The richness of the Indian colors, culture, languages, traditions, food and music can only be matched by the diversity of Wildlife living within it. In late August of 2017, I set out on a trip to Dehradun, a vibrant city in the state of Uttarakhand, North India, to visit two collaborators, Dr. Suresh Kumar of the Wildlife Institute of India (WII) and Dr. Manoj Nair of the India Forest Service. We had started a close collaboration studying invasive traits of the Common Myna as part of my Ph.D. research, and after meeting them for the first time in 2015, I had now come for a longer period of time to begin our field work.
Native in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, we planned to capture some Common Mynas in order to test some traits that are traditionally correlated with invasion success. We were hoping that these birds will give us an insight into the natural, basic state of this species in its original environment. Once caught, the birds were meant to be given some behavioral tasks, be measured and sampled for future genetic study purposes.
However, the mynas had other plans.
Dr. Manju Siliwal, a renowned arachnologist and Dr. Kumar’s wife, has coined what will later be remembered as the birds’ nickname – ‘Cheeky birds’ – following yet another early morning trapping expedition during which the birds taunted us by dodging our traps despite our best efforts. At first, they seemed to comply with our capturing attempts and we managed to catch the first batch of Common and Jungle Mynas that were introduced to their new, temporary homes at Dr. Kumar’s backyard. This lot did well in the behavioral tasks and taught us some very important lessons on myna behavior. However, as the weeks went by, these early mornings were often discouraging, having caught not a single bird despite targeting the better part of the Dehradun cowsheds (they would often frequent cowshed digging up insect in cow dung). At one time, I had sunk so deep in cow dung while trying to retrieve a Magpie Robbin from one of the mist nets that I had to be pulled out by two men. At other times, I was battling Rhesus macaques to stop eating the food we had baited the traps with.
Despite trapping only few mynas, we were fortunate to encounter many other local species and passing migrants, including the Spotted dove (Spilopelia chinensis), Red-vented bulbul (Pycnonotus cafer), White-cheeked bulbul (Pycnonotus leucotis), Ashy prinia (Prinia socialis), Eurasian wryneck (Jynx torquilla), Rufous treepie (Dendrocitta vagabunda), Brahminy starling (Sturnia pagodarum), House sparrow (Passer domesticus), Brown rock chat (Cercomela fusca), Pied starling (Gracupica contra), Jungle babbler (Turdoides striata), Large grey babbler (Turdoides malcolmi), Oriental magpie-robin (Copsychus saularis) and even the Northern palm squirrel (Funambulus pennantii). In addition, by spending many hours in the field, the lushness of the Indian wildlife presented itself to our utmost pleasure through the final weeks of monsoon and into the North-Indian winter. Breeding season was coming to its end in these northern parts, and many species were making their way down from the Himalayan slopes or more southward, like the Amur Falcon (Falco amurensis) which travels to warmer grounds in the far land of South Africa.
Exploring the Indian landscape also allowed me to meet local Dehradun Valley people and get a glimpse of their daily lives. We roamed around mostly on an old but trustworthy scooter or a six non-functioning gear bicycle, and experienced early morning light with cowshed farmers and curious neighbors, meeting some of the loveliest inhabitants of the valley. Often we were offered fresh milk tea (Indian Chai), and conversations – though not always completely verbal – were fascinating. My two field assistants, Deven Mehta and later on Harender Baraiya, braved through Indian traffic, surprise monsoon rains and vendors that drove a hard bargain, as we were building our special traps and transporting them in less conventional ways.
While I eventually went back to Israel, India stayed with me. We continue our collaboration eagerly anticipating the answers to our questions as more new questions arise. We have already witnessed exciting findings in the beginning of our work, and we are hopeful that the future brings more life-changing, mind-opening adventures like this one.
* This fieldwork was carried out through the generous support of a Heredity Fieldwork grant by the Genetics Society UK.