Emerald tree boa

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Emerald tree boa

Least Concern  (IUCN 3.1)[1]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Boidae
Genus: Corallus
Species:
C. caninus
Binomial name
Corallus caninus
Synonyms

The emerald tree boa (Corallus caninus)[3] is a boa species found in the rainforests of South America. Since 2009 the species Corallus batesii has been distinguished from the emerald tree boa.[4] Like all other boas, it is nonvenomous.

Description

At the Philadelphia Zoo in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Adults grow to about 6 feet (1.8 m) in length. They have highly developed front teeth that are likely proportionately larger than those of any other non-venomous snake.[5]

The color pattern typically consists of an emerald green ground color with a white irregular interrupted zigzag stripe or so-called 'lightning bolts' down the back and a yellow belly. The bright coloration and markings are very distinctive among South American snakes. Juveniles vary in color between various shades of light and dark orange or brick-red before ontogenetic coloration sets in and the animals turn emerald green (after 9–12 months of age).[6] This also occurs in green tree python (Morelia viridis), a python species in which hatchlings and juveniles may also be canary yellow or brick-red. As opposed to popular belief, yellow juveniles (as in the green tree python) do not occur in the emerald tree boa.

Some

Amazon Basin specimens generally have an uninterrupted white dorsal line, whereas the white markings in specimens from Guyana and Surinam (known as "Guyana Shield" or "Northern" emerald tree boas) are quite variable.[7] The snout scales in Amazon Basin specimens are also much smaller than in their Northern, Southern and Western counterparts found, for example, in Suriname, Venezuela, Bolivia, and French Guiana
. Hybrid forms between the Northern Shield Corallus caninus and the Amazon Basin form are also known to exist.

The emerald tree boa appears very similar to the southern green tree python (Morelia viridis) from southeast Asia and Australia. This is an example of convergent evolution: the species are only very distantly related. Physical differences include the head scalation and the location of the heat pits around the mouth.

A coiled green snake with white markings, its coils hanging over each side of a tree branch on which it rests
An emerald tree boa at the San Diego Zoo in San Diego, California

Etymology

The

explorer, for whom Batesian mimicry is also named.[8]

Geographic range

Found in

type locality given is "Americae."[2]
The 'Basin' species, as the name suggests, is only found along the basin of the Amazon River, in southern Suriname, southern Guiana, southern Venezuela to Colombia, Peru and Brazil and in the surrounding jungles of the Amazon River.

Diet

The diet consists primarily of small mammals, but they have been known to eat some smaller bird species as well as lizards and frogs. Due to the extremely slow metabolism of this species, it feeds much less often than ground dwelling species and meals may be several months apart.

Previously, it had been thought that the primary diet consisted of birds. However, studies of the stomach contents of this species indicate that the majority of its diet consists of small mammals such as

glass frogs
(observation made by Henderson et al.).

Reproduction

The emerald tree boa is

ontogenetic color change over a period of 12 months, gradually turning to full emerald green.[citation needed
]

References

  1. doi:10.2305/IUCN.UK.2016-3.RLTS.T203208A2762180.en
    . Retrieved 12 November 2021.
  2. ^
    ISBN 1-893777-01-4
    (volume).
  3. ISBN 0-8069-6460-X
    .
  4. ^ "Corallus caninus". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 3 July 2008.
  5. ISBN 0-448-11856-4
    .
  6. S2CID 86083502
    .
  7. ^ Walder, Rico (17 November 2014). "Expert Care for the Emerald Tree Boa". Reptiles Magazine.
  8. ISBN 978-1-4214-0135-5
    . (Corallus batesii, p. 19).
  9. ^ "Corallus caninus (Emerald Tree Boa)". Animal Diversity Web.

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Corallus caninus.
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