| Assam Keelback | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Information | |
| Range | Northeast India |
| Scientific Classification | |
| Kingdom | Animalia |
| Phylum | Chordata |
| Class | Reptilia |
| Order | Squamata |
| Family | Colubridae |
| Genus | Herpetoreas |
| Species | H. pealii |
| Conservation Status | |
 Data Deficient | |
Assam Keelback (Herpetoreas pealii), commonly known as the Peal's Keelback, is a species of snake that is endemic to Northeast India. It has recently been rediscovered after 129 years in Arunachal Pradesh.
Habitat and Range[]
Assam Keelback can be found near streams in tropical wet forests.
The Assam Keelback has been recorded in the Indian states of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh. It was rediscovered in Poba Reserve Forest in a relict patch of lowland Brahmaputra Valley tropical wet forest. This forest is characterized by a three storied appearance with canopy greater than 30 meters tall with numerous, small, slow-moving perennial streams and rivulets in the forest interior. This snake was spotted camouflaged in submerged leaflitter of a stream.
Description[]
Top: Assam Keelbacks camouflage well with leaf litter; Second from Top: live Assam Keelback; Second from Bottom: The dorsal area (A) and ventrals (B) of an Assam Keelback; Bottom: The dorsal area (C) and ventrals (D) of a preserved specimen.
The Assam Keelback may grow up to 50 cm (19.625 inches) long, which includes a tail measuring 12.5 cm (4.875 inches) longer.
The snake is a colored dark olive-gray dorsally with dark brown ventrals that are marked with light yellow laterally. The dorsal scales are strongly keeled but less so in the outermost of 19 rows at midbody. A faint yellow stripe that runs along the center of the ventrals becomes more distinct posteriorly. Two light stripes run on both the upperbody and lowerbody, including an upper narrow one and a broader lower one measuring two scales wide. The top of the head is dark brown. The rostral, upper labials, and lower labials are yellow and blotched and edged with brown. This snake is nonvenomous.
The Assam Keelback has a total of 142-144 ventral scales, an entire anal plate, and 75-77 divided subcaudals.
Reproduction[]
The Assam Keelback lays eggs with little or no embryonic development within the mother (displays oviparity).
Etymology[]
This species was given the specific name, pealii, in honor of British ethnographer and tea planter in Assum, Samuel E. Peal. He collected the two male specimens from which British zoologist William Lutley Sclater recognized this snake as a species new to science in 1891. These two specimens have since been distributed to the Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata, and the Natural History Museum in London. The former species has since disintegrated.
Rediscovery[]
After it's introduction to Western zoology, no human has seen this elusive snake until 2018. It was rediscovered in Poba Reserve Forest, Assam, where it was spotted by a team of scientists from the Wildlife Institute of India (WWI), who were retracing the steps of the Arbor Expedition, a military expedition by the British against the Arbors in 1911 that yielded a rich list of flora and fauna.
Conservation[]
Given the lack of data on this species due to its recent discovery, the Assam Keelback is listed as "Data Deficient" by the IUCN. The region that the Assam Keelback was found in is a reserved forest with a 'least protection status'. The structure of this forest have been highly modified as a result of logging in the past and fragmentation by a highway and a village road. Poaching and illegal collection of forest resources is yet another threat to the preservation of the Assam Keelback. Other parts of its range are threatened by fragmentation from tea plantations, human habitation, and agriculture, and habitat deterioration from from coal mining and oil exploration is an emerging threat.
Works Cited[]
“Assam Keelback.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 8 Jan. 2023,
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assam_keelback.
Author. “Author.” The Arunachal Times, 28 June 2020,
-
https://arunachaltimes.in/index.php/2020/06/29/assam-keelback-snake-registers-presence-after-more-than-a-century/.
Desikan, Shubashree. “Assam Keelback Spotted for the First Time in 129 Years.” The Hindu, 12 July 2020,
-
https://www.thehindu.com/sci-tech/science/assam-keelback-spotted-for-the-first-time-in-129-years/article32052652.ece.
Drishti IAS. “Assam Keelback Rediscovered.” Drishti IAS, 2 July 2020,
- https://www.drishtiias.com/daily-updates/daily-news-analysis/assam-keelback-rediscovered.