Indiana Jones may have had ophidiophobia, the fear of snakes, but Harrison Ford does not particularly hate them. In fact, Ford said in his younger days, he might have made friends with the new species named after him.
“The snake’s got eyes you can drown in, and he spends most of the day sunning himself by a pool of dirty water — we probably would’ve been friends in the early ‘60s,” Ford said, in a statement to Conservation International.
The new species, named Tachymenoides harrisonfordi after the actor, was discovered in the Andes mountains in Peru, according to a statement by Conservation International. Details about the snake, its discovery and its naming were published in the scientific journal Salamandra.
Researchers from Peru and the U.S. discovered the reptile – one male snake – in May 2022, sun-basking in a swamp within the Otishi National Park area in Peru’s Andes, said Conservation International.
The newly named species is a type of slender snake measuring 16 inches long when fully grown. It is pale yellowish-brown and has black blotches scattered on its skin, a black belly, and a vertical streak over its copper-colored eye, allowing it to camouflage itself in its surroundings. It feeds on a diet of lizards and frogs.
Why was the snake named after Ford?
Researchers said they named the new species after Ford in recognition of his decades-long environmental advocacy through his role as the vice chair of Conservation International and for raising his voice for nature.
‘Humbled by the honor’
“These scientists keep naming critters after me, but it’s always the ones that terrify children,” said Ford, 81, in a statement. “I don’t understand. I spend my free time cross-stitching. I sing lullabies to my basil plants, so they won’t fear the night.”
This is the third animal species to be named after Ford. Earlier, an ant (Pheidole harrisonfordi) and a spider (Calponia harrisonfordi) were named after him. The slender snake is his first reptile namesake.
However, he was humbled by the honor, saying that the discovery is a reminder that there is so much more to learn about the world and that humans are just a small part of an “impossibly vast biosphere”.
“On this planet, all fates are intertwined, and right now, one million species are teetering on the edge of oblivion. We have an existential mandate to mend our broken relationship with nature and protect the places that sustain life,” he added.
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Dangerous expedition
The area where the snake was discovered is one of Peru’s least explored because of its remote and high location in the Andes. The park is accessible largely by helicopter only, and illegal trade across the region makes scientific expeditions more difficult.
Lead researcher, Edgar Lehr, a professor of biology at Illinois Wesleyan University, told Conservation International that he and his team almost had a run-in with drug cartels in the area dubbed “Peru’s cocaine valley,” where the snake was discovered, because of which they also decided to end their trip a week earlier.
However, it was all worth it because the team is “honored” that Ford accepted the snake’s new name.
Lehr hopes the new snake and the hype around its namesake “will create awareness about the importance of biological fieldwork that intends to discover the unknown – often an adventurous and expensive process requiring more financial support from funding agencies.”
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Manager of the Conservation International-IUCN Biodiversity Assessment Unit, Neil Cox said that the reptiles are an important part of the ecosystem.
“Too often, reptile conservation can be overlooked – most people likely don’t find snakes as cute as a fluffy panda cub, but their role in the world’s ecosystems is just as important,” said Cox. “This discovery helps us better understand how snake species exist and survive in the world, and I hope that its fun name will help draw attention to the threat of extinction facing reptiles globally.”
Cox, who authored the 2022 Global Reptile Assessment, found that 21% of all reptile species are threatened with extinction.
Saman Shafiq is a trending news reporter for USA TODAY. Reach her at sshafiq@gannett.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter @saman_shafiq7.
