Night hikers wake sleeping creature and rediscover species considered locally extinct
Hiking through a dark forest in Singapore, scientists scanned the foliage and noticed an unfamiliar-looking creature sound asleep. It turned out to be a species not seen in 64 years and considered locally extinct.
Researchers visited the Nee Soon swamp forest in October to search for wildlife, according to a study published Nov. 29 in the peer-reviewed journal Nature in Singapore. A few minutes before midnight, they spotted a snake “sleeping on a plant” above a stream.
Intrigued, researchers woke the snake, photographed it and then released it.
“I knew it was HUGE when I just couldn’t figure out what I was holding for the life of me,” study co-author Hamadnurrifat Bin Mohd Azam wrote in an Instagram post. “I will never forget the literal chills I experienced. ‘Buddy, what ARE you?’, I’d continuously mutter.”
Azam and the other researchers could identify most of Singapore’s known snake species on sight, but this one stumped them. Had they found an atypically colored snake? A new species?
The team combed the archives looking for clues and eventually found records of a matching snake: Hebius petersii, or Peters’ keelback snake, the study said.
Peters’ keelback snakes have “large” eyes, a distinctive color pattern and textured scales. The species had been found in Singapore in the early 1900s but was last seen 64 years ago and considered locally extinct — until now.
“All of a sudden, the feeling started to sink in that this could possibly be a once in a lifetime snake, Hebius petersii,” study co-author Trin Chantong wrote in an Instagram post. “We never thought to even dream of finding this species in a million years … alas, the impossible had happened.”
Photos show the roughly 20-inch-long Peters’ keelback snake seen in October. The species was so poorly known these were “the first photographs ever published of a live individual,” the study said.
“This finding underscores the critical importance of safe-guarding and protecting our last remaining swamp forest where other significant discoveries and rediscoveries have been made,” researchers said.
“This sighting reminded me that sometimes, the illogical happens,” Azam wrote. “Sometimes magical encounters do happen.”
“Seeing this Hebius petersii alive and well has revitalised my hope that more species could still slip under our radar and have yet to be rediscovered,” Chantong wrote.
Singapore is a city-state in southeast Asia near Malaysia and Indonesia.
The research team included Chantong, Azam, Prashanta Kumar Mohanty, Wong Kwang Ik, Daryl Tan, Shivaram R., Law Ingg Thong and Law Ing Sind.
This story was originally published December 6, 2024 at 11:40 AM with the headline "Night hikers wake sleeping creature and rediscover species considered locally extinct."
