Since the photo appeared on various news websites, further images, purportedly showing the snake at other parts of the river have been circulated.
A member of a disaster team monitoring flood regions on the South East Asian island is said to have captured the image while hovering over the Baleh river in a helicopter.
The shot, which shows a green, wavy object floating along the meandering river, has sparked rumours that a mythical snake called Nabau has returned to the area.
Sceptics have joined the debate claiming that it is nothing more than the work of photo-editing software.
Rather like the myths surrounding Scotland’s Loch Ness Monster, legend has it that a terrifying 100ft snake called Nabau, with a dragon’s head and seven nostrils prowled Borneo’s rivers.
Villagers who claim to have seen the snake in the flesh have now named it Nabau, after the folklore sea serpent which was thought to be able to transform itself into the shapes of different animals.
Those dismissing the suggestions claim that the picture must be doctored because the river in the photo is a different colour to the real Baleh rover, which is a murky brown.
Since the photo appeared on various news websites, further images, purportedly showing the snake at other parts of the river have been circulated.
Even the respected New Straits Times newspaper in Kuala Lumpur has asked readers to make up their own minds about the photos.
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.
It is thought that the 45ft long creature, named Titanoboa, lived on a diet of crocodiles and giant turtles and inhabited the South American tropical forests some 60 million years ago.
Partial skeletons of the prehistoric beast, which weighed 1.25 tons were found in a Colombian coal mine by an international team of fossil hunters.
