This incredible photo of an “Amazonian snake cat” is just that – amazing.
A photo of the so-called ‘Serpens Catus’, a feline with black and neon yellow stripes that resembles a snake, went viral Tuesday in social media posts claiming it was the “The Rarest Cat Species on Earth”.
“Serpens catus is the rarest cat species on Earth. These animals they live in hard-to-reach regions of the Amazon rainforest and are therefore relatively understudied,” said one Twitter user. “The first images capturing the snake cat only appeared in 2020. It weighs 25 kilos.”
A now-deleted “Serpens Cattus” Reddit post caught the attention of several users who pointed out that the feline wasn’t real.
“Obviously false. No known gene can produce natural hair or skin of those colors (navy blue and bright yellow),” someone said in the networks. “A really bad attempt at a fake Latin name,” a second person chimed in. “A Google search on the species names would have made it much less obvious.”
American media contacted zoology experts to verify the authenticity of the photo.
However, the color and patterns in the photo bear a strong resemblance to the boiga dendrophila reptile, which is commonly known as the “gold-ringed cat snake”.
According to the Smithsonian’s National Zoological and Conservation Biology Institute, the snake is found in the same countries where the Amazonian cat snake was said to have been found.
The so-called snake cat went viral all the way up to TikTok, where one user claimed the species lived in Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname.
“It’s in the next Fantastic Beasts,” laughed one user, referring to the “Harry Potter” spin-off franchise.
Source: Clarin
Mary Ortiz is a seasoned journalist with a passion for world events. As a writer for News Rebeat, she brings a fresh perspective to the latest global happenings and provides in-depth coverage that offers a deeper understanding of the world around us.