What could be a more wonderful way to explore nature than a father/mother out with young children. While they bond in the wilderness, a bit of “beginner’s luck” can also steal in! Did you know that the world’s youngest discoverer of a snake species was a three-year-old, Nikhil Whitaker, son of the legendary herpetologist, Rom Whitaker?
It so happened that the Whitakers were out with Shekar Dattatri in the Palni Hills, Tamil Nadu, on a herpetological survey on September 20, 1981. While the adults went about their task, young Nikhil was left to his own devices with clear instructions on how to probe for snakes under rocks. Nikhil went on to remove a loose slab of cement on the road’s retaining wall and a snake fell at his feet. He yelled, “Snake, snake”, and that brought Rom and Dattatri rushing to the spot.
The snake was an adult male, length 42.3 cm. It was captured and taken back to Chennai where a taxonomic examination brought forth the discovery of a new species. It was named, Nikhil’s kukri snake (Oligodon nikhili), in honour of Rom’s son. Nikhil grew up to the irresistible call of the wild and followed in his father’s footsteps. Nikhil is currently the curator at the Madras Crocodile Bank Trust and Centre for Herpetology.
“This specimen remains the only known one of Nkhil’s kukri snake. Not many three year-olds have discovered a new species of snake! Other individuals and institutions have launched searches for this species after the discovery by Nikhil but have not found a specimen again. Nikhil’s specimen was deposited at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, where we met the eminent taxonomist, Frederick Wagner. He confirmed that Nikhil’s specimen was an undescribed species,” Rom told this writer. Nikhil’s lone specimen is known as a “holotype” in zoology, ie, a single-type specimen upon which the description and name of a new species is based. Other significant holotype snake species from the sub-continent are curated at the National Zoological Collections, Kolkata, BNHS Collection, Mumbai, and the NHM.
{{/usCountry}}“This specimen remains the only known one of Nkhil’s kukri snake. Not many three year-olds have discovered a new species of snake! Other individuals and institutions have launched searches for this species after the discovery by Nikhil but have not found a specimen again. Nikhil’s specimen was deposited at the Natural History Museum (NHM), London, where we met the eminent taxonomist, Frederick Wagner. He confirmed that Nikhil’s specimen was an undescribed species,” Rom told this writer. Nikhil’s lone specimen is known as a “holotype” in zoology, ie, a single-type specimen upon which the description and name of a new species is based. Other significant holotype snake species from the sub-continent are curated at the National Zoological Collections, Kolkata, BNHS Collection, Mumbai, and the NHM.
{{/usCountry}}So, all you fathers/mothers and children out there, heed the inspirational tale of the Whitakers. Head for the woods, deep, dark and lovely, and paths less travelled to find peace, happiness, bonding and who knows, a new species!
Horns of an apricot tree
The Asiatic ibex dominates the narrative of war and village folklore in Ladakh. Last week, I was on a tour of 11th century Buddhist temples of village Alchi, west of Leh and lying above the roaring Indus gorge. There, I chanced upon a skull and sweeping, crescent-shaped horns of a wild ungulate. The trophy was mounted quaintly on an apricot tree in the courtyard seating of a native resort. The lay of the horns was distinctly horizontal, which was intriguing. On inquiring from the resort’s young owner, Tsewang Dolma, I was told it was of an ibex retrieved during a trek to forbidding ridelines towering south and above Alchi.
Not convinced, I repeated my question to an articulate monk, Sonam Amchipa, who was managing tourist entry into the temples. He also blithely attributed it to the ibex, an iconic high-altitude species and regimental insignia of the renowned, sturdy and sure-footed mountain troops of the Ladakh Scouts Regiment.The army-ibex story does not end this side of the LoC: the ibex is also the regimental insignia of the Pakistan Army’s Northern Light Infantry, which had intruded into Kargil. The NLI troops were ably ejected by the Ladakh Scouts from Chorbatla in end-May 1999 giving the Indian Army its first and morale-boosting victory at a juncture when all had seemed dark and defeatist. I let matters rest on species identity. Instead, I gazed at the horns above me as if they were the snows of the “Far Pavilions” and sipped sumptuous juice of maroonish-sunset fiery Alchi apricots. Alchi’s legendary apricot juice was preservative-free, rich in fibre/pulp and brimming with food value. A look at wild horns so close was a novelty as creatures of Ladakh’s perpendicular altitudes are not easily glimpsed in summers.
On return to Chandigarh, I thumbed through the books and was happy to find my hunch correct, The horns on the apricot tree were of the Greater Blue sheep (GBS), commonly known as Bharal (Hindi) and Na/Sna in Ladakhi. Distinct from GBS horns, those of an Ibex are scimitar-shaped and rise steeply in an expanding V-shape before arching downwards. Also, ibex horns are ridged instead of the GBS’s smoother, thicker horns .