Harrison Ford Welcomes New Snake Into his Domain
Scientists in Peru discovered a new species of snake in the Andes Mountains, which they promptly named after a movie star whose most famous character happens to hate snakes: Tachymenoides harrisonfordi.
Harrison Ford, as Indiana Jones, declares his ophidiophobia (fear of snakes) in the opening scenes of the first film in the decades-long franchise, which also takes place in the Peruvian highlands.
The new snake is slender and no more than a foot and a half long, with sporty brown-and-gold coloration that makes for excellent camouflage. Not poisonous or otherwise harmful to humans but it is a predator, with a preference for lizards and frogs.
Unlike Jones, Ford actually likes snakes. “The snake’s got eyes you can drown in,” he told Conservation International, where he is a vice chairman. The 81-year-old actor has been a long-time advocate for nature. He is the voice of The Ocean in the CI series “Nature Is Speaking.”
Ford is already immortalized with a couple other species’ names. In 1993, American arachnologist Norman Platnick dubbed a newly discovered Californian spider Calponia harrisonfordi and, a decade later, entomologist E.O. Wilson christened a new ant species Pheidole harrisonfordi. Like snakes, spiders and ants have had crawl-on roles in the “Indiana Jones” canon.
“These scientists keep naming critters after me,” the actor remarked, “but it’s always the ones that terrify children.”
Edgar Lehr / Conservation International
Photo credit: IMDb
