Romulus Whitaker: “The real danger lurking in the water”

http://www.ted.com/talks/romulus_whitaker_the_real_danger_lurking_in_the_water.html


Herpetologist Romulus Whitaker Displays rare footage as he explains the hazards confronting India's population of wild gharial and King cobra. In India the king cobra in the south and the gharial crocodile in the north are both endangered. Romulus Whitaker has brought the animals’ plight onto the world stage with his conservation efforts. Since he was a child Romulus has had a fascination with snakes. As an adult he started the Agumbe Rainforest Research Center in India to gather and learn about the biodiversity of the rain forest and to protect water sources.

The water sources in India are the key to preserving these animals. In Southern India all the water flows from the same chain of hills. Romulus explains the rivers and streams in the south are polluted by industrial waste. Also, people in the region throw their waste and refuse into the waterways. Romulus presents footage of the horribly polluted rivers during the speech.

In the north the gharials must face monsoon rains every year. The monsoons wash the gharials downstream and through hydroelectric dams. The ones that survive the rain cannot get back to their homes because of the dams. If that was not bad enough the local fishing industry is in direct competition with the gharial. Since the gharial are fish eaters, fisherman are known to cut off a gharials beak-like jaw before releasing them from their nets, leaving the gharial with a gruesome wound and unable to catch fish.

Romulus Whitaker's project has been using radio tags to track animals. They have captured many never before seen animal habits on film. During Romulus' speech I saw a king cobra that specializes in only hunting and eating deadly pit vipers. I learned that king cobras only eat other snakes, and they will often eat other king cobras, but when two male king cobras have a disagreement, they settle it with a wrestling match and biting is against the rules.

Romulus is a very driven man. materials authored by him were difficult for me to find on the web. Mostly what is to be found is the works of others that are about Romulus. He remarks in his speech that he has been told he should slow down but he can't help himself. He is a conservationist of action. When Romulus is working in the field he is working to educate people about these animals. Despite all his efforts and all the effort others have put in to this cause, Romulus admits that it is not enough. From his research he knows that only education can save these animals. He puts emphasis on educating the children to protect the future of India's king cobra, and gharial.

The main message I took from this was that as a species we are the first be so prolific as to threaten our own survival. We must, therefore, be aware of what we are doing to our environment and educate our children to be better stewards of the environment than we are.



Romulus Whitaker | Nature
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/tag/romulus-whitaker/
Videos from The Dragon Chronicles.


Rolex Awards for Enterprise > Romulus Whitaker > Project
http://rolexawards.com/en/the-laureates/romuluswhitaker-the-project.jsp
Information, pictures , and biography of Rumulus Whitaker.


I married a croc man - Romulus Whitaker
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1170/is_n6_v24/ai_16364232/
An article writen by Zia Whitaker.