Indian Wildlife
Since birds and other, lesser animals both tend to live in the same types of places, it is only natural that, for better or for worse, Ethan would cross paths with a variety of non-avians during his time in the field. Typically he will try to avoid these annoying distractions but occasionally he will take a picture or two for “fun.” Both Ethan and I know very little about animals other than birds and frankly we don’t care enough to look anything up so names and information below may be absent or made up.
Okay, so Ethan did start to look some things up and read the Wikipedia page on this first guy. It is a Northern Palm Squirrel and a section of its fairly brief Wikipedia entry entitled “Disease” reads in its entirety as follows: “These squirrels do not naturally suffer from foot and mouth disease. Tewari et al. 1976 did experimentally infect them and the resulting disease was severe. However no transmission could be induced.” Ethan is not sure why Tewari and his pals would do this but he’s sure they had a good reason. Either way, this enlightening information is now 20 percent of what Ethan knows about this entire species and 100 percent of what you know unless you are an expert in Funambulus squirrels for some reason.
An Indian Golden Jackal coming to check out a dead deer that Ethan already happened to be checking out himself.
Ethan is a fan of non-North American bears after they scored him lots of points in his Quiz Bowl days so these Sloth Bears were some of the few mammals Ethan actually wanted to meet in India. Unfortunately, the baby bear ended up being a little piece of shit. Just look at him.
A gnarly lizard from Kerela that just sat on the side of a tree for a while, periodically inflating its throat.
An Asiatic Wildcat from the Thar Desert. It is basically a fancy housecat as far as Ethan can tell and it is actually smaller than one of Ethan’s own cats, or both of them if you are going by weight. It was very adept at hiding but Ethan enjoyed chasing it through the desert in a jeep and trying to corner it before it escaped.
An “Indian Antelope”
A “Desert Fox”
A very good, cat-sized Indian Giant Squirrel. A sweet, sweet boy.
Despite numerous hours spent (somewhat reluctantly) waiting and searching, Ethan failed to see a single tiger during his time in India which seems improbable given the number of people he met claiming to have had a sighting. This has led him to the theory that tigers went extinct in the wild during the ’70s and that the national parks are now full of paid actors who tell tourists that they “just missed” seeing one in order to keep them coming back. At least he got to see this leopard’s face.
This Macaque’s wistful yet determined expression as it gazes into the distance reminds Ethan of someone.
Macaque with Benjamin Button Disease
Langur “Hanuman” Monkey
Ethan’s opinion of elephants decreased during his time in India after losing a birding day to a rampaging incelephant. This one was much more well adjusted.
A rhino blocking the road