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Wildbuzz: Teeth lie deep in Sukhna

ByVikram Jit Singh
May 21, 2023 01:17 AM IST

Carps have teeth, but they are located deep in their throats and are similar to human molars. They suck in food with their mouths and grind it with their jawbones.

As big carps lay around me trapped and thrashing in the nets of the fishing boat, I had curiously shone a flashlight into their gaping mouths. I was with fishermen on a March night in the Sukhna lake. I was astounded to see that these huge fishes had no teeth-like structures behind the lips and in the frontal mouth. Since we are habituated to land-based creatures, we assume the “standard” location of dentition as a lip-smacking one!

Fisherman Raees with his night time catch of a carp with gaping mouth at Sukhna lake. (Photo: Vikram Jit Singh)
Fisherman Raees with his night time catch of a carp with gaping mouth at Sukhna lake. (Photo: Vikram Jit Singh)

Well, the anatomy of carps is a part of the mystery and opaqueness that shrouds the Sukhna waterworld. I knew that carps are omnivores foraging on aquatic flora and small creatures such as fishes, mussels and crayfish. So, did flashlight exploration suggest that carps do not masticate foods? Are foods just gulped down as a “whole” into carp bellies in the manner of pythons swallowing prey?

It is here that science shines a light. It tells us that carps do have their own kind of teeth. But these are situated deep in their throats and are a bit like human molars: flattened and rounded. They are situated precisely on the fifth ceratobranchial (final gill arch) and named, pharyngeal teeth.

What carps do is that they suck in foods with their cavernous, “empty” mouths and then move these towards the deep throat. The jawbones are exercised in a circular motion facilitating the teeth to exert a grinding, crushing force on foods. This allows the carp to also eat prey protected by shells as the teeth prise open the soft insides. Harder parts of the prey are either ingested after deep crushing or ejected into water.

The force exerted by carp teeth is considerable. Anglers, who mistakenly inserted their finger deep into the throat of a hooked carp thinking the fish did not have teeth, had to retreat in double haste as lurking teeth threatened to grind the intruding finger into a “garam masala” mix!

Pump rings entrap the boa_ (below) metal cutter used to sever the rings. (Phtotos: rWildlife SOS)
Pump rings entrap the boa_ (below) metal cutter used to sever the rings. (Phtotos: rWildlife SOS)

Prisoner of the rings

A few years back, a leopard in Rajasthan faced a piquant situation when its head got stuck in a water vessel. The big cat wandered around “blind” and befuddled before rescue. A Black-necked stork faced a similar predicament in Haryana when its enormous black bill got locked due to a plastic ring the bird picked unwittingly from a wetland. A number of birds are wounded or die from ensnarement in kite strings. The good thing is that due to increasing awareness and speedy availability of wildlife rescue teams, some of the creatures trapped by human-use materials live to tell the tale.

A recent case from Delhi’s Tilak Enclave, Uttam Nagar, was an exceptional one. Its outcome was equally heartwarming. A householder, who was getting his motor pump serviced, discovered a Red sand boa writhing outside his dwelling. The boa had slipped into two metal rings, which were spare parts from the pump’s servicing. Concerned for the snake’s well-being, the householder found the contact numbers of an experienced rescue non-governmental organisation via a speedy Google search of the internet. He was able to alert the Wildlife SOS’s rapid response unit, which arrived promptly at his residence.

“A metal cutter was used by our team to deftly sever the rings and a successful and safe extraction of the boa was effected. This is a perfect example of how a prompt and responsible action can save wildlife from perilous situations,” the media spokesperson for Wildlife SOS told this writer.

vjswild1@gmail.com

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