Editor’s Note

We open this issue with Janet Mays Carpenter’s account of human-coyote confict, and the drama that is played out in
urban areas in Colorado. Priyanka Hari Haran narrates her encounter with colour in the forests of the Western Ghats through the delightful array of birds that she encounters during her feld visit. Rachael Knight writes about community-led approaches to secure customary and indigenous land rights, and the role that Namati plays in facilitating these processes. Michael Adams uses opercula—the little lids that marine snails use to close their shells—as a metaphor
for both persistence and change. So much of today’s conservation is about separating humans and nature, but shells and opercula remind us of the long relationship we have had with the ocean. And what we can learn from communities that have lived closest to it. Chrissy Henriques brings us back to the issue of confict, and how the mining of minerals (for products such as cell phones) and other factors are threatening the survival of Congo’s great apes.

Nearly a decade ago, CC (Issue 3.1) put together a special collection of articles on feld assistants as a tribute to their contribution to ecology, biology and conservation projects in India. We revive this with Madhuri Ramesh’s entertaining account of her adventures with Ganesan anna, the story of a young feld biologist and a crusty but  ultimately invaluable feld mentor. We also carry Rohan Chakravarty’s comic illustration of a Research in Translation, featuring a paper
on the effect of dams in the Andes on fsh populations.
—Kartik Shanker