PUNE: A new species of cat

has been found in the Western Ghats nearly after 125 years and has been named after Tejas Thackeray, a wildlife researcher and the younger son of Shiv Sena chief

, for his contribution to its discovery.

The Thackeray Cat Snake, with the scientific name Boiga thackerayi, was found in the

region by a research team of which Tejas was a part of. A research paper describing the new species was published in the journal by the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) on Thursday.

“After 1894 when the species was last found, Tejas spotted the

again in 2015. Based on his findings, a detailed study was undertaken and it was realized that this particular specimen was different than anything reported before,” said Varad Giri, a researcher from the Pune-based Foundation for Biodiversity Conservation.

The newly discovered endemic species is non-venomous and can grow up to approximately three feet in length. Besides this, Giri said, its DNA sequencing differed widely from that of the previously recorded species of the cat snakes in the region.

Giri also said the Boiga thackerayi is known to feed on the eggs of the frog and favours arboreal frogs (living on the trees), which is again a unique feature never reported among the snakes of this genus in the Western Ghats.

“More than that, the scales on the cat snake’s body are unlike any other. The colouration also is something that has not been reported among other cat snakes in India before,” Giri added.

Apart from Giri, the team which undertook the study included taxonomist Ashok Captain, V Deepak of the Natural History Museum, London, a Kolhapur-based naturalist Swapnil Pawar and Frank Tillack of the Museum für Naturkunde, Berlin, Germany.