Animating the urban: an ethological and geographical conversation

Urban animals and their political ecologies constitute an arena of geographical scholarship that has intensified in recent years. Yet, little headway has been made in terms of understanding how sentient creatures inhabit and negotiate dynamic, metabolic environments. Focusing on urban macaques in Indian cities, the paper develops a conversation between geography and ethology. Firstly, the conversation provides insights into what urbanisation might entail for animals. Secondly, it assays ways in which non-human knowledges enable rethinking what expertise counts in urban governance. Thirdly, the conversation foregrounds other spatial topologies of the urban that become evident when animals’ lifeworlds are taken into account. The paper advances efforts to animate urban political ecology in registers yet inattentive to non-human lifeworlds. It concludes by reflecting upon the purchase of such etho-geographical conversations generate for political ecologies of urbanisation.MB’s research was supported by a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship [Fellowship Number pf140038]

Cultivated, Feral, Wild: The Urban as an Ecological Formation

This paper seeks to rethink the urban as an ecological formation. It argues that contrary to an emphasis on the built environment, articulated through refrains of capital, planning and design, cities are lived achievements, emerging through fabrications between human and other-than-human forces. Ecological formations are fleshed out in three modes: ecologies that involve the cultivated, feral and the wild. There are distinct forms of urban governance affiliated with each, taken as hybrids of biopolitical and vernacular practices. Rethinking cities as ecological formations enables a more radical understanding of the difference and heterogeneity of urban worlds than those on offer in urban theory. It signals a shift from animating urban geographies towards understandings of how other-than-human geographies are constitutive of urban worlds.European Research Council Horizon 2020 Starting Grant (uEcologies; Grant No. 759239

A beautiful mind: Attribution and intentionality in wild bonnet macaques

Empirical and observational studies of animal cogni- tion will truly benefit if different behavioural manifes- tations of higher cognitive processes can be defined functionally. This is vitally important because, when studying animals, cognition has to necessarily manifest in behaviour for it to be tractable, and the performance of such behaviour, in turn, needs to be unambiguously ascribed to an effect of particular cognitive processes. One theoretical framework to investigate cognition in animals in terms of mentalistic notions is that of the intentional stance, which assumes that each individual is an intentional system capable of mental states like beliefs, desires and emotions. To attribute such mental states to both oneself and to others is to have what has been termed a theory of mind. Social primates appear to be knowledgeable about one another's behaviour to different extents. But do they know as much about one another's beliefs and intentions? Are they adept at recognizing the similarities and differences between their own and others' states of mind? Attribution of mental states to other individuals could manifest itself in diverse situations as, for example, when individual animals closely observe the actions of others, when they interact competitively, or when they deceive each other in the social sphere. Such behavioural constructs need to be analysed carefully in order to ascertain whether true higher-order intentionality can indeed be invoked as underlying mechanisms governing these acts. This article examines the possible cognitive bases of social knowledge-based decision-making and tactical deception, processes that appear to be integral to the development and maintenance of social relationships in wild bonnet macaques (Macaca radiata), a primate species endemic to peninsular India

Dominance relationship in the establishment of reproductive division of labour in a primitively eusocial wasp (Ropalidia marginata)

In mature post-emergence colonies of the tropical primitively eusocial polistine wasp Ropalidia marginata, the queen is not a behaviourally dominant individual. Nevertheless, she completely suppresses reproduction by the workers and becomes the sole egg-layer in the colony. Mechanisms by which a female is able to establish her exclusive reproductive status in the colony can be investigated by examining dominance-submission relationships and hierarchy formation at particular stages of the colony cycle when reproductive competition is behaviourally manifest. Observations on the behaviour of R. marginata females (1) during early stages of colony-founding, (2) when potential queens challenge the existing queen, and (3) immediately after queen replacement show that these wasps use highly aggressive dominance interactions to establish their reproductive status. Both the frequency and the intensity of dominance behaviours are significantly higher at these stages than those observed at phases of the colony when there is no apparent reproductive strife. Once her position as the only egg-layer of the colony has been established, the levels of dominance interactions initiated by the queen decrease and the nature of these interactions also becomes comparatively milder. Thus, the mechanisms by which a queen establishes her social status in her colony and those by which she continues to suppress reproduction of her nestmates in the absence of overt physical dominance may be quite different

Blowing the lid off! Bottle-directed, extractive foraging strategies in synurbic bonnet macaques Macaca radiata in southern India

Nonhuman individuals and groups, living in anthropogenic landscapes, often adopt adaptive foraging strategies, mediated by their day-to-day interactions with humans and their artefacts. Exploring such novel behavioral manifestations, especially in the Anthropocene, offers us insights into behavioral innovations and their transmission in such rapidly changing ecologies. In this study, employing field experiments, we investigated an example of human-induced, extractive foraging behavior – the extraction of liquid contents from plastic bottles – in a synurbic bonnet macaque Macaca radiata population. The main aims of the study were to examine the distribution, diversity, inter-individual variability and intra-individual flexibility of bottle-directed manipulative behaviors, and to explore the social and environmental factors driving this behavioral practice. We video-recorded the manipulation of partially filled plastic bottles and the extraction of liquid across four groups of bonnet macaques in southern India. Two socio-demographic factors – age class and group membership – and one environmental factor – food provisioning – were identified as major determinants of inter-individual variation in the performance of sophisticated manipulative techniques and in bottle-opening success. Our results also suggest that age-related physical maturation, experiential trial-and-error learning, and possibly social learning contributed to the acquisition of foraging competence in this task. These findings illuminate the mechanisms underlying inter-individual behavioral variability and intra-individual behavioral flexibility amongst free-ranging individuals of a cercopithecine primate species, traditionally known for its ecological adaptability and behavioral plasticity. Finally, this study documents how the presence of humans, their artefacts and their activities facilitate the development of certain behavioral traditions in free-ranging nonhuman populations, thus providing valuable insights into how human–alloprimate relations can be restructured within the increasingly resource-competitive environments of the Anthropocene

hsCRP in pre-hypertension and hypertension: a prospective study in Southern Asian region

Background:Hypertension is turned into a leading cause of non-communicable disease associated mortality and morbidity in both developing as well as developed world. Hypertension is reported to be the fourth contributor to premature death in developed countries and the seventh in developing countries. In the regard of early diagnosis and better prognosis, the concept of pre-hypertension, defined as a systolic blood pressure of 120-139 mmHg and/or a diastolic blood pressure of 80-89 mmHg was introduced as the new guideline for the management of blood pressure by the seventh report of the Joint National Committee on prevention, detection, evaluation, and treatment of high blood pressure (JNC-7). Among various other factors inflammation may be a causative factor for development of Hypertension But the association is not very clear. Accordingly, we have designed our study to find any association of hsCRP with pre-hypertension and hypertension so that early prevention and control can help to avoid or delay the grave outcome and complications of hypertension.Methods:A total of 37 hypertensives, 30 pre-hypertensives and 31 age and sex matched healthy control subjects were selected for the study, with consent. Two BP readings were taken five minutes apart, on both arms, with a mercury sphygmomanometer. The estimation of serum hsCRP was done on XL-600 automatic analyzer with the kit (Erba Mannheim) based on the measurement of antigen-antibody reaction by the end-point method.  Results:There is significant difference in systemic and diastolic blood pressure and hsCRP in between group study. In pre-hypertensive group hsCRP is correlated with diastolic blood pressure.  Conclusion:Our results suggest a correlation exists between hsCRP and hypertension more significantly with pre-hypertension. So estimation of serum hsCRP can be a good diagnostic as well as prognostic marker in diagnosing pre-hypertensives and prevent the occurance of hypertension and cardio vascular disorders thereby.

Living with elephants: Exploring the nature and cause of human-elephant conflict in India (NIAS Backgrounder No. B2-2010)

In February 2010, the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India, issued an edict announcing the formation of a Task Force on Project Elephant. In the words of the memorandum, the objective of the Task Force is “to provide detailed recommendations to ‘upgrade’ the Project to bring about a more effective conservation and management regime for the species in Indi