News species of cat snake found in Maharashtra, named after Uddhav Thackeray's family
The newly found snake species are arboreal, mostly seen close to the forest streams and are active during the night. This new species is non-venomous and is known to grow up to 890 mm
In yet another important discovery that highlights the protection of rich biodiversity of the Western Ghats, renowned Herpetologist Dr. Varad Giri along with Tejas Thackeray and the team have discovered a new species of snake from Maharashtra's Sahyadri Tiger Reserve after 125 years. The species, which has been named Boiga Thackeray sp. nov - Thackeray's cat snake has scales on its body that resembles that of the stripes found on the body of the Tiger.
According to the researchers working in the field of wildlife conservation, India has a rich and endemic diversity of flora and fauna and owing to its unique diversity and rich endemicity, the Western Ghats is one of the hotspots for biodiversity.
It may be noted that scientists from various institutes played a major role in the discovery. The first author of this study was Dr. Varad B. Giri who led the study in collaboration with Mr. Ashok Captain, renowned snake taxonomist from India; Dr. V. Deepak of Natural History Museum, London; Swapnil Pawar, a naturalist from Kolhapur; and Dr. Frank Tillack from Museum fur Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany, who is a renowned expert on this group. The paper was published on September 26, 2019, in the Journal of Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS).
Talking to mid-day Dr. Varad Giri said, "Although this landscape is explored for higher vertebrates, there are many surprises still awaiting to be discovered from this landscape. In one of such efforts, a new species of a snake has been described from the Western Ghats region of Maharashtra, India." The new species that has been discovered is from a group of snakes commonly called cat snakes and belong to the genus Boiga.
Dr. Giri further added, "Although snakes belong to this genus are widely distributed in India, a few species are endemic to the Western Ghats. This new species, Thackeray's Cat Snake (Boiga Thackeray) is named after researcher Tejas Thackeray for his contributions towards the studies on freshwater crabs in India, especially northern Western Ghats and his strong and unconditional support towards the taxonomy of less charismatic species. Apart from this, he was equally instrumental in finding this species and provided crucial information on their natural history. The latest snake described from the Western Ghats in this genus was in 1894."
The new snake is arboreal, mostly seen close to the forest streams and is active during the night. This new species is non-venomous and is known to grow up to 890 mm (approximately 3.00 foot) in length. According to the researcher, this new species is also unique as it is known to feed on eggs of the frogs of Humayun'n Night Frog, Nyctibatrachus humayuni.