The Channa andrao snakehead, which breathes atmospheric air and can live on land for four days at a time, is one of more than 200 species discovered between 2009 and 2014, as detailed in a report this month by the World Wildlife Federation.
An average of 34 new species were discovered every year since 2009 in the Eastern Himalayan region, which includes Bhutan, northeastern India, Nepal, northern Myanmar and southern Tibet. The WWF report also highlights the precarious standing of these species; just 25 percent of the region's original habitats remain, due to development. Poaching, overgrazing and the wildlife trade also threaten species, according to the report.
"The challenge is to preserve our threatened ecosystems before these species, and others yet unknown are lost," Sami Tornikoski of WWF Living Himalayas Initiative said in a statement.
Nearly one-third of the world's known Channa snakeheads live in the Eastern Himalayan region, making it an epicenter of snakehead diversity.
Just one mammal was recently discovered in the region: a monkey with an upturned nose. This poor fellow, called Rhinopithecus strykeri, has a tough go of it when it rains.
"Locals claim that the black and white monkey is very easy to find when it is raining because the monkeys often get rainwater in their upturned noses causing them to sneeze," the WWF report reads. "To avoid this evolutionary inconvenience, snub-nosed monkeys spend rainy days sitting with their heads tucked between their knees."
Sneezing monkey is one of 211 new species found in #HiddenHimalayas http://t.co/HsZScj9uRL > image @FaunaFloraInt pic.twitter.com/9dpiCXWMzK
— WWF UK (@wwf_uk) October 6, 2015
