SNAKE

SNAKE December 15, 2008--Gumprecht's green pit viper is among at least 1,068 new species that have been discovered in Southeast Asia's Greater Mekong River region in the last ten years--an average of two a week, the international conservation group WWF announced today. "We don't know of any other place on the planet that has the same rate of discovery," said Stuart Chapman, director of WWF's Greater Mekong Programme, in a statement. The Greater Mekong includes areas of Myanmar (Burma), Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, and Cambodia. Discovered in northeastern Thailand in 2002, the newfound snake species grows to about 4 feet (130 centimeters). Like all pit vipers, it hunts prey by sensing heat through small pits in the sides of its face.