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data-target="#modal-slide-in-menu"> <i aria-hidden="true" class="cps-icon cps-icon-menu"></i> <span aria-hidden="true" class="d-none">Menu</span> <span class="sr-only">Toggle extended navigation</span> </button> </li> </ul> </div> </div> </div> </nav> </div> <header id="hero-main" class="hero jumbotron jumbotron-fluid has-background has-hero-main-bg-color-background-color high-contrast has-hero hero-full hero-full-title-over-img text-center hero-breadcrumb-above-title" aria-label="page title and basic information"> <div class="hero-content container" data-aos="fade" data-aos-delay="500" data-aos-duration="1000"> <h1 class="page-title entry-title">A Conversation with Amphibian Biologist and Photographer, S.D. Biju</h1> <div class="page-meta entry-meta"> <ul class="list-inline"> <li class="post-date list-inline-item"> <span class="sr-only">Publication date</span> <span class="meta-icon" aria-hidden="true"> <i class="cps-icon cps-icon-calendar"></i> </span> <span class="meta-text"> April 3, 2024 </span> </li> </ul> </div> </div> <div class="hero-image-holder hero-default-image-holder" data-aos="fade" data-aos-duration="1000"> <img width="1920" height="1280" src="https://hmsc.harvard.edu/files/2022/08/RTT_TonyRinaldo_25.jpg" class="attachment-hero size-hero" alt="Two women peering at tableware in the Resetting The Table exhibit" decoding="async" fetchpriority="high" srcset="https://hmsc.harvard.edu/files/2022/08/RTT_TonyRinaldo_25.jpg 1920w, https://hmsc.harvard.edu/files/2022/08/RTT_TonyRinaldo_25-300x200.jpg 300w, https://hmsc.harvard.edu/files/2022/08/RTT_TonyRinaldo_25-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https://hmsc.harvard.edu/files/2022/08/RTT_TonyRinaldo_25-768x512.jpg 768w, https://hmsc.harvard.edu/files/2022/08/RTT_TonyRinaldo_25-1536x1024.jpg 1536w" sizes="(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px" /> </div> </header> <div class="main-wrapper wrapper" id="single-wrapper"> <div class="container" id="content"> <div class="row">  <div class="col-md-12 col-xl-12 content-area" id="primary"> <main class="site-main" id="main"> <article class="post-4778 post type-post status-publish format-standard hentry category-podcast" id="post-4778"> <div class="entry-content"> <iframe title="A Conversation with Amphibian Biologist and Photographer, S.D. Biju" allowtransparency="true" height="150" width="100%" style="border: none; min-width: min(100%, 430px);height:150px;" scrolling="no" data-name="pb-iframe-player" src="https://www.podbean.com/player-v2/?i=7udnc-15cda96-pb&from=pb6admin&share=1&download=1&rtl=0&fonts=Arial&skin=1&font-color=auto&logo_link=episode_page&btn-skin=8bbb4e" loading="lazy"></iframe> <h2 class="wp-block-heading">Transcript</h2> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund聽聽</strong>00:04</p> <p>Welcome to HMSC Connects!, where we go behind the scenes of four Harvard museums to explore the connections between us, our big, beautiful world, and even what lies beyond. My name is Jennifer Berglund, part of the Exhibits Team here, at the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture, and I’ll be your host. Today, I’m speaking with S. D. Biju, a biologist and professor in the Environmental Studies Department at the University of Delhi, who is currently a Fellow at Harvard’s Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study. He is also an Associate at the Museum of Comparative Zoology and the Department of Organismic and Evolution Biology at Harvard University. He’s a biologist who studies amphibians like frogs, caecilians, and salamanders. He’s described more than 100 new species, and even two new families of Southeast Asian amphibians. Throughout his storied career, he’s taken stunning photographs of his subjects, which we will feature in a new exhibit in the lobby of the Harvard Museum of Natural History this April. I wanted to ask him about his fascinating life of discovery, and the ways in which the knowledge he has gained has educated him about the massive loss of amphibians we are experiencing worldwide. Here he is. S. D. Biju, welcome to the show.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju  </strong>01:31</p> <p>Hi, Jennifer, thank you for having me.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>01:38</p> <p>You were first trained as an ethnobotanist in India, and that earned you your first PhD. That’s pretty incredible. You have two PhDs, but you became enamored of frogs while doing your fieldwork, and that led you to your second PhD. So, tell me about that journey.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju  </strong>01:55</p> <p>I had a different childhood. I can say I was born in a small village in the state of Kerala, that is the southern part of India, in a regular lower middle-class family, largely practicing agriculture for daily life. Especially my schooling was quite different from others. I started serious, formal education only after the age of 15, but I enjoyed my childhood working along with my parents. My native place is somewhere very near to the backdrop of Western Ghats, in fact. I learned a lot of things from the nature, and I spent most of my time, along with my parents, for supporting them. My primary day-to-day duties involved taking care of my cows, taking them for grazing, and other related agriculture — household activities. Every day, I had to sell milk at the local store before going to the school. All other time, I just played and roamed around. And biodiversity-rich Western Ghats — biodiversity hotspots were my backyard, I can say my playground. Living close to the nature and spending time there taught me more than what I learned from the textbook in the school. I think that ignited my interest in wildlife later on in my life, when I got an opportunity to get out of my village and undergo the formal training and education, and became a scientist to learn wildlife and nature. </p> <p>I started my professional journey as a plant scientist after obtaining my first PhD from Calicut University — that is my native state in India. After getting this PhD, I joined as a scientist in a research organization for studying ethnobotany, mainly to study the medicinal property of plants, usually the tribal community are using for diagnosing their ailment and treating illness. For this work — that is an opportunity for me to travel extensively in the Western Ghats biodiversity hotspot, along with the Indigenous people. The tribes that live inside the forest — they are amazing people, in fact. Their knowledge, especially related to the wildlife, is extremely brilliant. I spent over 40 years with the different tribal communities in India as part of my research right from Kani tribes in Kerala, to the Apatani tribes in Arunachal Pradesh of northeast India. I’m very sure, you know, without their support and the local involvement, it is quite impossible for me to study what we are doing now in the field. And as you’re very well aware that amphibians are usually active in the night, in the pitch darkness in the forest, so the tribal’s knowledge is absolutely, very much essential for conducting the successful expedition in the night in the forest. Many of our tribal communities and their people — they can identify many of the flora and fauna, the plants and animals in and around their locality. With their own identification traits, they easily identify and communicate very easily the species of animals and plants. Their sharp observation and understanding of nature is extremely remarkable, and they often surprise me with their identification. Of course, I can come back to your second part of the question, how I transformed from plant science to animal science. That very frankly, that, in fact, is quite accidental. During my plant expedition, I always take special attention to photographing other subjects like frogs, and almost everything what I’m seeing in the field. Frogs really fascinated me due to their lovely popping eyes, and extremely vivid colors. You wouldn’t believe the frogs are extremely brilliant in colors. They’re sometimes much more brilliantly colored than the conventional sort of belief like butterflies and birds. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>06:25</p> <p>Yeah. </p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>06:25</p> <p>Gradually, I started taking more and more photographs of frogs from different parts of India, and after attaining some — several photographs in my collection, I really tried to identify them. What are the frogs which I photographed in the field? I tried to identify with scientific records like literature, and all other available forms of reference. But I miserably failed. I found it extremely difficult for me to identify those animals I photographed from the field. I contacted both national and international experts for their help to identify the photographs. But sometimes the response was really not very helpful, or even sometimes it was not satisfactory. However, one reply from the famous American herpetologist, the late Robert Inger, changed my life. Bob said that many of my pictures could be new species, and also appreciated my photographs and photographic techniques. I was literally excited. I decided to study amphibians more professionally, because of that particular statement that changed my life completely.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>07:40</p> <p>There is clearly a need in India. </p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>07:42</p> <p>Yeah, that is true and absolutely, I had to be very proud and I’m to be very honest, that particular few lines from Robert Inger transformed my life from a plant scientist to animal scientist. In fact, the principles of taxonomy – that is a branch of identifying the species – is same for both animals and plants. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>08:02</p> <p>Ah, okay.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju  </strong>08:04</p> <p>I can say another example, the late Professor V. V. Sivarajan my earlier mentor in plant taxonomy, taught me the skill and the special eye to train a taxonomist and identify the species. This learning I applied for my amphibian research, in fact. Very frankly, I never find any difference between plant taxonomy and animal taxonomy… </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>08:28</p> <p>Interesting.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju  </strong>08:29</p> <p>…at any stage of my professional journey. Very frankly, that is true. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>08:34</p> <p>Yeah. </p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju  </strong>08:34</p> <p>So finally, I resigned my plant job, and I joined for my second PhD at the age of 40, or maybe 41. That was a tough decision.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>08:46</p> <p>I was about to ask how excruciating must that have been, where you were just like, “Oh, I took all this time doing this first PhD.” How long did it take you to decide to go for it?</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>08:56</p> <p>Yeah, it was a really tough decision. I can honestly say “Yes, it’s exactly, it’s a tough decision.” But I was convinced myself, “Okay, this is most important, Biju. Look at this, we have to do that. I hope I can do that.” I wanted to study the frogs very seriously, and I moved to Vrije University, Brussels in Belgium for my second PhD, under the supervision of Professor Franky Bossuyt, and interestingly and very fortunately, Robert Inger became my PhD jury chairman. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>08:56</p> <p>Oh, wow!</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju  </strong>08:56</p> <p>That was quite exciting. Yeah, that was really a coincidence, right? Look at me, the first letter I received from him, and inspired me a lot to study the frogs of India. And interestingly, and very fortunately, Bob was my PhD jury Chairman when I was there in VUB Belgium. After that, I moved back to India and joined Delhi University as a faculty in 2006.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>09:51</p> <p>I have to ask, did you ever tell Robert Inger that what he told you changed your life?</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju  </strong>09:56</p> <p>Yeah, of course. When I was there in Belgium, I had an opportunity to meet him briefly then I explained. That time he was completely aware that I transformed from a plant scientist to animal scientist, and my publications appeared in Nature and so many other journals. So, he was so excited. I showed my gratitude and appreciation for his valuable encouragement from him to transform me from a plant scientist to animal scientist.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>10:24</p> <p>Yeah. I’m sure that meant a lot to him.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>10:26</p> <p>Yeah, that is true. From that point onwards, I’m doing only my frog research in my professional career.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>10:34</p> <p>Okay, so go on. You take a faculty position at this new university, and what happened then?</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>10:40</p> <p>The university is always a different sort of engagement. I spend nearly three to four months always for conducting the field expeditions, in the various parts of the Indian jungle to collect the resources for the next lab studies along with my students and my collaborators. That is a very challenging task, especially as a faculty in the university. The teaching is the major objective of a university. I hope that is everywhere in the world like that, including Harvard. Of course, that is a challenging part of my journey as a faculty in a university for conducting the field expeditions, especially amphibians are mostly seasonal animals, and we can find animals only during three or, even maximum, four months in a year, that also in the monsoon period. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>11:24</p> <p>And that’s just, presumably, because there’s a lot more moisture. Amphibians need moisture. </p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>11:29</p> <p>Amphibians are very seasonal. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>11:31</p> <p>Okay.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>11:31</p> <p>We can find those animals only, maybe in India, I can say from May, June, July, August. After that, it is, actually the activities are always very less.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>11:41</p> <p>Okay. </p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>11:41</p> <p>So we have to be there in the right time, and the right place, conducting the field expedition, to find the animals and documenting, especially for photography.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>11:50</p> <p>What do they do in the non-monsoon season? Where do they go?</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>11:53</p> <p>I’m not using the word hibernate, probably they’re inactive, and they always hide under the log, or somewhere under the rocks, and they are coming out only after the first shower, that is in June or maybe in July.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>12:12</p> <p>As you alluded to before, you are also a photographer. This is why I’m speaking with you, actually, because we’re exhibiting some of your photography in the entrance of the Harvard Museum of Natural History. That’s coming up soon. You are known as a photographer, as well as this incredible herpetologist — amphibian biologist. So as a photographer, I’m curious, what’s your strategy for photographing frogs in the wild? And what do you look for as a scientist? What do you look for as an artist? And where and how did the two converge? </p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>12:48</p> <p>Yeah, frankly, I’m not sure I’m qualified to say myself as a photographer sometimes, very frankly. But, I love photography, more than anything in my life. When I do frog photography, I think my mind mostly works as a scientist. I try to capture as many, as possible, scientific characters, like color, shape of the body, and different angles for capturing the scientific identification. That is extremely important. Actually, if you’re making an artistic picture, sometimes it is looking very nice, but we are not able to identify it by using that particular piece of photograph. Scientific identification is sometimes very difficult. But I also do artistic photography. I don’t know if artistic photography is an appropriate word to use, like this. Amphibian photography is extremely challenging. Why? Because amphibians are nocturnal animals; we can find those animals only in the night. So invariably, we have to use the flash. Without a flash, we are not able to capture a frog as real in the wild. Many times, I have to capture the beauty by using flash photographs, and it is very challenging. You know that frogs usually — their skin is always moist. The skin always creates some light patches on their bodies. That is always a challenge. And then capturing an animal behavior in the field, very frankly, is always very difficult. There has to be a balance in between artistic photography and scientific photography. I know for the last three decades of my scientific studies, I can say the photography, I learned some sort of improvised techniques: how to photograph frogs in appropriate light to avoid this patch on the body sometimes. That is the only thing I can say altogether. I really enjoy photography in the field. In fact, I can say that makes my research more enjoyable, than anything in the field, while I’m doing, conducting very tense fieldwork. Actually, you know that working in the jungle, in the forest, especially in the night, it is a little bit tense, actually. It is always a great challenge. And again, we have to photograph by using flashlights. That’s all together, it is a very challenging job, but it is more enjoyable while I’m doing the fieldwork along with the photography. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>15:21</p> <p>I might argue that it is artistic what you’re doing. Yes, you are looking for certain anatomical characters or behavioral characters for science, but you have a very charismatic subject. You have these really beautiful animals that are vibrant colors, that have these really sort of curvy aesthetic lines. I think there’s an argument for what you’re doing. Often, an artist is trying to tell a story or make a point. You’re doing the same thing. You’re trying to tell some sort of story about a physical feature, kind of more from a scientific side but the line between art and science here, I think, is blurry, is what I’m saying.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>16:03</p> <p>No, of course, I’m not saying it is a very big issue for photographing animals in the field. But in my experience, what I learned from the field, at the time I am photographing frogs, especially the aquatic frogs having very smooth skin, with always very moist skin. When we use the flashlight, always, invariably, we will get a patch light on their body. So avoiding that particular thing is a challenge. That’s what I said.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>16:31</p> <p>Yeah, absolutely. I can imagine. We were talking to a photographer last year who does underwater photography, and was talking about how challenging it is to photograph tuna because they are basically a mirror underwater so getting the right exposure is quite challenging. So, I can imagine that’s similar with frogs, for sure.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju  </strong>16:53</p> <p>Yeah, that is true. I can say very well, it’s actually, it is not always possible to converge science and art, especially when photographing animals in the wild by using a flashlight. That I can say very clearly. Sometimes we can see a very nicely exposed frog in a branch or a stone very near to the river or some other water bodies, but after we capture the animals, we can find sometimes it is not very good, because of the angle and the light, and apart from that, the wet skin is really having a lot of reflection of flash. That is very challenging. You have a wonderful image, but finally, it is not that much, no…</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>17:35</p> <p>I think that is universal in photography.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>17:40</p> <p>I completely agree — even for the extremely professional photographers, they also have the same challenge in the field, because I know some of the very known photographers. I also, planned to, worked along with them in the jungle. They also said the same thing, you know, after photographing, especially the frogs are extremely challenging. It is a challenging task for everyone, including highly professional photographers. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>18:04</p> <p>Yeah. You’re a big deal in the amphibian world. I was reading all these articles about you. You’ve been called the closest thing Indian herpetology has to a celebrity and, “the Frogman of India.” How did you earn these titles? And how do you feel about them? </p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>18:27</p> <p>Very frankly, I don’t care about such big titles, right? I’m honest. I have to say that. With or without that particular title, I will do the same job, and people know me through my work, in fact. I have been working in this field for over 30 years, and fortunately, I discovered new species of frogs, including…</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>18:51</p> <p>That’s incredible. Wow.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>18:54</p> <p>…two entirely new families of amphibians from India.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>18:57</p> <p>I mean, a new family. That is not a new genus, not a new species — a new family of frogs. I mean, that’s significant.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>19:09</p> <p>Yeah, that is true.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>19:10</p> <p>That’s incredible. Sorry, I just had to emphasize how important that is.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju  </strong>19:18</p> <p>Thank you very much, Jennifer. Actually, discovery is always accidental. You are not able to go to the field with a torch light and say, “Oh, I’m planning to go for discovering a new family.” That is not possible, but impossible. So I can say I’m fortunate to describe two different families of amphibians from India, and of course, that created a lot of popularity for Indian amphibians. Of course, to me also. Through that, I also became known to many people. People attribute “Frogman,” probably I believe that some, by media reports, I believe. Yes. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>19:53</p> <p>Yeah. Right.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>19:54</p> <p>It’s the BBC. They attributed to me, as “the Frogman” initially. Then we have a tendency to glorify people doing the work, sometimes than the subject they are working on. Of course, it’s actually, it is a recognition for my work, too, I believe, but part of the overlooked forms of life, such as frogs, are getting more and more attention and appreciation in the minds and hearts of the general public. That is the reason I really liked the media is giving a lot of importance for frogs. I believe that is a wonderful opportunity to explain the importance of amphibians in our ecosystem, or in our planet.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>20:36</p> <p>I think all of these discoveries that you’re making, these incredible discoveries, I mean, the number of species that you’ve named, it really highlights that there has been this deficiency of research and herpetological research in India and that it’s a really important region in terms of biodiversity.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>20:56</p> <p>I believe India, I am fortunate to be an Indian, it’s actually, India is one of the most important biodiversity centers across the world actually, having an extraordinary species diversity, and many species are not known to the science so far. This is not only the case of frogs. Look at other forms of lower forms of life, like invertebrates. There are — an enormous number of species are still waiting to get the proper naming, so I believe India, as a region, is an amazing place for scientists like me to understand, explore, and find new forms of life.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>21:37</p> <p>Do you have a favorite species?</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>21:39</p> <p>Yeah, that is a difficult question for me. It is really hard to pick a favorite one, for me, all frogs are wonderful, and very close to my heart. And really, I love all of them, very frankly yes. For the sake of sake, if you’re asking the question again, I wish to pick one frog that is Indian purple frog. Indian purple frog is actually a new family, which I described in 2003 along with my PhD advisor, Franky Bossuyt, and described as a new family of frogs, as Nasikabatrachidae. But in fact, fortunately, I published in Nature. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>21:54</p> <p>Yes. It’s a big deal. </p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>22:28</p> <p>For me, that frog made my life today.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>22:30</p> <p>It made you “The Frogman of India.”</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>22:32</p> <p>Yup. Actually, yeah. Indian purple frog is really a celebrity in the amphibian world. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>22:39</p> <p>Yes.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>22:40</p> <p>It is more appropriate to call this frog as a celebrity in Indian herpetology, that – I can say, very, very strongly – is a celebrity all over the world, especially in Indian herpetology. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>22:54</p> <p>It’s amazing. </p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>22:55</p> <p>This looks like a ball, sometimes a bloated balloon, with extremely tiny eyes, and a very long, pointed nose. That made this frog as unique from all other frogs across the world. Many people, sometimes, is really not ready to believe it is looking like a frog. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>23:14</p> <p>Yeah.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju  </strong>23:15</p> <p>The most amazing part of this frog is its lifecycle. It is very weird, actually, I can say that this frog lives under the soil, sometimes deep up to 20 feet, and is coming out only for one or – maximum – two days in a year. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>23:33</p> <p>Whoa. </p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>23:34</p> <p>This visit is only for two things: that is, mating and laying eggs. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>23:39</p> <p>Wow.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>23:40</p> <p>Immediately after laying their eggs, both the male and female, again retreat to that dark depth of solid earth. It is one of the most ancient lineages of frogs which evolved approximately 80 million years ago and diverged from its African relatives in Seychelles Islands. The discovery of the African relationship of these frogs provides an important piece of evidence of breakup of Gondwanaland. This made this frog more special and popular, among I can say even not only for the herpetologists but also for the entire biology celebrated the discovery because of the combination of different reasons — what I explained now.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>24:04</p> <p>Whoa. That’s amazing. So there’s so many stories packed into this one family.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>24:32</p> <p>Yeah, I have a lot of favorites now. I can say every discovery has at least one interesting story behind. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>24:44</p> <p>Yeah. </p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>24:45</p> <p>I can tell a small story about one of my recent discoveries from the Western Ghats. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>24:49</p> <p>Oh, please.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>24:50</p> <p>It was a very unexpected discovery. That animal we described as a new genus from roadside puddles, roadside water puddles and we tend to believe…</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>25:01</p> <p>Wow.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju  </strong>25:01</p> <p>Yeah, Jennifer, and we tend to believe for all the discoveries one has to go to the forest, and the deep forest we have to search and find new frogs or a new species. That is not true.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>25:13</p> <p>Sometimes it’s just right under your nose.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>25:15</p> <p>Yeah, exactly. In this particular case, we described a new genus of frog from the roadside puddles. Exactly roadside puddles. Unfortunately, this animal is currently critically endangered, according to the recent IUCN Red List Categorization. This frog was discovered and described, along with my PhD student. It was known only from — only a single locality in a highly disturbed habitat. I cannot say it is a habitat. It is a roadside puddle, I can say. Like this, I can go on talking about so many amphibian discoveries, which are very close to my heart, but unfortunately, I don’t want to stretch my all 100 discoveries…</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>26:02</p> <p>And I could ask you about them forever, so…</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>26:06</p> <p>That is true.  </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>26:07</p> <p>Why do we need to know and discover new species? </p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju  </strong>26:11</p> <p>Yeah, I need to give this answer and before that, I have to explain a little bit about the background. Life originated on Earth about 3.5 billion years back, and currently, scientists have identified 1.7 million species across the world, including water, land, and air. And however, very frankly, our knowledge about Earth鈥檚 biodiversity is far from complete. This 1.7 million species is a tiny slice of what exactly we have on our planet Earth. I must say the Earth鈥檚 true diversity could be somewhere in between 10 million or even up to 100 million species. So, our knowledge about the global biodiversity is less than 10 percentage. That is the starting point of any discussion related to the discovery of new species. That is the most important thing I have to say now. Then, immediately the next question people genuinely ask me: what is the importance of biodiversity? That is the question I face many times in my public talk. Firstly, as a scientist, scientific pursuit to understand nature and the wonderful discovery of life that has evolved during the course of Earth鈥檚 history, which we are also a part. And human beings as a species — we are also part of the global biodiversity. Honestly, that is the truth. And secondly, even if you look at – in a human-centric point of view – our own survival as a human is dependent on all forms of life together in our ecosystem. Biodiversity, according to me, it is so important, and it is most essential to understand and document the species. And we are living in a world where our actions are putting other forms of life in danger. Biodiversity is rapidly depleting across the world because of humans, and our involvement in habitat loss and climate change. To understand how to conserve a species, we have to understand what to conserve and where to conserve. That is extremely, extremely important before making any conservation action plans. This is the first step, so that, without understanding and accurately identifying a species, we cannot make any meaningful conservation plans. Apart from that, discovering species is not just a scientific exercise. It’s also important for social welfare. For example, without documenting species in an area and their threatened status, we cannot make any sustainable development plan. For the sake of human welfare, we always tend to ask the question, what is our use from this biodiversity? We use biological resources for developing medicinal drugs from plants and animals. I can explain by using a simple example. Let us take the discovery of penicillin that is used for the treatment of bacterial infections. It was isolated from a species of fungi. The genus name is Penicillium, and scientifically we can call it Penicillium notatum. Now, I think, the name is Penicillium chrysogenum, but only some members of this genus actually produce penicillin molecules that have antibiotic properties. So, if we want to isolate the life-saving drugs, we need to correctly identify the right species of Penicillium out of 350 species available or known to the science from everywhere in the world. So accurate identification of a species is extremely important to understand and isolate any sort of chemicals or any sort of biomedical products from plant or animal-based discovery.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>30:26</p> <p>Yeah, it’s so, so important. Just the fact that species are in such decline just as we’re making these discoveries, it really just speaks to the need for us to continue making discoveries and continue understanding our planet as best as possible. I think this is particularly important in the amphibian world because it’s correct, right, that amphibians are declining and are the most threatened group of vertebrates on the planet.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>30:55</p> <p>Yeah, exactly. Without a background, sometimes it is not able to explain. Amphibians arrived on Earth about 350 million years before us. The ancestors of present-day amphibians evolved from water to the land, and we can say that they are the first land vertebrates to conquer the solid Earth. Amphibians lived along with the dinosaurs, and amphibians are the only animals that witnessed and successfully survived, and saw all the extinction events of all the dinosaurs and continue to live with us today. As of today, a total of about 8,700 described species of amphibians, in three major orders: caecilians, frogs, and salamanders. They’re found almost everywhere. Some species are deep under the soil. Some species, we can find on the stream. Some species, we can find even in the forest canopy. Amphibians are the third largest group of land vertebrates, in terms of the species number, after birds and fishes. However, our knowledge about this wonderful group and their life remains limited, and our perception of amphibians is largely and generally very low. People tend to believe they are tiny, slimy, or even brown. Sometimes people don’t call them animals, they use the word “creatures living in dirty puddles.” Honestly, I can say that. And fairy tales, also, you know, that the story of the fairy tales, also portrays frogs as ugly, but only when we look very closer and closer, we will see the real beauty of these small life forms. I can say very loudly: frogs are much more beautiful than any other forms of life. Even I can say, even compared with the – so-called – the most charismatic animals like butterflies and birds. Honestly, we can see the dazzling colors of frogs, and look at Amazon and many parts of India. We have extremely, extremely beautiful frogs. But unfortunately, amphibians are the most threatened group of vertebrates on our planet Earth. Other ways we can say — two out of every five amphibians are threatened with extinction risk. That means they are either critically endangered or even vulnerable by IUCN Red List. </p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>33:31</p> <p>Wow. </p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>33:32</p> <p>The major reason behind the rapid decline of amphibians is basically because of habitat destruction and habitat loss. The second major reason is climate change and various impacts of climate change. Disease also continues to push these animals to extinction, largely in South America and many parts of Africa, including North America. So it is very clear that we are responsible for the current state of amphibian decline across the world. Species are disappearing from Earth’s surface faster than the natural background extinction rate, and possibly even faster than we can discover them. Amphibians are an alarm bell for what we can expect from other forms of life, but we still have an opportunity to learn and prevent the extinction of amphibians from the world. Amphibians, for example, we can call, as environmental barometers or environmental indicators. Due to their extreme sensitivity to small changes in the environment, amphibians serve as an important indicator of overall health of a habitat, so amphibian decline in a region is also a direct indication of the environmental health or environmental quality. Amphibians are also the best friend of farmers, because they consume millions of insects in an urban area, in the larger landscape — that is always helpful for farmers, to prevent like natural pest control. Likewise, I can say, a lot of other important aspects of amphibians in our ecosystem, especially an important role in the food web and keeping the ecological balance.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>35:31</p> <p>What can looking at amphibians teach us about our place in the world and the impact we have on it?</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>35:38</p> <p>As I said earlier, it’s actually, amphibians are popularly known as environmental barometers or environmental indicators, for amphibians can give an early warning about the quality of our nature. If anything happens in the wild, the first animal is getting affected by it is amphibians, because they have a different type of life, especially their skin is extremely sensitive. If there is a small change in the water or the air, they are the first animals — those who get some sort of information, and through which we also learn more about the health of the particular environment and particular habitat.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>36:23</p> <p>You have this big exhibit coming up at the Harvard Museum of Natural History, and we’re very excited about it, just to feature your beautiful photography. What do you hope our visitors at the Museum of Natural History will experience when they see your photos on display? What do you hope they come away from the exhibit knowing or experiencing?</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>36:46</p> <p>I’m so excited, actually. I have just one hope, very frankly. I hope that my work and stories trigger a small spark in lovers of nature and wildlife, especially for the overlooked smaller forms of life like amphibians. Maybe they will appreciate their beauty, I’m very sure because they’re extremely colorful — and some of the photographs are really brown, red, and green, vivid green colors — so definitely that will create some sort of animal which they can love. And if we love amphibians, we will also care about their preservation, I am very sure. I am saying this from a frog’s perspective, because this is the tiny animal, and that is my constitution to argue for frogs. But I can say, generally, we care just for a few large charismatic mammals, like tigers or elephants, and the maximum we stop the wildlife at birds. And after that, we don’t have a list of wildlife. I’m talking about my country, actually. I’m coming from a place where the tiger always occupies the center stage when we talk about wildlife. So that means, I’m given an opportunity to exhibit some of my photographs in this particular exhibition, it is definitely an important thing in my professional journey, I can say that. The list of wildlife does not end with a bird or mammals like tigers and elephants. It starts from microscopic bacteria in the soil that grow our food, to trees that maintain our forest, and the smaller animals in our wetland that give us fresh water. That means every form of life is equally important. In the entire biological world, humans only came last on Earth. In fact, if you’re talking about evolution, humans only came in last on Earth. I want them to take this large message: we have inherited a rich biological heritage. We are like custodians, and we have a big responsibility and task, and each of us can contribute in many small ways, I believe. I want them to take a larger message and make it part of their own wonderful journey, irrespective of their age and career. That is the only hope for my upcoming photo exhibit at Harvard Museum, and of course, I believe even this podcast.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>39:41</p> <p>S. D. Biju, thank you so much for being here. This has been such a great conversation.</p> <p><strong>S. D. Biju   </strong>39:46</p> <p>And thank you. Thank you, Jennifer, for the opportunity to discuss — about my journey and my discoveries with you.</p> <p><strong>Jennifer Berglund  </strong>39:55</p> <p>Today’s HMSC Connects! podcast was edited by Eden Piacitelli, and produced by me, Jennifer Berglund, and the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture. Special thanks to the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and to Biju Das, for his wisdom and expertise. And thank you so much for listening. If you liked today’s podcast, please subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean, or wherever you get your podcasts. See you in a few weeks.</p> </div> </article> <nav class="container navigation post-navigation"> <h2 class="sr-only">Post navigation</h2> <div class="row nav-links justify-content-between"> <span class="nav-previous"><a href="https://hmsc.harvard.edu/2024/03/25/wendel-a-white-photo-exhibition-manifest-thirteen-colonies-to-open-at-harvards-peabody-museum-may-18/" class="btn btn-secondary" rel="prev"><i aria-hidden="true" class="cps-icon cps-icon-chevron-left"></i>Wendel A. 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