Animalia

Everything under the animal kingdom, be it of four legs or slithering

A rat snake turns up in the yard

A little bunny peeks from the meadow on an overcast day. These little critters are found all over North Carolina, and I run into them regularly, mostly in parks and near greenways .

'Sup?

A golden bush frog from Agumbe, India

It is a cold morning and these bonnet macaques in the Nilgiris are huddled together for warmth. Despite my jacket, I had half a mind to squeeze in to the middle and let them climb all over me, mange or not.

We spent almost a week in Agumbe Rainforest Research Station, Karnataka, looking for snakes. The frogs were everywhere, but we would find snakes when we were most vulnerable, like when heading to the camp with a feeble torch light in hand. In the end we did manage to come back with some interesting sightings from the rainiest place in South India. Golden bush frog, green vine snake, bicolored frog and a stealthy malabar pit viper that sat on the rafters of our dining hall for days.

Sessions to school kids like this help allay the fear and hatred for serpents. A non-venomous Beddom's cat snake is being displayed by forest officials to school children.

As kids, we used to pretend that Garden Lizards were dinosaurs. A close look is good enough to make us see why. The scales, the cold basilisk eyes and the swiftness it can exhibit when need arises, all trace back to the reptilian ancestors that ruled the earth ages ago.

A stray dog gives me an inquisitive eye, as I fiddle with my camera to change lenses, at Thiruvananthapuram, India- Winter '11.

A stray cat we often encounter in our trips to the Polachira Wetlands. It has a very penetrating stare, and pretends that it is the ruler of the land, everytime we pass it. Kollam, summer '12

MEOW.

These California ground squirrels were all over the place on Mission Peak. Summer '14

There is a proverb in Malayalam that goes "Instantaneous death upon a skink bite", which is much more rhyming than being of reason. Skinks are non-venomous and were way more ubiquitous in our childhood. The urbanization has driven them away, but once in a while one of these gorgeous reptiles show up. A skink from Thiruvananthapuram, India- Winter '13

This time the Polachira cat doesn't even glance my way. Seen you once, seen enough of you. Begone.

An endangered lion-tailed macaque from Valparai, India

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