The most beautiful snake in the world: less than 30 extremely rare snakes have been found in the past 100 years
4hw.org: Recently, it is known as the most beautiful snake in the world. As a giant panda among snakes, it has been questioned whether it exists for half a century, and the significance of this artificial cultivation is also significant.
'this is the most beautiful snake in the world, the cross spotted brocade snake. Brocade snake is beautiful enough. I didn't expect that it is more beautiful than other brocade snakes. It was first discovered about 100 years ago. But in the past hundred years, no more than 30 living bodies have been found. It's very mysterious. Not to mention seeing living things, even a picture is very precious. It is more difficult to breed. "On September 2, Ding Li, a researcher at Chengdu Institute of biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, told reporters.
This is a unique snake in China. Dingli revealed that some climbers and poachers paid a high price for the snake and searched in the wild for many years, but found nothing.
Three years ago, after squatting for several days and nights, he finally found the small head protruding from the snake cave, capturing the male and female snakes.
He raised the snake carefully for three years. Recently, the research team led by him and the cooperators of Xihua Normal University and Sichuan Academy of forestry finally overcome the problem of breeding the snake. The first batch of eggs was successfully hatched.
It has beautiful patterns, mild temperament and no poison. It is also known as elegant female snake, horizontal jade snake and horizontal jade snake.
From the picture, the dark green body surface of the snake is dotted with black pearl necklace like stripes. Ding Li said that in the Latin scientific name of the snake, it means "pearl chain".
Ninety eight years ago, in 1929, Stejneger. L, an American scholar, first discovered the snake in Ya'an, Sichuan Province, China. He captured a male snake and took its specimen to the United States. Since then, for decades, the snake has not been found again, so it is even suspected that it exists.
Dingley said, not to mention its individual, even its photos and images, are very precious.
In 1980, 1987 and 1988, the snake was collected three times and identified as an independent species. However, due to the small number of individuals found in the field, this independent species has been controversial.
In 2017, Dingli et al. Published a paper based on genome information and morphological characteristics, and determined that the genetic relationship between the two snakes was the closest, and that they were different species.
According to Dingli, in the wild, snakes usually take three years to mature. The adult snake is about 1 meter long and its thumb is thick and thin.
After three years of breeding, Dingli finally got to know their habits. He lay down most of the time every day, came out in the early morning to forage for a short time, mainly devouring young rats, which was helpful to control the damage of plateau rats.
With such beautiful patterns and no poisonous teeth, will the snake become the pet of reptile lovers?
Dingley believes that it has such potential. But people certainly can't catch this kind of snake from the wild. The number of individuals in the field is very small, and the habitat is fragile. It is easy to destroy the habitat and disappear from the field because of human interference.
When reporting to the outside world, Dingli tried to blur the spot where he found the snake. He said that this is the same practice in the domestic surgical field. Because scientists have found that poachers also track wild animals and plants through literature research or news reports. Dingley didn't want good intentions to do bad things.
At present, it is not a national key protected wild animal.
But Dingli said this is because the current list of national key protected wild animals was promulgated and implemented in 1989 and has not been updated for a long time. However, at that time, the survey data of the snake was extremely lacking and was not included in the list. In 2017, the list supporting the new revision of the wildlife protection law will be released soon. In the new list, he believes that China's unique rare snakes, such as brocade snake and Mangshan iron head, should be included in the list of national key protected wildlife.
Dingli is a little relieved that at present, the snake has been listed as a local protected species in Sichuan Province and has been protected to a certain extent.
Dingli thinks that it is more beneficial for the population of the snake to protect it on the spot in the Nature Reserve where there are some snakes. He hopes that when planning for the future, the relevant reserves can include the protection of snakes and habitats, and work with research institutions to find more effective and targeted conservation strategies.
Based on some of the genomic information of other snakes accumulated by the academic community, Dingli hopes to find out the origin and evolution of Hydra cristata and other snakes. He is now using a small animal CT device to learn more about the body structure of the snake.
In high altitude areas of more than 1600 meters, the temperature is often very low. To some extent, this is a forbidden area for cold-blooded animals. The snakes that are distributed there are usually eggs, avoiding the difficulty of natural hatching. However, it is still egg and natural hatching.
How it adapts to the harsh environment there is a puzzle dingley is solving.
Dingli said that there are very few places in such a large cold area that can meet the needs of the snake.
Dingley admits that there are some people who are very opposed to artificial breeding. They think that artificial breeding destroys a species. But dingley didn't want the snake to disappear in the wild. People knew nothing about it. Through research, we have at least mastered its life rules. If we don't study it, we don't know where it is distributed or where it lives. How to protect it? "
Dingley also said that protection should ultimately be implemented to protect their habitats, rather than to protect isolated individuals.
He mentioned that many tortoises in China, especially the closed shell tortoises, have been basically extinct in the wild. At present, only artificially raised individuals are left. The same is true for giant salamander (giant salamander), whose natural distribution in the wild may not exceed 10 points, with a very small number, but tens of thousands of artificial breeding. The Chinese alligator suffered the same.