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aequipinnatus and Devario malabaricus.
In addition to native species, we also
came upon the translocated species
(North Indian carp, which have been
introduced for fi shery purposes) Catla
Gibelion catla, which formed an integral
part of our diet in Yercaud. Though it
could be considered an alien species in
the strict interpretation of the term,
it must be mentioned that it does not
breed under natural conditions and
fi ngerlings are introduced from time to
time by the Department of Fisheries.
But the most alarming fi nding was
the presence of two alien invasive
species: the guppy Poecilia reticulata
and Egyptian mouth breeder or tilapia
Oreochromis mossambicus. Though
the tilapia was found in low numbers
in Yercaud lake and a stream draining
away from it, the guppy outnumbered
native species in catches almost 10:1.
The threat of alien invasives taking
over freshwater habitats is a reality
and the ornamental fi sh trade is
emerging as the most critical threat to
fragile aquatic habitats in peninsular
India (http://dx.doi.org/10.11609/JoTT.
o2179.700-4).
BIRDING IN THE GHATS
Preston was aided in birding by
Sugavanam Balasubramanian, Bala for
short, an ex software engineer who
has a villa in Yercaud and is an ardent
nature photographer. Between the
two of them they drew up a list of 52
species and procured reasonably good
photographs of 29 of them (awaiting
publication in the Journal of Threatened
Ta x a). Preston and Bala have done a
great job and may fi nd my treatment of
them superfi cial in this article, but what
is of particular interest to me are raptors
and owls, and Yercaud has a fair share,
only be rivaled in the Eastern Ghats by
the Kolli Hills. On any given day and at
virtually any time I have come across the
Crested Serpent Eagles, a pair of which
breeds in Kiliyur Valley. Both parents and
their single young could be traced just
by listening for the begging calls of the
youngster. We did not see them actually
hunt, but on a couple of occasions the
parents were seen to feed their young
on agamas, which were plentiful at the
site and very conspicuous, especially
the males displaying on open rocks.
Crested Hawk Eagles could occasionally
be seen on the wing but we found no
evidence of the Black Eagle, Bonelli’s
Eagle, Booted Eagle and Short-toed
Eagle (reported from Yercaud avibase- bsc-eoc.org/checklist.jsp?region-
INsetn03&list-howardmoore), which was
a bit disappointing. Nevertheless, Bala
did track down and photograph a Steppe
Buzzard Buteo buteo vulpinus, a new
record for the region – in South India it
is known only from the west coast and
even in North India only a handful of
scattered records exist. Three species of
owls were recorded during the survey –
the Jungle
Owlet, Indian Scops Owl and Mottled
Wood Owl – all confi rmed by acoustic
surveys. The only visual confi rmation
(we were not around, having returned
to our bases in Chennai and Auroville),
was when Bala was handed a nestling
Mottled Wood Owl, which had
fallen out of its nesting cavity.
To put it mildly, this left Bala in a
quandary and the fi rst inkling of it
was when I received a frantic
phone call around midnight stating that
he did not know what to do as the owlet
steadfastly refused to eat the Pedigree
Puppy dog food he off ered. My reaction
was not exactly kind. In the event, a
strict vegetarian, he handed the bird
over to the Forest Department the next
day and did not speak to me for months.
OF VIPERS AND SHIELDTAILS
Though we had interesting moments
with the fi sh and birds, the highlight of
the entire survey were the reptiles and
here Ganesh was in his element – he
even managed to pick an argument
with a local while searching for geckos
and could see no rationale as to why
the guy was objecting to him climbing
walls at night. If I am to be a believer
in omens, I would have said our jauntto Yercaud was rather auspicious –
even before we reached Yercaud my
personal fi eld assistant spotted a
green vine snake on the road leading
uphill and this gave him brownie points
and an unholy advantage over the
rest of his ilk. As soon as we got into
Kiliyur Valley, another guide gave a
squawk of delight and grabbed at
what he assumed to be another vine
snake (a typical herpetologist’s fi eld
assistant’s behaviour – it seems that
the instinct is to grab fi rst and think
about consequences later), but this
turned out to be a bamboo pit viper,
which struck viciously, but fortunately
missed. Though there are no recorded
fatalities concerning the bamboo pit
viper, the bite can be extremely painful
and debilitating – as Ganesh can attest
to since he has had the unfortunate
experience of being bitten by one.
One of our specifi c goals for
undertaking this survey was to fi nd
out more about sheildtail snakes, a
group of enigmatic reptiles confi ned to
the forested hill ranges of central and
southern India, and Sri Lanka. Little is
known of their ecology and even the
taxonomical status of some species
remains unresolved. The study on
shieldtails instituted by Richard Henry
Beddome in 1886 was taken up by
M.V. Rajendran in 1985, but Linnaean and
Wallacean shortfalls dogged the group
and continues to do so, though there is
hope that over the last 31 years some
taxonomical exactitude could have come
to light. Road kills got us going and two
species of shieldtails were collected and
examined. The more common Elliot’s
shieldtail Uropeltis ellioti has a wide
range both in the Western and Eastern
Ghats in both central and southern
India; the other is restricted to the
Shevroy Hills. Until our survey, and theCrested Serpent EagleAn Orange Minivet at Kiliyur Falls.