Close Encounters of the Slithering Kind

These are not just encounters, but close encounters. In these situations I have either touched or been too close for comfort with certain members of the suborder Serpentes

I'd never imagined that such a day would dawn. In 2008, I visited the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS) with friends PD, Zak and Subbu. I must mention here that I was so scared of snakes that I was almost on the verge of being ophidiophobic.

We were roaming the campus when station manager Prashant’s 4-year-old daughter found a baby Common Vine Snake (Ahaetulla nasuta) and caught it to show us. All four of us were stunned at the girl's courage. PD took it from the girl's hands and handled it easily as he was used to working with snakes during his stint as a volunteer with the Gujarat Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (GSPCA). Then Subbu mustered the courage to hold it. Next was Zak.

All this while, I was chewing my fingernails. I too wanted to handle it but my inner voice hissed, "Don't get any bright ideas dude, that's a bloody snake!" At the same time I could hear PD saying, "Dude, it’s just a baby snake." Finally PD's voice won over my inner voice and I did it! The mortal fear dissolved away as I watched the little green fella slithering around my arm, once in a while flicking his tongue to 'taste' the air. This was a big milestone for me. I had held a live snake!

The first touch

The Indian Rock Python (Python molurus) is one of two kinds found in India. The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists it as NT (Near Threatened). Threatened or not, these snakes can be found every once in a while at the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) campus in Surathkal. I had seen them there twice in a span of 18 months.

I first saw a python when some security guys were showing it off to bystanders by catching hold of its tail and throwing it from one side of the road to the other. My requests to them to handle the snake properly fell on deaf ears. Luckily, a student helped the guards bag it and take it away to be released some 7 km away. This python was young and measured approximately 3.5 to 4 feet.

A year later, I encountered a python again and this time I had an experienced ally, PD, to guide me. Late one night, PD popped into my room and said, “Arun! Python, Ist block!” and ran back to his room to pick up his snake hook.

It took me a second to decipher what he had just said. We ran to the spot followed by Zak and Subbu wondering whether it could be a Russell’s Viper (Daboia russelii) since that short, thick venomous snake might appear to be a python to those who cannot tell them apart. There was no doubt about the snake's identity when we reached the spot. There, among the weeds, lay an enormous snake. Even in the darkness lit by a dim street-light, there was no mistaking its size and markings. This was an Indian Rock Python.

We wanted to move the snake from there as it was close to the hostel. If workers saw it, they might kill it. PD asked me to help for its sheer size and weight. I was so out of my wits that I looked around for help, only to see that Zak and Subbu had moved away. PD had already jumped on the snake and held its head. He was shouting at me to hold its lower body and tail as otherwise it would start wrapping around him. After a millisecond’s hesitation I too dived into the weeds and caught the snake.

The snake was extremely strong and there was ample confusion in the dim light. Finally, we subdued it and got a grip. That first touch of the python I shall never forget. The dorsal part was hard but with smooth scales. The ventral scales were rough. The body was hard and muscular. I could feel the muscles moving inside its body. It felt as if a leather sheath was filled with moving cricket balls. This was one snake that you didn’t have to worry about squeezing too much when handling. It was strong and hard to resist all of that! (Just kidding, you do need to handle it with extreme care.)

Once the snake was in our hands, everybody wanted to touch it while we both were already worrying about where to release it.

The fear that had enveloped me until now evaporated now that we caught the snake. After ensuring that the python was safe in our arms, everybody came forward to touch it and take snaps. We later measured, bagged and released it inside a forested corner of the campus, away from the hostel blocks. The python was 7 feet in length (adults grow to around 13 feet).

With this incident I actually overcame my fear of snakes. But this doesn’t mean I’ll go pick up a snake at the first instance I find one!


The third close encounter, now that I think of it, was one of the most hair-raising ones. Except that neither the snake nor I panicked. This species -- the Russell's Viper -- is responsible for the majority of human snakebite deaths in India

Russell's Viper (Photo of a captive snake taken at Guindy Snake Park, Chennai)

One morning, after camping in a forest in the Hosur Forest Division the previous night, I picked up my binocs and began birding alone. I was so engrossed and happy without the extra weight of my camera that I did not pay attention to the forest floor. As I observed a Crested Serpent Eagle calling and circling directly above me, I heard a faint rustle of leaves right next to where I was standing. I turned around to see a thick snake with brown or chestnut coloration, with prominent dark brown oval shaped markings. “Russell’s Viper?” I thought to myself calmly as I observed it uncoiling and beginning to move away, just a foot or so away from my feet. It took me a couple of seconds to realize how lucky I was not to have stepped on the snake or frightened it into biting. I still wonder how I stayed calm that day without jumping at the sight of a snake so close to me.

As the snake moved away into the dry bushes and settled down, I circumvented the bushes and came up in front of it. From there I watched the snake for a good 15 minutes before moving away. Unfortunately, I did not carry my camera that day. But the sight of the viper uncoiling will always be etched in my memory.


Had the “dangerous/deadly” snake, as most people claim vipers to be, chosen to strike instead of moving away, I would mostly not have been here to narrate this encounter as medical help was very far away from the spot. The viper moved away and let me live even when I intruded its personal space. Had it intruded our personal spaces, what would we have done?

Scale pattern of a Russell's Viper 

Text: Arun
Photographs of the Vine snake and Rock python: Pankil Desai
Photographs of Russell's Viper: Arun

Creeped out? Time to get over it! Read other snake posts on The Green Ogre

Encounter: Golden Frog

Our very own Golden Frog, a Western Ghats endemic, gave us the cherished privilege of a long and uninterrupted audience

At the outset let me state that the frog we encountered is not to be confused with the Panamanian Golden Frog (Atelopus zeteki), which was last seen and filmed in the wild in 2007. The entire known population in the wild is now assumed extinct and the frog survives only in captivity. Our Golden Frog (Hylarana aurantiaca) is luckier, but the Sword of Damocles of the amphibian world, the fungal infection chytridiomycosis, hangs over its head too.
Frogs have an extremely permeable skin, through which they can absorb oxygen into the bloodstream. Oxygen first dissolves in a thin water film on the surface of the skin and then from there into the blood. This feature, which evolved to aid their amphibious lifestyle, is now one of the reasons for the rapid decline of frog populations around the globe. The permeable skin makes them highly susceptible to toxins in the water. So evolved is this feature in frogs that a lungless frog has been discovered in 2007 in the rainforests of Borneo, Indonesia. The Bornean Flat-headed Frog (Barbourula kalimantanensis) has no lungs and this 7 cm long frog breathes entirely though its skin. The absence of lungs helps it attain a flatter body shape -- a key adaptation to survival in its habitat, fast-running mountain streams, since it aids streamlining and reduces drag. But it is already threatened due to rise in water toxicity due to mining.

We first encountered the Golden Frog during a late evening “frogging” session at ARRS. They were perched on leaves and calling (the vocal sac is internal) but in the feeble torchlight it was very difficult to make out the distinctive coloration, especially the yellow-orange back bordered by two golden streaks – the characteristics that gives them their regal name. The next day I saw a couple of them on the same bushes beside a small monsoonal wetland right outside our cottage and as the excited Ogres scanned the bushes we realized that there at least 20 of them right there. As we photographed them, the frogs maintained the calm and composure of meditating Zen monks. There was no alarm, no anxiety and no visible discomfiture. In fact, as the successive monsoon fronts arrived -- the sequence of mist, drizzle, heavy shower, sunshine, mist played out though the day -- they hardly seemed to move. I observed one of them seated in position for almost three hours. They also seemed to be quite gregarious, seated on leaves, twigs, stems and branches of the bush close to each other.

Hylarana aurantiaca is found in moist evergreen forests, swamps and coastal regions bordering the southern Western Ghats and is probably a Western Ghats endemic since the population found in Sri Lanka is suspected to belong to a separate, yet undescribed, species. It is described as a semi-arboreal and semi-aquatic frog. The frogs we came upon at the ARRS (which has a population of over 200-300 Golden Frogs) were typically perched on small bushes – on stems and twigs – and on large leaves close to the ground. There was a small disused water-logged paddyfield nearby so the bushes were technically at the edge of a shallow water body. Their IUCN status is Vulnerable.

The frog is small in size -- approximately 4 cm from the snout to the vent. The toes are dilated into discs and the middle digit of the toes is longer than the other two. It has three digits on each limb and the webbing is barely noticeable. The skin can be smooth but is often granulated especially on the back due to scattered conical tubercules. The nostril is close to the snout and the tympanum is quite distinct, almost the size of the eye, only slightly smaller.

Hylarana aurantiaca’s distinct feature is a chocolate-brown/olive-green band that runs from the tip of the snout along the flanks to the hindlegs. The eye, nostril and tympanum are all situated on this band. This band is bordered by a bright yellow, almost golden streak running all along the upper border and till the foreleg along the lower border. The back, which is essentially bordered by these two Midas-touched streaks is orange/orange-yellow or olive-brown. The back and the limbs have no barring but for some dark splotches. The eye is black and bulging, the eyelids bright orange. The underparts are creamy white and the skin is a translucent glowing orange when it is lit up by the sun.

Currently, around the world, most of the roughly 5,000 species of frogs are in decline, and we have a very real risk of losing species that are not yet discovered. In India, while 12 new species of tree-frogs were discovered by a team led by S D Biju of Delhi University, Systematics Lab, Delhi, another initiative to re-discover 50 lost amphibians of India (LOST! Amphibians of India Initiative) has yielded just five re-discoveries so far, the prized one being Chalazodes Bubble-nest Frog (Raorchestes chalazodes), unrecorded since 1874. Researchers estimate that we may have lost up to 13% of our amphibians already.

We Ogres cherish the time we spent with the Golden Frogs at ARRS. They were trusting, accessible and -- pardon me for anthropomorphising -- extremely friendly. It was a privilege to observe and photograph them from so close. The Golden Frog is a lovely representative of a species that has a special place in our hearts – be it as a Frog Prince or as a metaphor in Matsuo Basho’s famous Frog Haiku.

Text and Photographs by Sahastrarashmi
Enjoy more Agumbe Diaries

Encounter: Malabar Pit Viper

Little did we know that we were being watched by a silent and mysterious presence on a wooden beam behind us

The first time I went to Agumbe Rainforest Research Station, I remember walking for hours in the night, hoping to catch a glimpse of Malabar Pit Vipers. No luck. This time, on a trip with the other ogres, nearly two full days passed without incident.

The heat-sensing pits between the eye and nostril can be clearly seen

On the second night, Sandy and I were walking towards our tent in pouring rain, guided only by the small beam of my torch. I almost stepped on a twig that lay across my path -- a dry twig that appeared to be mottled with pale lichen growth in bluish green and brown. Except this twig was moving! 

"Stop!" I shrieked. Sandy bumped into me from behind. I guided the torch beam towards the head of the "twig". One good look at the snake's triangular head was enough to conclude that it was a viper. That, in addition to the colour pattern, pointed us in the right direction. This was a Malabar Pit Viper (Trimeresurus malabaricus)!

As I watched the fella slither past me slowly, I asked Sandy to go and fetch the others. As he ran back, I stood there in pouring rain and pitch darkness observing the snake cross the path and slowly enter a dense thicket. At times, when a twig or branch was too high, the snake lifted itself upwards like a straight stick and hooked its head on the twig. Then, it pulled itself up. This behaviour pointed to the snake's tree-dwelling lifestyle. 

By the time Sandy came back with Beej, the viper had almost dissolved into the shrub, aided by perfect camouflage. I was upset that the others had not had a good look at the snake.

The brown markings on green can be seen

Malabar Pit Vipers are nocturnal and are generally found in low bushes, trees and on rocks. During the day they are inactive and may be seen basking. They are endemic to the Western Ghats and are found between altitudes of 600 to 2134 metres. Adult snakes can grow to 55-79 centimeters. The longest ever measured was 105 centimeters. The triangular head is broader than the neck. They are typically green but appear in other morphs and a lot of variations have been recorded, including reddish-brown, yellow, etc. On its back the snake is olive or brown with black or brown spots, which may be joined to form a zigzag pattern. The sides have faint yellow spotting and the tail has yellow and black markings. The pupils have vertical slits. Malabar Pit Vipers are ovoiviviparous -- the eggs form, develop and hatch within the mother's body.

Pit vipers, which are classified under the subfamily Crotalinae in the family Viperidae, are distinguished from other vipers by the presence of a pair of heat-sensing pits located between the eye and nostril. These organs help the snake detect the body heat of warm-blooded prey even in absolute darkness.

The other ogres were disappointed at missing the snake the night before but at 4 pm the next day, our luck turned. The ogres were busy treating a Vine Snake like a supermodel. After about 20 minutes all except me and Andy left the scene. After lingering for another ten minutes, we decided to go back to the room to pack and freshen up before our return journey. Just as we left Prashanth, the station manager, called out to us. He pointed to a wooden beam just under the roof of the dining area and said, "Look who's sitting here." There lay a Malabar Pit Viper, coiled, calm and relaxed.

Relaxed and lazing

Observing from high above

It dawned on us that all the while, as we were photographing the Vine Snake, this chap was watching the drama from its high throne!

The others arrived and we took good, long looks at the snake. Malabar Pit Vipers have prehensile tails (adapted to grasp or hold) and this perhaps helps them to anchor themselves on branches or twigs while they lunge at their prey. Here, the snake had used its tail as a kind of hinge to loop it against the beam in the absence of anything else to hold on to. 

We made sure to keep our distance as vipers, though slow, are known to be capable of extremely fast strikes. The venom is mildly haemotoxic -- the toxins destroy red blood cells, disrupt clotting of blood, and causes tissue damage. In humans it results in pain and swelling. 

The prehensile tail is used as a hinge in the absence of anything to hold onto

I'm sure the snake wouldn't have wanted to waste its venom on us, and instead save it for the geckos, tree-frogs, shrews, and birds which make up a large part of its diet. Pit vipers have erectile fangs which are kept folded against the roof of the mouth. They are brought into place only when striking.

After we observed and photographed the snake, I asked Prashanth if he would move the snake since it was close to the dining area. To my surprise, he said they would leave it there and let it decide its own way out at night. Though I was a little concerned about slithering vipers that might end up over our heads or under the dining table, I was also glad that ARRS offered a haven for snakes where they had right of way.

Text: Arun

Photographs: Sahastrarashmi and Arun

Read more Agumbe Diaries

Encounter: Monster Leeches

Pardon me for exaggerating the danger posed by leeches, for experience has not been kind to me


The farmer looked at his buffalo lying in the leaf litter. She looked as if she had been sucked dry, with circular bite-marks the diameter of tennis balls. He gasped. Having spent all sixty three years of his life here, he knew the forest and the grasslands adjoining it like the back of his hand. There was absolutely no creature here that could inflict such a death. He had previously lost a few cattle to snake-bite, and a calf to a leopard. But, this was certainly odd. 


A slight movement among the fallen leaves caught his eye. A bullfrog? But something made him look at it again. It didn't have a head, just a stump in place. It tilted the stump-head left and right like a blind man trying to tell the direction of a sound. And it leaped right at him - the same way frogs do, albeit in the opposite direction.


As he battled with the thing, trying to pull out the stump that worked now like a suction-head attached firmly to his throat, he saw from the corners of his eyes, more of these creatures springing towards him from all directions. He screamed, though he knew well that there was no one around who could hear him...

A few miles away, in a secret army biological research station, the army chief read the report from his scientists. The last three decrypted reports had brought a smile to his face...

"Experiment to infuse tiger leech DNA into bullfrog spawn- Success

Self sustainability in the wild - Success

Reproducing capability - Success"

But the blood drained from his face as he read the last report....

CODE RED! Recapturing/ eliminating the specimen released to wild - Failure. Transmitters attached to six of the twenty not working.

If the Japanese could invent Godzilla out of their resentment for nuclear experiments and atom bombs, can't I invent a monster-leech?!

A drunk leech with a punctured stomach paints a gory picture (Photo: Sahastra)

Since childhood, I have been mortally afraid of leeches, though I had not yet encountered them. My dad was an avid trekker and came back from his trips with tales of how leeches attached themselves to the limbs of trekkers and grew fat sucking blood. He said that dropping salt or lemon juice over them made them drop off. The stories implanted a permanent apprehension in my head about leeches. Add to that other stories I heard of leeches getting under the eyelid of someone who washed his face in a stream only to be discovered two days later when the eye swelled up, of HIV viruses being found inside leeches in Africa, and of a guy who went to change his undies in the bushes after a long dip in a forest stream finding a fat, bloated leech mirroring his leech-like member... 

How much more does one need for mere fear to give way to paranoia?

The modus operandi of this bloodsucker is the proven lie-in-wait-and-ambush method. The moment you put your feet anywhere near one of them, they will detect motion and heat and latch onto you. They clamber up through gaps in your shoe, all the way up to where your socks end, and latch onto the skin. Its saliva contains an anaesthetic, which numbs pain and other sensation, and an anti-coagulant, which unclots the blood to make it flow smoothly. When it has had enough, it drops off.

The fat, dark specimen looks for a tender spot on Beej's index finger...

On our Agumbe trip we saw two kinds of leeches: a thin, long one with stripes around it and two along its length, and a darker, shorter one with two cream-coloured stripes on either side along its length. With the first one, the standard technique that Arun taught us worked well: Roll, pick and flick. Put a finger on top of it, and roll it over the leech. It would curl up into a ball, then just pick it up and flick it far with a finger. With the latter, this was tough as the guy just wouldn't roll. Here, pressing your nail near the bite to loosen its hold and then doing a carrom-strike with the middle finger was easier.

Two slender leeches attempt to find the point where the socks originate...

We also tried some experiments with the guy. Beej lifted one up, pulled it with both hands like a rubber band, twisted it and squeezed it in an attempt to "give him a tough time" - but the guy was literally indestructible that way. Chemical warfare was easier. Some salt on a leech would make it shrivel up and die, and same happened when we squeezed a drop of lemon juice on it. I had worn socks dipped in Dettol and brine and dried, but they didn't deter the leeches much. Wearing ankle-length shoes and jeans that extended all the way to the base of the shoe, made the leeches climb up the jeans - they were easier to spot and remove.

Locals often tell us to drop salt or hold a flame to a biting leech. But it is said that this may cause the leech to regurgitate blood along with bacteria in its stomach right on the bite wound, leading to the risk of infection.

One had latched on to my leg too (photo: Beej)

After the Agumbe trip, I made my peace with the leeches. Of course, peace is a relative term, though I even stood still with a leech having started to suck my blood long enough to let Beej photograph it. But there were moments when they troubled me -- like when one attached itself to Arun's arm at 1 AM when we were asleep inside the tent. And yes, the itch from only three bites (a blessing, considering the number that I plucked off my legs and one from right under my chin) hasn't worn off yet.

Text by Sandeep Somasekharan

Photos by Sahastrarashmi, Beej and Sandeep

Read more Agumbe Diaries

Encounter: Whining for a Vine Snake

For three days we roamed Agumbe despairing that no snake had slithered across our path. And then we had a stroke of Last Day's Luck!

We saw them all at Agumbe - frogs, lizards, insects, birds... even a mammal. But other than a close encounter that Sandy and I one night, the three other Ogres whined for the slithering kind, especially Green Vine Snakes (Ahaetulla nasuta), which are generally quite common in the Agumbe Rainforest Research Station (ARRS) campus.

After three dry days (not at all in the literal sense) we had a stroke of so-called Last Day's Luck. The four of us, except Sahastra, were exploring a far corner of the campus when we heard him call out to us. He met us half-way and exclaimed, "Vine Snake!" I don't think I have run faster in my life. I stopped only when Sahastra motioned me to, as we were close to the dry shrub in which the snake was stretched out.

The contrast a Vine snake brings to its background is impressive

The next twenty minutes were spent photographing and admiring the snake. We made sure not to agitate the snake by keeping our distance, not because we feared it but because we wanted the snake to be as comfortable and relaxed as it was. 

Although an agitated vine snake looks impressive -- it inflates and flattens its neck and throat, revealing a black-and-white checkered pattern -- we made sure we did not do that. Such pictures of the vine snake (with chessboard markings and mouth open) are most common in photographic forums, indicating that the snakes were threatened or stressed by the photographers in search of an impressive picture. I implore readers, and photographers among them, to exercise restraint while photographing these snakes.

Green Vine Snakes are slender arboreal snakes that can grow up to 1.5 metres on average. The green colouration is due to the interaction of a yellow pigment on the snake's blue skin. The longest specimen ever measured was a female, which was 1.94 metres. The snake has a long, triangular, pointed snout. The eyes are slightly forward-facing with pupils that are horizontal slits.

The pointed snout and horizontal slits of the pupils are characteristic

These snakes are found in forested habitats, including gardens, up to an elevation of 1,800 m. A diurnal predator, it generally waits and ambushes its prey, which include frogs, birds, tadpoles, lizards, small mammals and other snakes. Green Vine Snakes are rear-fanged and mildly venomous. Human victims may suffer local swelling, numbness or itching.

Coils

The forward-facing eyes, which enable binocular vision, help the snake judge depth and distance, which are necessary to sustain its arboreal lifestyle. The snake's eyes and pointed snout have also led to myths that it plucks out the eyes of its adversaries. Curiously, J C Daniel has recorded that the Vine Snake has the "habit of striking the eye of its opponent, the only object in movement in a tree snake's view" and adds that the snake's common name in Tamil means "eye-pecking snake".

The forward-facing eyes help the snake judge depth and distance

The Green Vine Snake is generally quite aggressive and does not take well to being handled. But it's not difficult to figure if the snake is feeling threatened and wants to be left alone - all you need to look for are those chessboard markings. 

Vine Snakes snakes are ovoviviparous -- they produce eggs that develop within the mother's body. The female gives birth to live young, which have no placental connection with the mother. A vine snake may have between 3-23 young at a time.

After being treated like a model for around 20 minutes, the patient snake decided to move on, deciding to end its encounter with the ogres. But I'm sure that the snake and the ogres were happy that they treated each other with respect and none were left whining.

Text and photos by Arun Menon

Lead photo by Sahastrarashmi 
Read more Agumbe Diaries

Monsoon Mating Mania

Monsoon in top gear is a season for an unabashed green orgy, and we voyeuristic Green Ogres clicked away shamelessly. So much for the birds and bees...


"On the earth the broken arcs; in the heaven a perfect round."
- Robert Browning

Crimson-tailed Marsh Hawks form little earthly arcs as they clasp. Often, when mating dragonflies take wing together, they resemble some large composite monster

The phrase 'Sex and the City' brings to mind too many limp television romances but here we were in Agumbe, so far removed from anything urban that our cell phones barely twitched. Distractions were therefore not going to trouble us. So, absently, perhaps the single (and deprived?) among us must have pondered the question: "What was sex away from the city going to be like?"


I assure you that it was not on our agenda to find out, but without our asking the rainforest's little denizens put on an unabashed show just for us. Even a prude would have stopped to watch, and marvel at the minuscule arcs being etched in the great circle of life. 

Doing it on the hop...

...or on a twig

The sex lives of animals are intriguing but they don't always make for pleasant breakfast conversation. How many embarrassed parents have hurried their confused children away from friendly neighbourhood dogs making an amatory spectacle of themselves in full view of 132 apartments? 


Truth be told, I learned the facts of life long before my parents had the opportunity to tell me about the birds and bees. Ironically, I learned what I had to just by watching birds and bees, and other animals. By age seven, I had some very viable theories on reproduction, most of which led to "Aha, I told you so!" moments later on in life. 


Something about animals (or was it something about me?) led them to perform without restraint before my eyes. And so, before I was myself of reproductive age I had witnessed, both in the wild and in captivity, the private moments of (in no particular order) chickens, quail, partridges, butterflies, dragonflies, mynas, peafowl, cats, crabs, squirrels, geese, donkeys, horses, elephants, monkeys, guinea pigs, rats, mice, pigeons, parakeets, sparrows, snakes, buffalos, cattle, pigs, goats, sheep, deer, gaur, nilgai, blackbuck, agamas, frogs, cockroaches, leopards, waterhens, fish...  


Watching their complex (and, in some cases, extremely uncomplicated) courtship rituals was always fascinating, even if not in a voyeuristic way. With every year, I began to look forward to the monsoon that awakened a deep-seated love rush in all living things. 


Three days and nights in Agumbe brought back so many childhood discoveries that it was like falling in love with love all over again.


While grasshoppers whirred underfoot, crickets kept up the chorus at night. In the murky nooks of the rainforest where we ventured gingerly, half-excited and half-fearful for the vipers that we were told lurked there, frogs were awake and lovesick enough to sing by day. At dusk their chorus mounted to a din above which you had to raise your voice to be heard. Frogs and toads clasped in the stagnant pools of rainwater. Grass stalks at the bottom of clear-flowing runnels were braided with spawn.


Wherever we looked, insects mated. Amorous flies buzzed love songs in our ears. Tiger Beetles tumbled on the ground, looking mean and aggressive even as they coupled. Katydids and grasshoppers hurried away to quieter corners at our approach. 


Whether it was the unusual beauty of two bodies in harmony, or sheer zoopornographic glut, we the paparazzi stalked these lovelorn creatures and made a photographic feast of it. Here are the spoils for your vicarious enjoyment.

Or in brazen defiance of gravity like these Handmaiden Moths

Clearly, we were not the only voyeurs

Text by Beej
Photos by Sahastrarashmi, Sandeep Somasekharan and Beej


Read more Agumbe Diaries

Encounter: Bicoloured Frog

It's tiny and blends in completely with the leaf litter but once you spot it, the Bicoloured Frog is unmistakable

The southwest monsoon has just set in and the entire forest is dripping wet. The dimly lit floor is an abstract mosaic of rust, maroon, brown, beige, green and black – leaves in all stages of decomposition, slowly turning into soggy mulch. An occasional vein of green moss on a tree buttress glows iridescent under a rare shaft of sunlight. Fungi sprout everywhere feasting on death and decay. Every tentative footstep encounters leeches – tiny cold-blooded filaments swaying in the stagnant and humid air, relentlessly in the hunt for the iota of warmth that our feet radiate, setting them off on a determined somersaulting advance. Rotting twigs and branches give way at the slightest footfall and the soft murmur of rain on the dense closed canopy is a permanent hum in a forest which is otherwise silent, at least until nightfall provides the cue to lovesick frogs and crickets.

We are on the lookout for the Hump-nosed Pit Viper but instead we sight the Bicoloured Frog. It, too, is wet and soaked, motionless until it notices us with its large, round, red eyes, which are well adapted to sight in the semi-darkness of the rainforest. 


True to its name, the predominant impression of the Bicoloured Frog (Clinotarsus curtipes), is the neat division of the colouration of the upper and the lower halves of its body. The upper half (which has been described as grey or brown) is cream-coloured, tinged with yellow resulting in a very light shade of brown that matches the surrounding leaf litter. The lower half of the body is glistening black with no banding on the limbs. Seen in dimmer light the glistening back gives the impression of deep beige. 


The nostrils are very close to the mouth and the tympanum, present on the black half of the body and hence not very easily seen, is as large as the eye. The size is approximately 7 cm and the snout is pointed. The backs of all the four or five frogs that we encountered bore randomly distributed black spots, providing excellent camouflage in the leaf litter. The spotting on the back may or may not be present on individual frogs though all the frogs that we encountered had them.

While we photographed the frog – almost lying on the ground for an eye-level view (an act of extreme gallantry considering the omnipresent, ever-flipping thirsty-for-blood leeches) the frog was moderately alarmed and tried to move away, on one occasion walking up using its limbs, but was not unduly shy, never taking more than one hop. Clinotarsus curtipes seemed to be fairly common but none happened to be in breeding colors yet.

The IUCN status is Near Threatened, primarily on account of habitat loss. Clinotarsus curtipes is a terrestrial leaf-litter frog but has webbed toes and enters the water only during the breeding season. It adapts well and is found in different forest types -- evergreen, semi-evergreen and deciduous. In the breeding season the frog acquires a ruddy disposition with the black receding out from the sides and the underside becoming very dark, almost black. The vocal sac is internal. As in a lot of frog species the female is larger than the male. J C Daniel notes that the dispersal of young frogs is very orderly and almost battalion-like. 

The spots, like the stripes of the tiger, can be distinctive and are used to identify individual frogs during density surveys. The spots are also a good aid to locate the frog since an uncannily well synchronised set of polka dots hopping on the forest floor give away an otherwise excellent camouflage.

Read more Agumbe Diaries
Text and photographs by Sahastrarashmi 
Photograph of the breeding male by L Shyamal (Wikipedia Commons)

On the wing: The Racket-tailed Drongo

The spectacle of a Racket-tailed Drongo in flight can make an air-show look like a cheap circus 

The Greater Racket-tailed Drongo (Dicrurus paradiseus) is quite a character. The funky hairdo over the beak, the long-flowing tail and its ability to mimic scores of other birds makes it one very interesting chap to watch. This individual was found next to a huge congregation of birds - the only mixed flock we saw on our trip to ARRS last month. Other birds included Brown-cheeked Fulvettas, Blue-winged Parakeets and Yellow-browed Bulbuls. 

The drongo would take off from its perch on the verge of a small grassland adjoining the station campus and twist and turn in the air. It would pick up an insect or two in mid-air and alight on a branch on the other side...

Text and photo by Sandeep Somasekharan

See more posts in our On the Wing series and the Agumbe Diaries