Puerto Rican boa

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Puerto Rican boa

Least Concern (IUCN 3.1)[1]
CITES Appendix I (CITES)[2]
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Domain: Eukaryota
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Reptilia
Order: Squamata
Suborder: Serpentes
Family: Boidae
Genus: Chilabothrus
Species:
C. inornatus
Binomial name
Chilabothrus inornatus
(Reinhardt, 1843)[3]
Synonyms[4][5]

The Puerto Rican boa (Chilabothrus inornatus) is a large

viviparous (bearing live young) and kills its prey using constriction
.

Taxonomy

It is extremely similar to the

The taxon Piesigaster boettgeri was described from Mindanao in the Philippines, by the Spaniard es:Víctor López Seoane in 1881, but was identified as a synonym of this species by Stejneger. Seoane's brother was an officer in the Spanish Navy and thus the localities of the group of specimens Seoane had obtained were confused during their passage to Spain.[6]

Although it has been known under the name E. inornatus for over a century, having been moved to the genus

herpetologists André Marie Constant Duméril and Gabriel Bibron,[4] or the Italian snake expert Giorgio Jan,[6] only a year after it had been described in that genus by the Dane Johannes Theodor Reinhardt in 1843. Reinhardt had three snakes of this species to study for his description, these are the syntypes and are stored in Copenhagen. They were collected by a certain Dr. Ravn from Puerto Rico.[4][7]
It is often still known as Epicrates inornatus in many publications.

Etymology

The

Latin negation of ornatus, meaning 'adorned', thus the boa is 'unadorned'.[6]

Description

A characteristic of the species is the irregular parietal scales. It can grow to some 1.9 m (6.2 ft), with 261 to 271 ventral scales and 67 to 75 caudal scales, according to Stejneger in 1904, who only knew of at least twelve specimens at the time. The colours of the three live specimens he knew of were variable; two he describes as "bistre" (deep, dark, grayish brown), the other as "chestnut" with a darker colour near the tail, the first had a darker ventral surface, the second he describes as "slate" coloured, and the last had a lighter slate-brown underside with the ventral scales having paler edges. The first was patterned with seventy to eighty indistinct dusky cross bars consisting of a row of spots, these cross bars increasing in width to the end of the snake; in the second these patterns were much more distinct, with the crossbars having pale centres but being outlined in blackish colour, the lateral spots being so aligned as to form a blackish line in the front third of its body, but in the last snake there was little evidence of patterning with only a few scattered and obscure darkish spots on its sides. The iris he describes as "silvery gray clouded with dusky".[6]

It grows to 1.8–2.7 m (5.9–8.9 ft) in total length.[citation needed]

Similar species

It is the largest snake on the island; other

Mona Island.[6]

Distribution

The Puerto Rican boa is endemic to Puerto Rico.[1][4][8]

Ecology

Puerto Rican boa

Habitat

It is found in wooded and rocky places in the foothills.[6] It is more common in the northwest and in the karst regions[1] which are found along the northern coast of the island.

Diet

The boa feeds by seizing the prey in its jaws, wrapping several coils around it, and then constricting until the prey has suffocated. The prey is then swallowed headfirst. The feeding habits of the very young are unknown. However, locals claim they eat small lizards, other small vertebrates and some insects.

This species is a sit-and-wait predator as opposed to an active hunter of prey. It is a nocturnal, terrestrial hunter which is not found often in trees. The dissections of 72 snakes from the West Indies show that while young boas of the genus Epicrates feed primarily on

Brotomys and Isolobodon before the introduction of these species. Bats constitute the other half. Newborn snakes may possibly feed on geckos. It is thought that this species in particular feeds less on anoles and more on birds, rodents and bats.[9]

Since the karst region where the Puerto Rican boa lives usually has many caves, the boa has the opportunity to feed on bats -a phenomenon which was previously seen in other Epicrates species. Observations in the 1980s revealed that boas capture the bats in flight by hanging at the opening of the cave, waiting until bats fly out of it. They then grab a bat with their jaws before killing it via constriction.[10][11]

Reproduction

Pregnant females give birth to about 23-26 live boas.

Conservation

Historic records, some dating back to the 18th century, indicate that during the first few centuries of

mongoose
, introduced into Puerto Rico in the 19th century, has been postulated as a further cause for the boa's present status, but there is no direct evidence to support this idea.

In 1904 Stejneger mentions that during his time the snake was rather rare, he himself, as well as a number of other collecting parties in the newly acquired territory, were unable to see one during their expeditions on the island, although a trail of one was seen. Other collecting parties were able to collect five specimens in 1900 and in those first few years the island became a possession of the United States, and bring these to the mainland, almost doubling the specimens known at the time. In the previous century only six other specimens had been secured, these were all in Europe -one in

Bayamón, there was also a second specimen from Haiti, but this one is now thought to have been misidentified), two or more somewhere in Spain (those of Seoane supposedly from Mindanao), and the three original syntypes used by Reinhardt in Copenhagen.[6]

After the invasion and annexation of the territory by the United States a few years before Stejneger and numerous other Americans were able to collect on the island, there was a subsequent economic decline due of the loss of traditional agricultural markets for sugar, and much of the forests have regrown on the island. There is an indication that the boa has recovered somewhat in recent years, although not to the degree that protective measures can be dropped. To prevent its extinction, a few conservation efforts have been attempted, including a conservation area for it in San Patricio State Forest in Puerto Rico.[citation needed]

See also

References

  1. ^ . Retrieved 3 May 2021.
  2. ^ "Appendices | CITES". cites.org. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  3. ^ "Chilabothrus inornatus (Reinhardt, 1843)". Integrated Taxonomic Information System. Retrieved 7 October 2015.
  4. ^ a b c d Chilabothrus inornatus at the Reptarium.cz Reptile Database. Accessed 7 October 2015.
  5. ^ Boulenger GA. 1893. Catalogue of the Snakes in the British Museum (Natural History). Volume I., Containing the Families ... Boidæ ... London: Trustees of the British Museum (Natural History). (Taylor and Francis, printers). xiii + 448 pp. + Plates I-XXVIII. (Epicrates inornatus, pp. 97-98).
  6. ^ .
  7. .
  8. ^ Schwartz A, Thomas R. 1975. A Check-list of West Indian Amphibians and Reptiles. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication No. 1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Carnegie Museum of Natural History. 216 pp. (Epicrates inornatus, p. 185).
  9. .
  10. .
  11. .

Further reading

  • Reinhardt JT. 1843. "Beskrivelse af Nogle nye Slangearter ". Danske Vidensk. Selsk. Afhandl. 10: 233–279. (Boa inornata, pp. 253–257, plate i, figures 21–23)