When was zai whitaker born to run

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Wildbuzz: Father, son and new snake

A three-year-old boy, Nikhil Whitaker, son of herpetologist Rom Whitaker, discovered a new species of snake in Tamil Nadu in 1981. The snake was an adult male, and 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.

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 o

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Sálim Ali For Children

Zai Whitaker

OF COURSE THERE WERE BIRDS IN THE BUSHES, TREES AND SKIES BEFORE SÁLIM ALI. BUT IT WAS HE WHO PUT THEM ON INDIA’S MAP FOREVER.

From being a trigger-happy airgun-toting nine-year-old boy to becoming one of the foremost bird scientists in the world, Sálim Ali did not follow a straight path. Somewhere along his adventures between India, Burma and europe, he developed such a single-minded zeal for the study of feathered creatures that he spent all his time close to them.

Over the long course of researching bird life, in the days when there were no computers or internet, he wrote the first Indian field guide to birds, using just a notebook and binoculars.

‘Sálim Bhai’ – as he was widely known – had neither wealth nor connections in high places, but his passion for birds, a phenomenal memory and discipline made him one of the most famous ornithologists in the country and beyond.

In S&aac

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The forests of India are not only home to a wide variety of animals and birds, but they also teem with committed conservationists, naturalists and nature lovers. And after having spent many years with wildlife, these men and women have fascinating stories to tell. Cliff Rice is one such animal-explorer. He lived for two years in the mountains of Kerala, befriending the Nilgiri tahr, an endangered species of mountain goat, with fistfuls of salt. Ralph Morris, one of the first British coffee planters in the Biligirirangan Hills, went on a 'tiger beat' and chased a pair of tigers towards his daughter Monica , who was given little pebbles to throw at them if defence became necessary. Sally Walker spent years with tiger cubs in zoos, and proved that kindness is more effective than fierce authority; Rom Whitaker set off on an international hunt for giant crocodiles, which took him from Orissa to Egypt; and Manish Chandi tells a fascinating tale about Meroe, the rumbling Nicobar island, w