A Decade of New Species Discoveries in the Himalayas [Slide Show]
The remote eastern Himalayas--home to tiny deer and big vipers--have offered enterprising researchers a wealth of new species to document and describe
![A Decade of New Species Discoveries in the Himalayas [Slide Show]](https://static.scientificamerican.com/sciam/cache/file/DEFA3829-0907-4A75-B71FCEB3A731058D.jpg?w=590&h=393)
A Decade of New Species Discoveries in the Himalayas [Slide Show]
- GENUINE JUNGLE BIRD Just south of the Tibetan border in Burma's Kachin State, researchers discovered the Naung Mung scimitar-babbler ( Jabouilleia naungmungensis ), which was described in 2005. The midsize forest-dweller uses its big bill to nose around on the ground for food... CHRISTOPHER MILENSKY/WWF NEPAL
- MISCHIEVOUS MONKEYS The first new primate species described in more than a century, the Arunachal macaque ( Macaca munzala ) had been the bane of local farmers for ages. Nicknamed the mum zala (deep-forest monkey) by the local Dirang Monpa, the Arunachal macaque had long been accused of messing with crops in its native Arunachal Pradesh territory... ANINDYA SINHA/WWF NEPAL
- SURPRISING SNAKES This poisonous pit viper grows to a menacing 1.3 meters and was discovered by scientists in 2002 around Putao. The Gumprecht's green pit viper ( Trimeresurus gumprechti ) lives in the northern reaches of Burma at altitudes above 400 meters and varies widely between the sexes... GERNOT VOGEL/WWF NEPAL
- BRIGHT BIRDS Few new bird species have been reported in India since the 1940s, but an astrophysicist described the Bugun liocichla ( Liocichla bugunorum ) in 2006. Ramana Athreya spotted two of the Asian babblers in 1995 around the Eaglenest Wildlife Sanctuary in Arunachal Pradesh... RAMANA ATHREYA/WWF NEPAL
