the wilderness and encroached upon the Nilgiri biosphere reserve. Of the around 2,000 elephants in the southern peninsula, half are in the three contiguous, ecologically sensitive sanctuaries.

Elephants are commonly sighted in palces like Masinagudi, Mavanallah, Bokkapuram, Vazhaithottam, Anaikatty and Sigur. Once in a while you read of elephants rampaging in areas like Kovaipudur, Thondamuthur, Valparai, Madukkarai etc.,  Elephants often raid the fields ransacking crops in search of water and food.

Away in US, the Department of the Interior’s Fish and Wildlife Service awarded $3.8 million in 2011 and 2012 for a “African Elephant Conservation” grant that, in part, aims to “decrease human-elephant conflict.” The grant award for 2013 is estimated at $1.5 million to continue efforts to protect African elephants and their habitat.  The funds  are granted to African government agency responsible for African elephant conservation and protection and any other organization or individual with demonstrated experience in African elephant conservation. 

Jumbos have had the measure of humans  in Tamilnadu. Large herds and loners have caused fear by entering villages bordering forests in Erode, Krishnagiri, Coimbatore and Dharmapuri districts~ but the experience of 34 year old tribal woman Vasantha Devi was harrowing as reported in Times of India.  The news states that a herd of six elephants blocked the pathway of the ambulance that was taking Vasantha, who was in labour, to a hospital. The delay in getting to the hospital led to the loss of her infant son who was stillborn.

Her husband B Nenjan witnessed and underwent pain as it was not possible to make the elephants move and have the way for vehicle. His wife was writhing in pain; by the time more people came for assistance, she had delivered a stillborn baby.  Later she was rushed  labour ward intensive care unit of Coimbatore Medical College Hospital due to post-pregnancy complications. It is stated that the elephants just stood there for more than half an hour and refused to give way to the ambulance. The traumatic ordeal left Vasantha in an extremely vulnerable state with her blood pressure shooting up, leading to severe eclamptic seizures, a pregnancy related complication. The herd eventually moved out of the way and she was transferred from the ambulance into the jeep and rushed to Sathy government hospital. The authorities there referred her to Coimbatore Medical College Hospital where she is recuperating but still kept in the intensive care unit under medical supervision.

The ambulance in which Vasantha was being taken to the hospital had reached a stream near Kallampalayam. Irudhiyaraj, the panchayat president of Thengumarahada, a collection of more than five hamlets, claimed that the bumpy ride through the forest route itself is a traumatic experience for pregnant women and there were several cases where pregnant women delivered inside the vehicle.

Nanjan (36), is a casual labourer and has been married to Vasantha for more than three years. They live in a tribal hamlet near Kallampalayam, accessible through Bhavani Sagar forest region in Erode. It is a remote area where there are no proper transport facilities. Though it falls in Nilgiris district, the nearest source for medical aid is a health centre near Thengumarahada and then at Sathyamangalam in Erode for complicated cases.

Really sad to read of their ordeal ~ caused this time by the elephants

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

4^th Sept. 2013

News source : Times of India; photo courtesy : The Hindu.

deers of Chennai ... collision and translocation plan ...

Chennai is bursting at seams with the ever increasing traffic and at places there are stray cattle which are the menace …. Surprisingly in the concrete jungle, there still exist some places where one can spot deers in Chennai.   With an explosion in the population of spotted deer or chital and limited green cover, the animals are straying out of their natural habitat and into danger on the streets.  Guindy National Park (GNP) the only national park within city limits, has  more than thousand spotted deer and hundreds of black bucks. As the foliage reserve in the park is insufficient for the animals, the deer often stray outside in search of food.

A deer-vehicle collision occurs when one or more deer and a human-operated vehicle collide on a roadway. It can result in deer fatality, property damage, and human injury and/or death. In 2000, of the 6.1 million lightweight motor vehicle collisions reported in the US, 1 million involved animal-vehicle collisions. Over there, deer–vehicle collisions lead to about 200 human deaths and $1.1 billion in property damage every year.  Deers are not entirely at fault. Habitat fragmentation occurs when humans encroach the natural habitats of animals. As human beings live in closer proximity to animals they are more likely to encounter one another. Because highways are isolated points of fragmentation, deer wander about them freely because they see little to stay away from.

In 2011, in Chennai, as part of the Metro Rail construction, the Forest Department  translocated 40 spotted deer from the Poultry Research Station at Nandanam, claiming it to be the first successful change of location of deer in the country. The deer were translocated to Aringar Anna Zoological Park and Guindy National Park, as a metro railway station was planned at the Nandanam campus.  A recent report in The Hindu states that sighting spotted deer on the Anna University campus, or in Kotturpuram, Adambakkam and other residential localities will soon become a thing of the past. Thanks to the efforts of wildlife authorities, deer found outside protected areas such as Guindy national park and the campuses of Raj Bhavan and IIT-Madras will be translocated.

A senior wildlife officer said these free-ranging deer fed on garbage dumped by people and, in some areas, were fed by residents. They were also exposed to the danger of being bitten by community dogs. In light of these issues, the authorities have decided to translocate them, the officer said. An estimated 300 spotted deer are found outside protected areas in a total of 30 locations within the city limits, identified by wildlife authorities. Guindy Industrial Estate, Indra Nagar, Thillai Ganga Nagar, Adambakkam, Tambaram Railway Colony, Kannagi Nagar, Velachery and Kotturpuram are some of them. A proposal to translocate the deer was sent to the government sometime ago, and it issued an order a couple of days ago, sources in the wildlife department said. A sum of Rs. 44.73 lakh has been sanctioned for the work, which began last week and would be completed by March next year, said a senior wildlife officer.

Explaining the process involved in translocating the deer, authorities said they had decided not to use chemical tranquilisers to trap the deer. Instead, a cage would be set up with feed inside.

For nearly a fortnight, authorities would provide feed inside the enclosure. Once the deer gets accustomed to eating the food kept in the enclosure, the animal would be trapped in it and transported to the protected areas. Trapped deer would be translocated to Guindy National Park, Vandalur zoo, Vandalur reserved forest and other nearby forest areas, according to authorities. Already, officials have translocated nearly 60 deer from the Ekkatuthangal, Kotturpuram and Madhya Kailash areas on a trial basis, they added.

On a web search a newsitem in www.northlandsnewscenter.com revealed that Minnesota drivers odds for colliding with deer were  declining,  according to new claims data from State Farm Insurance.  The odds drivers will hit a deer in Minnesota are 1 in 88 and is ranked 8th in the country for the most deer collisions compared to 6th last year. The months a driver is most likely to collide with a deer in Minnesota, mostly due to mating and hunting seasons are June, October, and November.  In Hawai, it is reported to be : One in 10,281. Illinois drivers are less fortunate. Their odds are 1 in 211, a slight increase from last year, but better than the national average of 1 in 169. In West Virginia it is 1 in 39. Another report in Chicago Tribune states that traffic fatalities drop 30 percent in Illinois.  To avoid becoming a statistic, among other actions it is recommended that drivers use high beams at night when no oncoming traffic is present and slow down — not swerve — when spotting a deer. Also remember that deer typically travel in groups.

The deer whistle is the most widely studied and scrutinized form of deer-vehicle collision prevention method. Deer whistles are products that attach to a vehicle and act as an alarm system for deer and other wildlife. The manufacturing of deer whistle products has emerged into a multimillion-dollar industry. Their manufacturers advertise that ultrasound, which they say deer can hear but humans cannot is emitted as air passes through the whistle; they are  designed to be attached to the bumper of a vehicle. When a vehicle moves faster than 35 mph, a whistle sound is induced which is believed to ward off animals from a roadway.

With regards – S. Sampathkumar

19^th Sept. 2014.

cows smuggled in a tanker ~ and stowaway in a washing machine

The Government has put on alert customs officials at all international airports and land and sea borders to further intensify measures to check gold smuggling, which it suspects could rise during the ongoing festive season. The move comes following a three-fold jump in the cases of ‘gold smuggling’ since the beginning of this fiscal compared to approximately the same period last year.

Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects (and sometimes people too !) across varied places especially borders of a State (Country).  There are various motives, almost all illegal and banned in civil society.  Stowaway is different – this refers to a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as an aircraft, bus, ship, cargo truck or train, to travel without paying and without being detected.  According to IMO, the Convention on Facilitation of International Maritime Traffic, 1965, as amended,  define stowaway as "A person who is secreted on a ship, or in cargo which is subsequently loaded on the ship, without the consent of the shipowner or the Master or any other responsible person and who is detected on board the ship after it has departed from a port, or in the cargo while unloading it in the port of arrival, and is reported as a stowaway by the master to the appropriate authorities".

Now read this interesting report of smuggling (source : Times of India) :

In a bid to outsmart police, cattle smugglers have been devising newer ways of transport. The Shahjahanpur police in UP seized an oil tanker in which 25 cows were being transported. Police received a message  that an oil tanker had jumped a road barrier and struck a jeep. The police team immediately cordoned off the area and signalled to the driver to stop. The driver and cleaner of the tanker fled on seeing the police team.

The vehicle bore the name of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation. An inspection revealed an opening in the rear. Usually, tanker vehicles  vehicles only have a cap on the upper portion. When police opened the lid on the rear of the vehicle, they found 25 cows inside which were later taken to a veterinary hospital. SP Rakesh Chandra Sahu of Shahjahanpur told TOI, “The cattle smugglers had created an opening in the rear of the tanker through which they stuffed the cows in after injecting them with sedatives. We have lodged an FIR under the Prevention of Cow Slaughter Act against unidentified people. We are trying to trace the owner of the tanker’.

Now there is this news on ‘stowaway’ caught trying to sneak across the border in a …………….. (as reported in Daily Mail) ….

Stowaways on board vessel, inside containers, in little space on aircraft – nothing new …. Now a man was discovered in the large appliance inside a U-Haul in the Rio Grande Valley in Texas …. It was inside a washing machine and - a cardboard box held four other undocumented immigrants – all trying to cross the Mexican border into US were detained by U.S. border patrol in Falfurrias, Texas. The group was travelling in the back of a U-Haul. Also detained were the man behind the wheel and his female passenger.

Meanwhile, high-ranking U.S. Senate Democrats last week called on the Obama administration to reverse its new policy of detaining Central American immigrant families, warning it could be damaging to the young children being housed in the facilities. Many of the migrants are fleeing El Salvador, Honduras and Guatemala, where gang violence, drugs and human trafficking are rampant.

Strange are the ways of people !!

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.

21^st Oct 2014.