Mysterious Green 'Furry Snake' Spotted In Dirty Water Baffles Locals

A bizarre snake with long green boa furs instead of scales has baffled local people who claim they have "never seen a snake that looked like this before."

The two-foot-long creature was spotted at Sakhon Nakhon in Thailand by a 49-year-old man named Tu who first saw the snake moving in a dirty water body near his home. Tu took it home and posted its images online, reported Yahoo News Australia.

The man kept it in an earthen water jar before showing it to his family members, who were equally baffled by its "dragon-like appearance."

"I have never seen a snake that looked like this before. My family and I thought it would be useful to let people find out what it is and research about it," Tu's niece Waraporn Panyasarn was quoted by the news outlet.

The family continued to feed the creature while waiting for scientists to identify it.

While some anticipated it could be a "puff-faced water snake," an Australia-based snake species coordinator too thinks it looks like a puff-faced water snake with algae growing on its scales.

"The scales are on top of the skin and mostly made of keratin. It's like having a layer on top of the skin and when they shed they're shedding the outside of those scales. Next time it sheds it (the algae layer) will come off," Sam Chatfield, who works at Wildlife ARC on the NSW Central Coast, told Yahoo News Australia.

She added that it was pretty evident that the reptile had been rubbing off the scales on the front of its face to see better.

Many believe the snake had been waiting for too long in the shallow and rocky crevices of the swamp to catch its prey that the moss had started growing on its back.

Puff-faced water snakes are mildly venomous species of water snake which inhabit freshwater bodies, such as ponds, swamps, and forest streams. This species also displays nocturnal habits and mainly feeds on small fish or frogs, said reports quoting Ecology Asia.

The species are usually found in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar as well as through most of Southeast Asia including Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, and Singapore. In Indonesia, it occurs in Borneo, Sumatra, and Java.