Just what 2026 needs: a flying snake was found living in a cave in Cambodia.
Researchers have discovered several rare and even new species during a several-year biodiversity study, CBS News reported.
The study participants scoured more than 60 limestone caves in Battambang province, Cambodia.
They examined 10 hills in the area already known for karst, or limestone cliffs filled with caves and ecosystems, according to the Fauna & Flora Cambodia report.
Among what was found in the “small islands of habitat, each with its own collection of plants and animals.” Some of the creatures may live only in one cave.
Researchers found a species of bent-toed gecko in 2024, and later they found four populations evolving in different ways, CNN reported.
Inside the small spaces, they also found a touquoise pit viper, “cryptically camoflagued leaf-toed geckos” and bright millipedes, which they surmise are likley poisonous, CBS News reported.
The pit viper is still being categorized, but the Fauna & Flora Cambodia report called it a “spectacular new species.” Three of the newly discovered geckos are also undergoing the same process, CNN reported.
They also found a reticulated python, which is the world’s longest snake, CBS News pointed out, as well as an ornate flying snake or golden tree snake, which is found in South Asia.
The latest discoveries, which were just released this week, but the work isn’t done yet.
“There is more exploration to be done,” conservation biologist Pablo Sinovas said, adding they have only “scratched the surface,” CNN reported.
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