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A new character of Snake River , a species of bush viper , was pick up in southerly Tanzania during a late biologic sketch . The ophidian ’s exact locating is being hold on hidden to protect the visually striking blackened - and - yellow snake from illegal preferent collectors .
The new species , namedMatilda ’s Horned Viper(Atheris matildae ) , is describe as having hornlike scale above its eye and measure 2.1 feet ( 60 centimeters ) . The Wildlife Conservation Society ( WCS ) researchers who conducted the study named the new species after the girl of study Centennial State - author Tim Davenport , conductor of WCS ’s Tanzania Program .
Matilda’s Horned Viper, named after the daughter of one of the researchers, is a new species of bush viper.
The brilliantly hued snake bears a resemblance to the Usambara George Bush viper ( Atheris ceratophora ) , although their scales differ and the new species is considerably larger .
The viper ’s home ground is estimated to only stretch across a few straight miles of remote forest located in a mountainous neighborhood in southwest Tanzania . The area is already severely degraded as a result of logging and charcoal fabrication , and the quality of the habitat in continuing to decline , harmonise to the study generator .
The researchers have not break the exact location of thesnake ’s habitatto protect the species from poachers who illegally trace rare alien beast . Wildlife trade is now the secondly - largest illegal barter in the world — following the drug trade — and reptiles make up a large portion of illegally traffic animal , according to the researchers .
Matilda’s Horned Viper, named after the daughter of one of the researchers, is a new species of bush viper.
Theillegal hunting of reptilesin the wild can have devastating effects on their populations . In many part of Africa , poach is the single biggest threat to the existence of many species in the wilderness , according to the WCS .
Poaching could especially pose a threat to the Matilda ’s Horned Viper because African President Bush viper of the genus Atheris are popular pets in many countries due to their attention - grabbing , colourful appearance . The continuing degradation of their innate habitat may also seriously threatenA. matildae ’s population .
The researchers have established a small captive genteelness settlement for the raw ophidian and ask the specie to be classified as critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature .
The field describing the discovery of the new species was published in the December issue of the journal Zootaxa .
