‘Mysterious’ and ‘glossy’ creature found behind dumpster in Vietnam. See new species
More than a decade ago, researcher Nick Poyarkov was in Bu Gia Map National Park in southern Vietnam when he saw a snake.
“I was totally captured by these strange, thin, mysterious snakes,” he said in a Dec. 4 Facebook post. “I must admit, though I am not a big fan of snakes in general, (this one) just (made) me crazy.”
Years passed, and his fascination with the scaly creatures persisted.
Then, in 2023, during fieldwork on Hon Tre Island, a similar snake was spotted again, and in collaboration with other researchers, Poyarkov realized this snake wasn’t the same one he had seen 15 years ago.
The creature was described as a new species in a study published Dec. 4 in the peer-reviewed journal Herpetozoa.
Poyarkov said finding the “extremely elusive” snake in the first place was “a big luck.”
“This is a highly secretive snake that appears to have a fossorial (burrowing) lifestyle,” according to the study.
The snake has a “glossy” body with a pale brown color and a “dark stripe” along its spine that is formed by “diamond-shaped blotches,” according to the study.
It has a “very small head” and worm-like body, researchers said. The holotype, or the specimen used to describe the species, is nearly 16 inches long, though the tail portion of the body is considered “comparatively short.”
Colubroelaps adleri, or Adler’s lace snake, was named after herpetologist Kraig Adler, who is credited with organizing the World Congress of Herpetology and “doing an amazing job to save numerous herpetologists from all over the world … from oblivion,” Poyarkov said.
“The individual was collected near a garbage dump at the Dam Bay Research station … from a dry maritime mixed low evergreen forest,” researchers said.
Researchers are worried about the “extremely rare” snake because of human development in the area.
“Nobody has ever recorded a similar-looking snake outside the Hon Tre Island, and moreover the unique maritime forest communities of South-Central Vietnamese coasts in the Khanh Hoa Province and around are greatly endangered primarily because of the rapid development of tourism infrastructure,” Poyarkov said.
One example is the VinPearl Resort expansion, including the world’s longest “above-the-sea” cable car route, according to Poyarkov. The resort can bring in as many as 10,000 people per day, driving up the price of land in the area.
Researchers said “there is little hope for the poor small snake to survive under this intensifying pressure.”
Hon Tre Island is off the southeastern coast of Vietnam.
The research team includes Poyarkov, Andrey M. Bragin and Tan Van Nguyen.
This story was originally published December 5, 2024 at 1:12 PM with the headline "‘Mysterious’ and ‘glossy’ creature found behind dumpster in Vietnam. See new species."
