Journal of Threatened Taxa |
www.threatenedtaxa.org | 26 December 2022 | 14(12): 22354
ISSN 0974-7907 (Online) | ISSN 0974-7893
(Print)
https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8304.14.12.22354
#8304 | Received 06 December 2022
Corrections to ‘An unusual morph
of Naja naja
(Linnaeus, 1758) from Goa, India (Serpentes:
Squamata)’
Nitin Sawant 1 , Amrut
Singh 2, Shubham Rane 3, Sagar Naik 4 &
Mayur Gawas 5
1,3,4,5 Department of Zoology, Goa
University, Taleigao Plateau, Taleigao,
Goa 403206, India.
2 Animal Rescue Squad, Bhaili peth, Bicholim,
Goa 403504, India.
1 nitin.sawant@unigoa.ac.in
(corresponding author), 2 amrutsnake@gmail.com, 3 shubhamrane7036@gmail.com,
4 sagarnaik1018@gmail.com, 5 mithilgawas0987@gmail.com
Date of publication: 26 December 2022 (online & print)
Citation: Sawant, N., A. Singh, S. Rane,
S. Naik & M. Gawas (2022). Corrections to ‘An
unusual morph of Naja naja
(Linnaeus, 1758) from Goa, India (Serpentes:
Squamata)’. Journal
of Threatened Taxa 14(12): 22354. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8304.14.12.22354
Copyright: © Sawant et al. 2022. Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International License. JoTT allows unrestricted use, reproduction, and
distribution of this article in any medium by providing adequate credit to the
author(s) and the source of publication.
An unusual morph of Naja naja from Goa (Sawant et
al. 2022) was published recently to which Vyas & Patel (2022) have raised
various concerns. In response, we wish to agree to the fact that there has been
a clear oversight of an important reference and gaps in data collection which
led to the misinterpretation. As pointed out by Vyas & Patel (2022) it
could very well be a case of illegal wildlife trade for reasons such as
photography or false beliefs. We did not refer to Wüster
(1998) and hence failed to confirm the proper identity of this individual. With
the current findings we conclude the individual to be a northwestern Indian
form of Spectacled Cobra which might have come here through illegal wildlife
trafficking and later released or might escaped from captivity.
There have been no reported cases
of snake charmers involved in illegal trade of Spectacled Cobra in the state of
Goa. Hence, we discarded the chances of this case could be of such illegal
trade. Though we fail to provide any conclusive remarks on the surprisingly low
subcaudal count, we would like to confirm that the tail was complete as it
tapered and ended into a terminal scute. The snake
was in the custody of the Goa Forest Department, and was examined for a brief
period of time. Apart from the dorsal, ventral, and the sub caudal scales, rest
of the scale count was performed by taking closeup photographs of all the
aspects of the body.
References
Sawant, N.,
A. Singh, S. Rane, S. Naik & M. Gawas (2022). An unusual morph of Naja
naja (Linnaeus, 1758) (Squamata: Serpentes) from Goa, India. Journal of Threatened Taxa
14(8): 21736–21738. https://doi.org/10.11609/jot.7955.14.8.21736-21738
Vyas, R. & H. Patel (2022). Is
trade the reason for the unusual colour morph of
Cobra from Goa? Response to Sawant et al. Journal of Threatened Taxa
14(12): 22351–22353. https://doi.org/10.11609/jott.8223.14.12.22351-22353
Wüster, W. (1998). The cobras of the genus Naja in India. Hamadryad 23: 15–32.