‘Secretive’ pregnant creature found on mountain in China. It’s a new species
In a mountain forest of southeastern China, a 1-foot-long creature with a “collar” moved along the ground. Its “secretive” nature helped it go largely unnoticed — until some keen-eyed scientists found it.
It turned out to be a new species.
A team of researchers visited Xinshao County, Hunan Province, several times in 2024 as part of a project to survey some hard-to-find snakes, according to a study published Sept. 15 in the peer-reviewed journal Zoosystematics and Evolution.
During their fieldwork, researchers found four reddish snakes, the study said. They took a closer look at the animals and quickly realized they’d discovered a new species: Plagiopholis acuta, or the Hunan mountain snake.
Hunan mountain snakes are considered “slender and small,” measuring up to about 13 inches in length, the study said. Their tails are “relatively short,” and their eyes are “moderate” in size.
Photos show the “deep reddish-brown” coloring of the new species. The snakes’ pattern varies but includes a “wide, black-brown collar” around its neck and a scattering of “small black-brown spots,” researchers said.
One female Hunan mountain snake was pregnant and temporarily kept in a laboratory terrarium, the study said. The snake “laid five eggs,” one of which hatched about a month later.
A photo shows the hatchling, which measured about 3.5 inches in length. The baby snake showed some physical “deformities” and “abnormalities” and died about 12 days after hatching, the study said.
Hunan mountain snakes were found in forests at elevations of about 1,700 feet, researchers said. Like other mountain snakes, the new species is “rarely encountered in the wild” and much about its lifestyle remains unknown.
Researchers said they named the new species after the Latin word for “sharp” because of the shape of the male snake’s genitalia.
The new species’ common name refers to Hunan Province where it was first discovered and, so far, the only place where it’s been found. The inland province is in southeastern China.
The new species was identified by scale pattern, teeth, coloring, body proportions, genitalia, coloring and other subtle physical features, the study said. DNA analysis found the new species had at least about 5% genetic divergence from related snake species.
The research team included Bo Cai, Yuhao Xu, Gernot Vogel, Lifang Peng, Jinan Xu, Lin Cheng, Dong Liang, Mingxi Li, Yingyong Wang and Shun Ma.
The team also discovered a second new species: the Western China mountain snake.
This story was originally published September 15, 2025 at 3:00 PM with the headline "‘Secretive’ pregnant creature found on mountain in China. It’s a new species."
