6 months ago
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GUWAHATI
A squad from the Assam State Zoo and Botanical Garden has recorded the archetypal lawsuit of albinism successful the checkered keelback (Fowlea piscator), besides called the Asian h2o snake, successful Assam.
Wildlife officials said a juvenile albino checkered keelback, measuring 290 mm successful length, was recovered adjacent the zoo successful Guwahati.
The individuality of the snake was confirmed done elaborate inspection of its quality and scalation, which matched published descriptions for the Fowlea piscator.
The researchers released the snake into a protected wood situation wrong 3 days of its usage arsenic a specimen for study.
A non-venomous snake, the checkered keelback is simply a communal taxon successful the subfamily Natricinae of the household Colubridae. However, the albino checkered keelback is not truthful common.
According to a survey published in Reptiles & Amphibians, a peer-reviewed planetary open-access journal, albinism is an highly uncommon familial trait successful chaotic snakes, characterised by the lack of melanin pigment, resulting successful airy colouration and, often, reddish eyes.
The authors of the survey are Rupankar Bhattacharjee, Ashwini Kumar, Debabrata Phukon, and Pranjal Mahananda of the Assam State Zoo, and Jayaditya Purkayastha of the Guwahati-based Help Earth, a biodiversity conservation radical specialising successful reptiles.
The researchers said hypopigmentation, resulting successful albinism oregon leucism (partial nonaccomplishment of pigmentation), had earlier been reported successful snakes from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Mizoram, and West Bengal successful India and Dhanusha territory successful Nepal.
“The caller grounds underscores Assam’s increasing estimation arsenic a centre for wildlife conservation and research. The study tin lend invaluable accusation to ongoing studies of uncommon familial traits successful Indian wildlife,” a zoo authoritative said connected Friday (November 14, 2025).
