A group of scientists has discovered a new species of vine snake in the northeastern part of India, which is an indication of the fact that the area’s fauna is still relatively unstudied. The find was made by Sourabh Verma and Soham Pattekar in a village in Bihar in 2021 as reported in Journal of Asia-Pacific Biodiversity.
The researchers came across a 4-foot long dead snake with an odd shaped snout, which elicited the curiosity of the researchers. However, the snake was dead, but certain characteristics of its body made the researchers think that it might be a new species to them. When the DNA was analysed it was found that the snake matches were from almost 700 miles away and this led to a deeper probe.
Further surveys and detailed studies proved the existence of a new species of vine snake, and it was named as Ahaetulla longirostris. The head of this snake is triangular and the snout is extended from the head and measures about 18% of the length of the head; this medium-sized snake can reach a length of 4 feet.
The vine snake with a long snout is characterized by a number of colours, whereby some vine snakes are green in the back while others are orange-brown in colour. Most of them have orange bellies. These snakes can be found in the forest and in the human populated areas, including urban areas and villages.
Till now, the new species has been found in Bihar and Meghalaya, two states in northeastern India sharing international boundaries with Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Nepal. Scientists believe that the long-snouted vine snake may be more widespread because of the variety of habitats in the area.
This discovery implies that more surveys should be conducted to document the biodiversity of the world particularly in areas that are not well explored and this shows that northeastern India has a lot of unexplored natural resources.
