Some photos from my time in Bhutan

[BomNya]

Hey all, below are some pictures from my time living in and traveling about Bhutan sampling fishes. These were mostly from the monsoon and post monsoon season of 2013. Sorry for posting them so late! A lot of the species we encountered are new, and under-going descriptions, or are in prep or in review at the moment. Apologies for lack of their photos here. Enjoy

So Lush!

Hornbills were everywhere! And just so beautiful!

Golden Langurs, 1 of 3 langur species I encountered.

Takign photos of a new species. This is the type specimen of Parachiloglanis bhutanensis…it was a little late in the day, lighting was perfect, but it worked.

Ryan Thoni Parachiloglanis bhutanensis.png (330.17 KiB) Viewed 29610 times

Parachiloglanis bhutanensis

These kids literally swam up from India to check us out in Samtse Dzongkhag. They had never used a mask before and were quite amazed with it!


The dreaded RBT has been introduced


Taksang Monastery, also called Tigers nest


The Bhutanese have large Phallic paintings all over their buildings! It was really quite interesting.


Insanely scary roads!


I am happy to say that the first fish I caught was a catfish. Parachiloglanis sp.


ID??

Same


A nice handsome Olyra


Shrimp


Gasa Dzong


Flipping rocks in Phobjika with my students.


Im sure anyone who has done long term field-work in Asia knows this scene well. You sampled too late. No light for pictures. No access to real jars for 1,000km in any direction. So guesthouse room photography and Coca-Cola specimen jars.


Some beautiful Gentiana flowers at 4,200m above sea level


Chaca


Barilius sp.


Very colorful Devario aequipinnatus



Perhaps I will post more pics later. Enjoy for now.
Tashi Delek,
Ryan

[Jools]

Awesome.

Jools

[Silurus]

The Glyptothorax looks like an unnamed species to me, if you ask me.

The Olyra looks very similar to an unnamed species whose description (with Carl Ferraris) has been submitted for publication.

[BomNya]

Silurus,
Unfortunately, I believe that specimen is back in our Bhutan collection. Next time I go back, I will investigate it.

As for the Olyra, I have not had the time to investigate this group yet, but I had tentatively called it longicaudata, however, the adipose fin appears to be much more reduced, after comparing photos to other individuals photographed on this site.

[NCE12940]

Fascinating and beautiful. Look forward to more pictures.

[Jools]

Im sure anyone who has done long term field-work in Asia knows this scene well. You sampled too late. No light for pictures. No access to real jars for 1,000km in any direction. So guesthouse room photography and Coka-cola specimen jars.

Your post made me smile in remembrance. Not wishing to photobomb your great thread, but here is Silurus and I in that "awesome fish, no light except camera flashes and a headtorch and quite a lot of caffeine place" somewhere in India...

Jools

[BomNya]

Haha nice! I figured I could relate to a few of you with that.

Someone I know once had a bag of Danio's disappear from a hotel room in remote Nepal haha. The most likely hypothesis being that they were crisps by morning

[BomNya]

A few more:

Nice view of the one main road traversing the country

Black-capped langurs


Sleeping in a vacant roadside vegetable stall

Neolissocheilus on rod and reel. They make a great-fighting sport fish!



Helpers everywhere I go…

The confluence of a glacial river and a spring-fed river with the great Punakha Dzong at their meeting point.

Another phallus for good measure…I never thought I would need to know the plural form of phallus…its phalluses…


Amolops?


Garra. The lack of type materials, vague descriptions, and indiscriminate use of names like G. lama and G. nasuta have really made it a hard group to study in the region. But Nebeshwar and Vishwanath and others are slowly making it better for me I have a Garra paper in review right now on Bhutanese species.

[bekateen]

The eyes, nose, finger pads and parotoid gland are consistent with Amolops (which is a highly variable group), but I don't recognize the species (Sorry, I'm more of a New World frog guy) - maybe A. formosus? (although your frog is more brown than green, and I'd expect more green on formosus based on the images I've seen). Did you get a dorsal photo? Geographically, where in Bhutan were you when you found this? And is this the only frog you saw?

Another phallus for good measure…I never thought I would need to know the plural form of phallus…its phalluses...

In my anatomy training, I was taught "phalli," but as far as I know, both phalli and phalluses are equally acceptable. You shouldn't begrudge learning a new word (or even a plural for a word you already knew) - my dad always said a strong vocabulary is a sign of great intelligence, and that in communication, a diverse vocabulary unlocks many doors (or in this case, knocks them down).

I'm not so concerned about your word choice or about all the phalluses drawn around there. I'm more concerned about the relative size of the hand! I don't think my professors knew about this when they were teaching "Comparative" Anatomy. Either the artists there have a vivid imagination, or the rest of us should just go home.

[racoll]

Fantastic! Got a better pic of the spiny eel?

[Shovelnose]

Barilius sp.

This looks closest to B.barila, a look at the rostral barbel will confirm the ID.

Sleeping in a vacant roadside vegetable stall




Helpers everywhere I go…

Ha ha, I can definitely relate to these.

[BomNya]

[BomNya]

Bekateen, We found quite a few frogs, however, we were doing a nation-wide inventory of fishes, and we were constantly on the run, so I did not spend a lot of time photographing the frogs we encountered. We found some quite high, around 3,000m. Other herps encountered include a few scary run-ins with a black krait, banded krait, a cobra of sorts, blind snake, and some small snake that resembles a ring-necked snake that we have here in the US.
And yes…the proportions of some of those paintings are great! I spared you all some of the more graphic representations! haha. There were even some "Drupchhus" (springs; although directly translated as holy water) that were piped through a wooden phallus where you were meant to drink from

Shovelnose - I was thinking this might be an undescribed species, although I admittedly have not completed a comprehensive lit search. I collected them at a few localities and it was always very consistently marked like that; having a "blank" spot where it seems a band belongs near the caudal peduncle. I was just at Eschmeyers library at the CAS and made copies of several descriptions by Barman that I need to go through. Have you seen this one before in N.E. India?



(continued from first post reposting pics)
These kids literally swam up from India to check us out in Samtse Dzongkhag. They had never used a mask before and were quite amazed with it!

Taksang Monastery, also called Tigers nest

The Bhutanese have large Phallic paintings all over their buildings! It was really quite interesting.

I am happy to say that the first fish I caught was a catfish. Parachiloglanis sp. (P. benjii, in press.)

[bekateen]

Thanks for the frog information; yeah, I figured that the frogs were not the priority, but I was just hoping to get lucky with more pics.

By the way, it's always a good idea to stay away from kraits and cobras... As a herpetologist, that's my two cents.

Cheers, Eric

[catfishchaos]

Thanks for the frog information; yeah, I figured that the frogs were not the priority, but I was just hoping to get lucky with more pics.

By the way, it's always a good idea to stay away from kraits and cobras... As a herpetologist, that's my two cents.

Cheers, Eric

really? As a Herpetologist to be my most common reaction is grab first worry about venoms later... Saying it out loud makes it seem like a bad idea though....

[Shovelnose]

Shovelnose - I was thinking this might be an undescribed species, although I admittedly have not completed a comprehensive lit search. I collected them at a few localities and it was always very consistently marked like that; having a "blank" spot where it seems a band belongs near the caudal peduncle. I was just at Eschmeyers library at the CAS and made copies of several descriptions by Barman that I need to go through. Have you seen this one before in N.E. India?

It could be worth looking into if that missing stripe is a consistent feature, I have seen this missing stripe as well but it was not consistent. A small problem with Barils is that the markings reappear (sometimes) after a period of preservation (this is usually a few days).



From the Ganges drainage in Uttarakhand (the last specimen is B.bendelisis).The post-modern style photography is due to the pictures being shot late at night with a cranky old Nikon P&S.

The two species that look similar to the Bhutan baril are B.vagra and B.barila. The main difference between B.barila and B.vagra are that the bars will fade in B.barila to resemble spots in large specimens while it will remain as bars in B.vagra. Also, B.vagra has long rostral barbels while it is short in B.barila.

[BomNya]

And in honor of our catfish of the month…

[CatFo]

Hi. Is there another way to view the photos? Not sure why but some images are not loading.

[Jools]

Unless the OP posts them again as attachments, then they are at the mercy of wherever the pics are posted.

Jools

[BomNya]

How do I fix this? I have all the photos, but not sure how to post them! haha

[bekateen]

How do I fix this? I have all the photos, but not sure how to post them! haha

Hi BomNya,

Under the Quick Reply window, you'll see a preview link (pic 1). Click that. In the new screen, under the typing box you'll see a link labeled Attachments (pic 2). Click that. On the new screen you'll find options for selecting and uploading files. If I recall correctly, I believe you can put up to 5 pictures per post. Keep in mind that the pictures will be displayed in the opposite order of their upload - so the last picture you upload will be the first picture displayed on your post.

If you have more than five photos, start another reply post.

Does that help?

Cheers, Eric

[Dave Rinaldo]

Maybe edit each post and add them back?

[BomNya]

I am going through and fixing what I can. I can only put up 5 of the original pics per post

[Jools]

So, were these the fishes that are now named in this:

viewtopic.php?f=14&t=46823

?

If so, I'd really like to add them all to the site...

Cheers,

Jools

[BomNya]

Yes, by add them to the site what do you mean? Would you like pictures? Or do you want more from me? Let me know.

Ryan

[Jools]

The pictures would be a great start and I did just mean that if you could email them to me I would add them all? Great to have your reply.

Cheers,

Jools

[TheFishGuy1]

Hi. Is there another way to view the photos? Not sure why but some images are not loading.

Also not seeing the other photos

[BomNya]

Sorry, I tried to repost some photos. Perhaps when I have more down time I will upload more. I changed computers, so the photos are not at my fingertips so to speak.

[Jools]

Well, hopefully they will soon be in the cat-elog section of the site. Will get onto that ASAP! It occurs to me as you've given me permission to use them I can just grab them from the paper?

Cheers,

Jools

[Jools]

https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/co ... ode=images

Hope all OK!

Jools