mythical monster in Borneo.
According to legend, the Nabau was a terrifying
snake more than 100ft in length and with a dragon's
head and seven nostrils.
But now local villagers living along the Baleh river in
Borneo believe the mythical creature has returned after
this photo of a gigantic snake swimming along the remote
waterways has emerged.
The picture, taken by a member of a disaster team
monitoring flood regions by helicopter, has sparked a
huge debate about whether the photos are genuine or
merely the work of photo-editing software.
Borneo's Nessie: The image that sparked fears a
giant serpent was stalking the river Baleh
Even the respected New Straits Times newspaper in
Kuala Lumpur has asked readers to make up their own
minds about the photos.
Villagers who claim to have seen the snake say they
have given it the name of Nabau, after an ancient sea
serpent which can transform itself into the shapes of
different animals.
People who have studied the photograph of the shape
taken from the air have dismissed suggestions that it's a log.
As one writer 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.
The most common accusation is that the photo has
simply been manipulated on a computer, while others
complain that the river is a different colour to the real
Baleh rover which is a murky brown.
Mythical: A second frame appears to show something
snake-like in the water off a remote village
But villagers who insist the snake exists say that photos
of the creature being taken in different parts of the river
prove it is swimming about.
Earlier this month scientists unearthed the fossil of a killer
snake that was longer than a bus, as heavy as a small car
and which could swallow an animal the size of a cow.
The 45ft long monster - named Titanoboa - was so big that it
lived on a diet of crocodiles and giant turtles, squeezing
them to death and devouring them whole.
Weighing an impressive 1.25 tons, it slithered around the
tropical forests of South America 60million years ago,
just five million years after the last dinosaurs were wiped out.
Partial skeletons of the boa constrictor-like prehistoric killer
were found in a Colombian coal mine by an international
team of fossil hunters.
