Tigress on tuk-tuk Sara Mohan

For the season finale, we explore the underwater realm with wildlife biologist and ocean explorer, Chetana Purushotham. She takes us on a guided tour of coral reefs-these incredible ‘living-rocks’; plant-animal combos that support all kinds of life - lionfish, clownfish, yellow box fish… We even stop to listen to what reef fish sound like! We then float past lush sea grass meadows, slow down with nudibranchs, say hello to rays and sea cucumbers hanging out in the sand, swim through schooling fish and meet the cool creatures of the night-time seascape. Find out about unbelievable underwater partnerships and trace the origin of white beach sand back to a fish’s bum hole.
If you’ve never gone diving, think of this as your auditory first..and if you have seen some underwater sights..well, there’s gonna be more than a thing or two that you’ll find out on this episode, for shore!
OH ALSO! FISH CALENDARS. EVERYONE and their grandma needs one!
Soooo much on this episode.
Headphones. Snorkel. Dive in!

Show Notes:
Follow Chetana’s adventures @spidersandthesea
FISH CALENDARS:
Know your fish
In Season fish

Chetana’s Writing

Vocalisations videos:
Fish Sounds from a restored reef
Fish Sounds: Earth Unplugged
The Sound of a coral reef

Parrotfish eating algae/ crunching coral

How well do you know your neighbours? No, not the human kind but other (more interesting!) creatures and critters that share city space with us. 
Leaf cutter bees who cut out chunks from leaves leaving behind perfectly scalloped leaf edges. Trees with wine goblet flowers and sticky seed pockets. Swallowtail butterflies that sashay about flower patches in busy roundabouts. Gorgeous geckos that hang out upside down on our ceilings. Bird songsters outside the windows. Wasp architects under the desk…
Naturalist, photographer, writer and educator, Karthikeyan Srinivasan tells us story after story of many, many urban creatures. Inspired by Karthik’s blog and his first-hand accounts of various lifeforms,  think of this as a collection of audio stories on the many celebrity critters and bird-next-door starlets hanging out around the ‘hood.

Shownotes:
Karthik’s journal (blog)
Follow Karthik
Follow the show
Purchase books/pocket field guides

A mammal that can fly. Like proper flap-flap bird-fly. Bats are unicorn-level phantasmal creatures with Greek god fitness levels, living amongst us! This episode is dedicated to these marvellous, under-appreciated creatures and is a full blown effort to take on the undeserving bad raps that bats have. 
Dispelling myths, addressing batty Covid fears, getting into the true meaning of the term ‘batshit crazy’ and giving us logical, scientific suggestions to live considerate lives, making room for bats is a near impossible task. So we called the best man for the job - bat biologist Rohit Chakravarty who has worked with 100s of bats over the last 9 years. This episode also features Zareef Khan, a Van Gujjar from Uttarakhand and Rohit’s field assistant. He gives us incredible field stories on bats and banshees and keeps it real and relatable for regular (not-a-scientist) folks like you and me.

Show notes
Follow Rohit: @paintedbat
Follow the show : @tigressontuktuk
For Information on MAEE
https://india.mongabay.com/2021/05/van-gujjars-people-of-the-forest-or-nowhere/
https://www.earthtouchnews.com/natural-world/animal-behaviour/watch-falling-sex-bats-give-us-a-glimpse-into-the-weird-world-of-bat-mating/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/11/opinion/covid-bats.html

Muddy hands. Sandy feet. Peaceful minds. Happy hearts.
This week, super-fun teacher and  inspiring educator, Chandini Chhabra gives us the 411 on nature education. We get into all the cool, mind blowing ways in which time in nature promotes a child's learning and development. There's SOOOOOO much that nature makes better - inside our heads, for our bodies heck, definitely for the soul too!
We get into some research and evidence, jump into a couple of Chandini's awesome online nature classes and come out of this episode informed and inspired for some much needed nature-infusing, for our kids, for ourselves and for our planet.

Show Notes:

Chandini Chhabra  @liana_forest_school
Nerd Bird  @nerdbird


https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6401598/
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2019.00305/full
https://childmind.org/article/why-kids-need-to-spend-time-in-nature/
https://www.childhoodbynature.com/going-local-why-kids-need-to-love-local-nature/
https://news.ncsu.edu/2019/07/children-local-nature-study/
https://www.davidsobelauthor.com/articles-and-film
https://www.apa.org/monitor/2020/04/nurtured-nature


 

Spiders give you the heebie-jeebies?? Make the hair on the back of your neck stand up? You running off to grab a shoe even at the thought of one? Hairy, Scary, Stealthy, ‘Scuttlers’  and messy Cobweb-makers, that’s what you’re thinking right?
Ok, here’s the REAL, full, silken spider low down with Samuel John. How he went from shrieking, shoe-brandisher to big time spider lover.  How Spiders are superb parents. How they produce crazy-valuable silk. How they are master-mind decision makers. How arachnophobia works and how humans actually have a rich history of spider appreciation and respect. 
Take a listen to some incredible spider stories and some live, edge-of-the-seat, spider action witnessed while walking around in a busy Indian neighbourhood.
Also, this one’s got lots of laughs, guaranteed!


Show notes:

John's spider stories:  https://www.spidersandthesea.com/writing

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/article/spiderwebs-explained?loggedin=true
https://www.science.org/content/article/spider-silk-five-times-stronger-steel-now-scientists-know-why
https://www.deccanherald.com/science-and-environment/jumping-killers-and-their-varied-webs-of-retreat-732025.html
https://news.mongabay.com/2018/02/webs-under-water-the-really-bizarre-lives-of-intertidal-spiders/

Amphibians are Nature’s best Percussionists, Beatboxers, Choral Singers and Vocalists. 
They are also Harbingers of the monsoon and Guardians of the earth’s life systems. 
They are also sitting ducks for extinction. 
Dr. Seshadri tells us all about these night-time superstars-how they sing, how they find love, how they parent, how he discovered new frog species and all the million ways in which we need these enigmatic creatures in our lives. 
Buckle up for a ribbiting story.

Show Notes:
http://seshadriks.weebly.com/
http://seshadriks.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/0/2/20029205/seshadri_krishna_sunil_2012._bangalores_frogs_at_risk.pdf
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28013-zoologger-worlds-first-venomous-frog-has-the-kiss-of-death/
https://www.cell.com/current-biology/comments/S0960-9822(06)02384-0
https://news.mongabay.com/2012/07/3000-new-species-of-amphibians-discovered-in-25-years/
https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2016/10/14/13147056/amphibian-extinction-frog-bd
https://adamalonzi.wordpress.com/2016/05/10/amphibians-through-the-ages-why-frogs-matter/
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/07/03/535383841/how-frogs-benefited-from-the-dinosaurs-extinction
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/345793932_Amphibian_Species_Discovery_Pattern_in_India_Past_Present_and_Future_Trends