Discover the cheek snake found only in Tam Dao National Park

Animal researchers have just discovered in Tam Dao National Park, Vinh Phuc province, 555mm long cheek snake - one of 19 or 20 species of Opisthotropis cheek snake in the world.

Tam Dao cheek snake

This cheek snake was discovered in Suoi Bac, 750m above sea level in Tam Dao National Park. The dark solid olive-green back with two bold stripes along the sides, the abutment of the hip and abdomen is gray, the tail tip with many dark black spots. Standard specimens of this species are currently stored at the zoological museum of Hanoi National University.

This new cheek snake has a body length including the 555mm tail. The back is dark olive green with two dark stripes along the sides, the abutment on the hips and the abdomen is gray, the tail tip with many dark spots

This new snake has the scientific name Opisthotropis tamdaoensis sp. n. Ziegler, David & Vu, 2008. This work was published in the journal Animal and Evolutionary System (ZooSystematics and Evolution) No. 84, volume 2 of 2008.

According to the researchers, this new cheek snake belongs to the water snake family (Colubridae); In the world there are about 19 or 20 species of Opisthotropis cheek snake species depending on the classification system of the researchers, but in Vietnam there are 6 species.

This is an international cooperation project between TS.Thomas Ziegler - Cologne Zoo (Germany), GS. Patrick David - Department of Animal and Evolutionary Learning Systems of Paris Museum of History and Nature (France) and Mr. Vu Ngoc Thanh, Department of Biology, Hanoi National University.

This discovery is one of the proofs of the importance of Tam Dao National Park for the conservation of endemic animals of Vietnam and the world. However, local socio-economic activities threaten the habitat of the aforementioned snakes.

News: Bich Ngan ; Photo: Vu Ngoc Thanh