“Bharat Singh’s Stuffed Otter”: discovery in 1818 of Ailurus fulgens, the Himalayan red panda

Abstract

Thomas Hardwicke’s use of a Nepali vernacular name “Wah” for Ailurus fulgens (red panda, also known as the lesser panda or red bear-cat) in his 1821 report to the Linnean Society of London, and its eventual publication in 1827, has enabled a connection to be made between a mysterious “stuffed otter” found in a Kathmandu bazaar in 1818 and an illustration from Hardwicke’s natural history collection held at the Linnean Society of London. The “stuffed otter” was referred to in letters from Edward Gardner of the British Residency in Kathmandu to Nathaniel Wallich in the Calcutta Botanic Garden. These reveal the seminal role played by Bharat Singh in the realization that this animal was unusual and in his procuring further specimens and ecological information about it from traders in Nepal. Singh was one of Wallich’s plant collectors stationed in Kathmandu and was probably also the source of red panda specimens sent to Paris by Alfred Duvaucel. Duvuacel’s specimens were used by Frédéric Cuvier as the basis of the first scientific description of the species in 1825, which predated that of Hardwicke by two years. The importance of indigenous knowledge in scientific discovery in the Indian subcontinent and role of communication networks are demonstrated. Hidden stories such as these can be uncovered by close scrutiny of archival sources, in this case predominately the Wallich Correspondence at the Acharya Jagadish Chandra Bose Indian Botanic Garden and the Hardwicke material at the Linnean Society of London, and make a significant contribution to the decolonization of collections held in the West.