Recently in the news a few photographs were taken of a supposed one hundred foot long snake swimming up the rivers in Borneo. This snake is said to be Borneo’s version of the Loch Ness Monster but the photos themselves can actually be of anything, including a photoshop job. One photo shows the snake happily swimming in the Baleh River, while the other photo reveals the snake peering above the waters off the coast of Borneo near a small fishing village. If this snake is real, exactly what kind of snake might it be?
It is possible this snake can be a a real water serpent, as some reptiles tend to live in water such as the alligator. Or it could be an eel, mistaken for a sea serpent, as the natives believe to see every now and then. It can even be an entirely new species of snake, for all the scientists know. Not too long ago a fossil of a 45 foot long snake was discovered in Colombia in South America. Given the tropical climate of that part of the world, it is not unusual for a snake to attain such a gargantuan size. The Brazilian rain forests are known for their anacondas, even though these snakes are nowhere near a hundred feet long.
Those who live on the island of Borneo have even given the monster a name - Nabau - making it feel more at home and giving them a bit of notoriety. Every culture deserves to have some legend to call their own, even if it bears a similarity to a legend in a loch located in the United Kingdom.
Looking at the photos again and again, soon the reputed snake ceases to be real. It looks like someone manipulated the creature, if there was one, in the area when the photos were being taken. It looks to smooth to be a curved branch just flowing with the water current down the river and off the coast. The village doesn’t look too lively but it is of course possible everyone there was elsewhere or taking a nap.
If the photos were manipulated, the most likely creature that got stretched was an eel. Eels are common in warm bodies of water so it wouldn’t surprise me if some Indonesian eel had his photo snapped when he wasn’t looking. At least it gives the people in Borneo something to talk about and it puts the island on the map.
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