Blue-skinned creature seen ‘inflating’ itself on mountain. It’s a new species
On a “misty mountain” in Sri Lanka, a 2-foot-long creature moved quickly through the trees and came to rest on a branch. Its coloring largely helped it blend in — until something nearby spooked it.
Visiting scientists watched as the blue-skinned animal inflated itself. It turned out to be a new species.
A team of researchers hiked up Maragala Mountain last October as part of a larger wildlife survey. The peak, like the rest of Sri Lanka, is a “biodiversity hotspot,” according to a study published March 31 in the peer-reviewed journal Amphibian and Reptile Conservation.
During the afternoon trek, researchers noticed a “slender” camouflaged snake, the study said. Intrigued, they caught it, took a closer look and realized they’d discovered a new species: Dendrelaphis thasuni, or Thasun’s bronzeback.
The Thasun’s bronzeback has a “thin” body reaching about 27 inches long, researchers said. Its head is “elongate” with a “short” snout, “large” eyes and “relatively large” nostrils. Its tongue “is bluish-black with tiny light blue dots.”
Photos show the blotchy brown coloring of the new species, which is “similar to that of the tree branches it inhabits.” The snake also has “bright blue” skin in between its scales, which is only “visible when inflated.”
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“This snake inflates its body when it is scared and to ward off predators,” study co-author Suranjan Karunarathna wrote in an April 15 email to McClatchy News. “When we were taking pictures of this snake, it tried to scare us by showing us its light blue color.”
By “inflating” itself, the new species can “appear larger” but also “quickly change color,” Karunarathna said. A photo shows this defense mechanism.
The Thasun’s bronzeback snake was “found near the summit” of the mountain, the study said. It was “adept at moving fast through the trees, but its movement shifted awkwardly when on the forest floor.”
Researchers said they named the new species after Amarasinghe Achchige Thasun Amarasinghe, “a renowned systematic biologist, ecologist, and conservationist,” because of his “remarkable” research contributions, “his friendship” and his work “to popularize wildlife conservation and management in Sri Lanka.”
So far, researchers have only found one Thasun’s bronzeback snake on Maragala Mountain in southern Sri Lanka, an island country off the southeastern coast of India.
The new species was identified by its scale shape and pattern, coloring, snout shape and other subtle physical features, the study said. Researchers did not provide a DNA analysis of the new species.
The research team included Anusha Atthanagoda, Anslem de Silva, Gernot Vogel, Sithara Udayanga, Champika Bandara, Majintha Madawala, L. Lee Grismer and Karunarathna.
This story was originally published April 15, 2025 at 1:34 PM with the headline "Blue-skinned creature seen ‘inflating’ itself on mountain. It’s a new species."
