New chameleon-like snake discovered in the Heart of Borneo
27 Jun 2006
Gland, Switzerland - A new snake with the ability to spontaneously change colour has been discovered in a mountainous jungle region known as the 'Heart of Borneo' that straddles the highlands of Indonesia, Malaysia and Brunei.
The half-metre long poisonous snake was described as a new species in 2005 by the German biologist Dr Mark Auliya.
© WWF-Germany/Mark Auliya/
While some reptiles are known to change colour, such as the chameleon, the characteristic is rarely seen in snakes and scientists are yet to understand how the phenomenon works.
The snake was discovered by a German researcher who described it in collaboration with two American scientists.
"I put the reddish brown snake in a dark bucket. When I retrieved it a few minutes later, it was almost entirely white," said Dr Mark Auliya, reptile expert at the Zoologisches Forschungsmuseum Alexander Koenig in Germany, and a consultant for WWF.
Dr Auliya collected two specimens of the half-metre poisonous snake from the wetlands and swampy forests around the Kapuas River in the Betung Kerihun National Park, an area in Kalimantan (the Indonesian part of Borneo) where WWF supports conservation work. The scientists named it the Kapuas mud snake.
The snake belongs to the genus Enhydris, which is comprised of 22 species. Twenty of these species have very restricted ranges and scientists believe this newly discovered snake might only occur in the Kapuas River drainage system.
In the last 10 years, 361 new animal and plants species have been discovered on the island of Borneo. This amounts to three new species a month.
"The discovery of the 'chameleon' snake exposes one of nature's best kept secrets deep in the Heart of Borneo. Its ability to change colour has kept it hidden from science until now," said Stuart Chapman, international coordinator of WWF's Heart of Borneo Program.
However, WWF warns that the new snake's habitat is threatened. Only half of Borneo's forest cover currently remains, which is down from 75 per cent in the mid 1980s.
But there is hope this trend could be halted as the three Bornean governments - Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia and Malaysia - recently launched the Heart of Borneo initiative, which aims to preserve the 220,000km2 area of equatorial forests and its numerous wildlife species.
Find out more
Stuart Chapman, International Coordinator, Heart of Borneo Program - WWF
Phone: +62 21 576 1070
Mobile: +62 813 155 033 14
Email: schapman@wwf.or.id
Stefan Ziegler, Research and Development Officer, WWF-Germany
Phone: +49 69 791 44 168
Email: sziegler@wwf.de
Olivier van Bogaert, Senior Press Officer, WWF International
Phone: +41 22 364 9554
Email: ovanbogaert@wwfint.org
