Borneo Giant Snake Photographed: Hoax

Photographs have allegedly been taken of a giant serpentine animal, apparently a snake, near Ulu Rajang on the Baleh River in Borneo, we are suppose to believe. The images, taken by Sibu, a member of a disaster team monitoring flood regions by helicopter, has sparked Internet chatter and media debate.

Reportedly the photographs of the huge snake were taken at 5.30 pm, on January 31, 2009, at one of the Sungai Baleh tributaries from the helicopter. But indeed, they are old photos, which have been floating around the internet since at least 2007, er, make that 2002. See YouTube url noted, below.

Even the rather credible The New Straits Times newspaper in Kuala Lumpur and the Daily Mail of the UK have asked readers for comments about the photos. No reason not to show it here at Cryptomundo and put this one to rest!

Discussions have been about whether the photos are genuine or merely the work of computer photoshopping-type software. Some have said it is merely a log.

As one writer at The New Straits Times asked: “A log can’t be that winding, can it?”

Others have suggested it’s a speedboat, but this has been dismissed because of the twisting wake.

According to legend, as mentioned at sites such as The New Straits Times and The Broken Shield, the Nabau is the local name for this snake said to be more than 100 ft in length and with a dragon’s head and seven nostrils.

As I have mentioned here recently, with the Columbian discovery of the giant 45 ft long fossil snake, Titanoboa, there have been new accounts of a 39 ft snake being sighted in the jungles of Columbia. Should we be surprised an old hox has resurfaced?

Sources: Daily Mail; The Broken Shield; The New Straits Times (article appears to have no current links now).

So as not to create any confusion, directly above is the famed photograph taken by a Belgian helicopter pilot, Remy Van Lierde, allegedly during a patrol over a river in the Republic of Congo in 1959. The snake he witnessed has been estimated to be about 40-50 feet long.

Loren Coleman About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct). Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015. Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.

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