Herping with Hope
- Amatya Sharma
- Aug 2, 2024
- 4 min read
In the shadow of clouds and imminent rain, we set out for my first herping trip in the Western Ghats. On many occasions in my travels abroad, especially in Central and South America, whenever I met herpers, they all expressed their desire to visit the Western Ghats, even as we stood sipping Pisco sours in the Peruvian Amazon. I took a rather convoluted route to now be in Sirsi, a biodiversity hotspot and now a place I can call home for a while. Heading out herping in the car with Amatya (owner of The Niche homestay, a herper, my boss and driver) and Naman (my 13 year old teacher and also my student). Amatya intended to drive to a spot in the forest he hadn’t visited yet this monsoon, and it is hard not to be infected by his permanent excitement for herps. Even from within the car his flashlight and eyes are often to the sides of the road, which are not that wide this side of the planet. This is how we spotted tarantulas and scorpions playing the waiting game in their burrows in the mud banks flanking the road. A UV torch is quite handy to see these shine in the darkness.
The imminent rain came, but the canopy protected us from a thrashing. Naman is fascinated by the glow of raindrops falling through the canopy. In the light of his torch, he pointed it upwards several times to enjoy the sight. This may even work in the city, certainly worth a try.
We walked on a trail of dead leaves and mud, with the footprints of cattle preceding us.
Soon we spotted a three-some of pill millipede, lifers for me. Two pale yellow and one darker with light yellow margins to its body segments moved distinctively amongst fungi and leaf litter. This trilobyte reminiscent of life form, walks like they are taking 20 quick baby steps at the same time using their million legs. Under threat they curl into a ball or pill shape (called volvation) that reminded me of the red and white circular lollipops sold in fairs in the US.
Suddenly, there was a shrill whistle, the sound came from a small stream flowing across (underneath) the road and we decided to go into the ridge and explore. Stepping down into the stream itself we found a Jog Night frog (Nyctibatrachus jog) clinging to a leaf hanging a few inches above the stream. That’s their spot. This is a medium sized, greenish olive frog with a few bubbles on its back and sides. On the way back upwards, just so I got a better idea of what medium means, I saw a tiny orangish mottled frog, the Nyctibatrachus kempholeyensis or Kempholey night frog. Sitting right above some submerged leaf litter in the stream. This one didn’t whistle but was quite patient with my photographing.
We came back up to the trail and started to head back to the car. But there’s no herping without flipping a fallen log. It’s a thing. So, we found a log that called to be flipped and Naman and Amatya did the honours. One can spot snakes under logs if the underside is not too soggy, this one’s was. We spotted scorpions, a millipede and a day gecko that we could not catch. So, no snakes yet… Plenty of mushrooms though, from what seemed like a farm of dead man’s fingers to tube mushrooms and bracket mushrooms.
Alas, no sign of the elusive bioluminescent ones in this patch of forest. We will keep looking!
Back in the car Amatya said to expect snakes on the road and Naman was on alert. We are always looking for Malabar pit vipers, but that night they were all out hanging somewhere less wet. Even narrow roads like the ones here see a lot of roadkill, sadly, and that is what we saw first a Jerdon's shieldtail lay dead in the middle of the road. These are small snakes, about 13 inches as adults, non-venomous and have a tail that looks like a blunt instrument. They are very smooth with yellow specks on their sides, yellow lateral stripes on neck and tail as well, and overall, a blackish-gray. This too was a lifer for me, a dead lifer though, may not count.
Naman next spotted a Hump-nosed pit viper, a common venomous snake of the region. It has a cute curved up nose (not exactly humped), a beautiful reddish colour with black markings and our friend here was the average size of pit-vipers, around 15 inches. However, as we got off the car to take a record shot, we noticed something was up with his face and it looked like it had been hit. Amatya gently placed it (using a hook) to the side of the street, but alas, this would be its last night.
Feeling a little dejected we headed back to the car. In five minutes, it was time for a live one, finally. We saw a long brownish black snake making its way across the road, with white bands along the length of its body . By we, I mean they. I was nodding off to sleep in the back there. Brakes woke me up, and we all got out. Is it a wolf (non-venomous) or a krait (venomous)? This is a standard question, and the answer is multi-pronged. The krait does not have a demarcated neck, the wolf snake has a white stripe on its neck as well that is absent in the krait. The wolf snake’s head is flat, and the body rounder. The krait has paired thinner white bands. Ours was a wolf snake, a little bigger than usual. And it was alive and healthy and quickly went into the undergrowth on the side of the road. A nice final challenge to a night full of lifers that whistled and wiggled their way into my path.
Surely, it is like this every time while herping at Sirsi during monsoon, which is why they call it beginner’s luck, don’t they.
We made it back to The Niche, where wonderful Malnad food awaited us for dinner.
Ishita Das , July 2024
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