Author: Ajay Immanuel Gonji
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Valuing Insects
Ajay Immanuel Gonji Recently, I had the opportunity to go into the field with my colleague, Ojit, an entomologist by training. While Ojit was observing the mating behaviour of dragonflies, I was extremely fascinated with the eyes of the insect. And so, I inquired about vision in insects. Ojit informed me that insects, like the…
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Life in the Fastlane: Roadkill in the Anthropocene
Ajay Immanuel Gonji My first close encounter with roadkill was during fieldwork for my Master’s internship, way back in 2013. I remember seeing the bloated body of a large male nilgai, fully intact, on the footpath of the Aruna Asaf Ali Marg – a 6-lane highway bifurcating the Sanjay Van city forest and the Jawaharlal…
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Exploring the Behaviour of Urban Wildlife
Ajay Immanuel Gonji For many of us, our first encounter with animals was probably at home with cats and dogs, or on the streets with cows, chickens and so on. These creatures may be called ‘domestic’ because their lifeworlds almost entirely revolve around human beings. On the other hand are creatures that are collectively referred…
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Rights to a ‘World-class’ City
Ajay Immanuel Gonji In a previous blog article, I had mentioned that in many Indian cities, there exists a certain shared precarity between poor humans and non-humans in access and rights to the city, and both groups are often similarly excluded (Narayanan & Bindumadhav, 2019). In this present article, I wish to elaborate on this…
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Unique Disposition of Urban Wildlife
Ajay Immanuel Gonji Urban Landscapes and Wildlife Urban landscapes are unique in that they represent one of the most managed and domesticated landscapes on the planet (Kareiva et al., 2007) that have been modified to fulfil not just our needs but also our wants. However, interestingly, Urban landscapes, by their very nature, also offer distinct…
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Hybridization in Dogs
Ajay Immanuel Gonji In my previous article, ‘Understanding Street Dogs’, I had mentioned that all species belonging to the dog family (Canidae) – wolves, coyotes, jackals, dingoes, domestic dogs, etc. – are interfertile (can mate with each other and produce offspring). There are numerous examples around the globe of canids mating across species lines. For…
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A Short Introduction to Urban Ecology
Ajay Immanuel Gonji According to McDonnell (2011), the discipline of ecology came into the picture in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and was defined as the scientific study of the abundance and distribution of organisms, and the interaction between each other and also the environment. In this newly developing field of ecology, human…
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Understanding Street Dogs
Ajay Immanuel Gonji Introduction In an earlier article, I had talked about a unique behaviour in street dogs where they are known to respond to high-pitched anthropogenic sounds such as sirens by means of howling. While I researched this particular behaviour, I was drawn to several other aspects of dog behaviour which I was absolutely…
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Where Access is Denied
Ajay Immanuel Gonji Introduction Urban ecology is an evolving framework which integrates society and the environment at multiple scales. And while urban ecologists look for commonalities across urban ecosystems, in recent times, there has been much focus on the local and unique contexts which shape the socio-ecological character of each city (Grimm et al., 2015).…
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Unique Howling Behaviour in Street Dogs
Ajay Immanuel Gonji A few nights ago, while I was in my room, I could hear the faint wail of a siren. In a hurry, I grabbed my camera and headed to the balcony to record what I knew I was about to witness. The siren, which I hear almost every night, is of the…