PfA Wildlife Rescue and Conservation Centre

       The summer season is here or rather has been here for a while now. While we enjoy the mango season making delicacies and lounge in front of coolers, our animal friends won't have it easy. The sun is getting stronger with every passing year due to climate change. Often, our animal friends end up severely starved and dehydrated. Just in two months, we have rescued over 200 kites that fell victim to the harsh summer breeze.  A dehydrated Barbet moments before rescue     How can we keep them safe? Is there anything we can do for the urban wildlife while continuing to maintain no physical contact? Yes, there are ways and we will definitely tell you!  1. Keep water bowls - Water is a scarce resource to procure from natural outlets during summers. Lakes and ponds dry up. Small potholes on the corner of the roads dry up too, leaving no water for the animals. Place a big bowl of water inside your compound, terrace, or balcony which can help birds ...

Are you also troubled by rats? the pesky little beings that are very tough to get rid of? Rats are responsible for causing over 35 diseases. The most common of them are Hantavirus, leptospirosis, tularemia, and plague. Once we come in contact with their feces, urine, skin, teeth, or even ticks and fleas who live in the infected rat, we are prone to catching the deadly viruses, known as vector-borne diseases. Even if they brush through our clothes, it can be enough to transfer the virus to humans. These viruses or bacteria can enter our system through inhalation, cuts, and scratches, through the lining of the throat, mouth, and eyes, and even through the pores of our skin. Rats also weaken the structure of our houses and if they lay teeth on electrical wiring, it may lead to short circuits. Now that we know how life-threatening rats can be, what if we told you that no artificial substance is needed to get rid of them? Interested? Read on! Bangalore is rich in Urban Wildlife a...

Since childhood, we have been told the role of forests in our lives. How forest covers are responsible for purifying the oxygen, keeping the soil layers intact, and maintaining the groundwater levels. How forests provide us with basic needs like medicines and materials for food and shelter. How forests protect the animals and birds which are important to maintain the ecosystem on earth. As we grow up, capitalism takes over and we forget our forests. Our aim is to earn money, and for that, we need to join an office or meet this important college deadline or take that extra course for our resume. We completely ignore the more important things, the things which sustain us.  With increasing global warming and dying forests, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21st March as World Forestry Day, one day dedicated to highlighting the importance of forests and remind people of this irreplaceable resource. The theme of 2021 is "Forests and Biodiversity" which aims to spread ...

Victims of false beliefs and literature, bats have long been linked to ghosts, graveyards and spooky things. Our Founder-Trustee Ms Alpana Bhartia on what these flying mammals are all about.  Bats belong to the mammalian order Chiroptera, which is handwing in Greek. Some members of this group of flying mammals have existed in their present form for at least 50 million years. Almost a thousand different species are known worldwide. In Bangalore, the first survey of bats almost a century ago recorded 24 species. In recent times only eight species have been recorded. The decline could be due to the use of pesticides and a change in the landscape ecology of the city, which would have destroyed their natural habitat. Movies, television, and comic books often perpetuate myths and fears about bats that a surprising number of people believe. Bats have been associated with graveyards, death, ghosts, and goblins. But the fact is that bats do not get into your hair, they are not flying mice, ...

Humanity’s best friend: the Dog, originated from an ancient species of wolf via a genetic ancestor they share with modern Wolves, between 20,000 and 40,000 years ago. Dogs, wolves, foxes and several other animals all belong to the same family of mammals known as Canids. Their evolution coincides and is likely caused by, their domestication by hunter-gatherer humans somewhere during the last Ice Age. It is speculated that this relationship arose due to mutual benefit for both humans as well as for the ancient wolf species. Humans were possibly grateful for dogs lending them protection from other wild animals and aiding them with their keen sense of smell in hunting prey for food. By joining a pack with us, Dogs in turn were assured a constant source of food, safety in numbers, warmth from fire as well as its various other uses, such as forwarding off predators. They benefited from our superior intelligence and our self-proclaimed position as the apex species of the ecosystem. While the...

The word “snake” has etymological roots linking it to words that mean, “to sneak”, “crawl” or “creep”. Thus, it is befitting to use this word in order to describe the creatures that form the Suborder, Serpentes. Snakes are limbless reptiles that move with a slithering motion. In fact, their lack of limbs is a consequence of evolution, resulting in them having developed several different methods of locomotion unique to serpents, enabling them to scale trees and walls, as well as swim rapidly through the water. They lack external eyelids and ears, many relying on infrared sensors in their snout to detect warm-blooded prey and predator alike. Their sense of smell, as well as taste, is perceived through their forked tongue which constantly samples particles in their environment and grants them a heightened ability to identify prey, recognize kin, choose mates, follow trails, as well as locate shelters. The underside of their body is sensitive to vibrations, allowing them to detect prey and...

Throughout the history of human civilization, humans have ventured further and further into the wild, ‘taming’ it to suit our needs. Several species of animals such as dogs and cattle have been domesticated for thousands of years as we have depended on these animals for milk, meat, transport, agriculture, and an array of other resources and services. As we have evolved from a hunter-gatherer species to an agricultural society and then finally to an industrial civilization, this has transformed the ways in which we relate to our environment and the wildlife that lives amongst it. For centuries now, we have organised ourselves around hotbeds of civilization: our cities. These urban centers have grown over years, developing into jungles of concrete buildings and asphalt roads that snake in between them, with pockets of greenery scattered around. In this novel ecosystem, several non-domesticated creatures that make up the urban wildlife have taken to various adaptations that have aided th...