A decade-long quest to trace a resplendent, albeit elusive, snake is finally complete.
A group of researchers have rediscovered the Golden shieldtail after 142 years in the Chembra hills in Wayanad during a recent expedition.
The non-venomous species, known scientifically as Plectrurus aureus, had remained untraceable since its first documentation by botanist Col. Richard Henry Beddome, who was also the Conservator of Forests of the erstwhile Madras Forest Department, in the same region in 1880.
