© Getty ImagesSneezy: The snub-nosed monkey
A monkey which sneezes in the rain and a "walking" fish are among more than 200 new species discovered in the Eastern Himalayas in recent years. A report on wildlife in Nepal, Bhutan, the far north of Burma, southern Tibet and north-eastern India has revealed discoveries in the past five years including 133 plants, 26 species of fish, 10 new amphibians, one reptile, one bird and one mammal.
Scientists learned of the snub-nosed monkey - or "Snubby" as they nicknamed the species - from locals in the remote forests of northern Burma, who said
it was easy to find the monkey when it was raining, because it often got rainwater in its upturned nose, causing it to sneeze. To avoid the problem, snub-nosed monkeys spend rainy days sitting with their heads tucked between their knees, the report said.
© Chintan Sheth, WWFBompu Litter Frog (Leptobrachium bompu)
The Eastern Himalayas are home to over 100 different amphibian species, including this striking blue-eyed frog. Called the Bompu Litter Frog (
Leptobrachium bompu), this species has distinctively wrinkled skin and black bands on its limbs and toes. The frog was discovered in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh, as the name suggests, among leaf litter along a stream. The males make a croaking call researchers described as a "kek-kek-kek-kek" sound. (Source:
treehugger)
© Henning Strack Hansen, WWF
The walking snakehead fish (
Channa andrao) - is more terrifying than its beautiful bluegreen and pinkish scales might suggest.
Snakeheads breath air, although they have gills, and
need to surface periodically. In fact,
this fish can live out of water for up to four days and may wriggle across wet ground to move from one body of fresh water to another.
Snakeheads are an important source of food in the region, and are sometimes raised as part of aquaculture systems that produce both rice and fish. (Source:
treehugger)
Learn more: World Wildlife Fund report.
is more accurate. I know it may seem like a petty point to make, but there is something very insidious underneath the tone of Western academia. Western society is so subliminally arrogant and proud, and it is even more so with the academic community, the scientists and biologists, etc. Why is it when the Western World "discovers" things, they speak as if the thing never existed ever before in the world. According to the Western World, the Americas were "discovered" - including the millions of people and thousands of tribes who lived there... Isn't their history relevant to the big picture of what it is to be human? No, it's secondary... before Western Imperialism "discovered" of their existence, their existence was not worth anything. Animals and plants are "discovered" by Western academics, but the locals in the region where the animals reside have lived with them for thousands and thousands of years...
Really, the Indigenous People of the Earth already know what Western Science "discovers", only the indigenous don't shout it out from the roof tops and slap their backs incessantly, like Western academics love to do. The underlying title of this article should read: "Western society yet again catches up with what the native indigenous Earth people knew for generations, and have taken it away from them, and in their false heroic stance, once again, pretend like they invented it."