Sandboa Book

The SANDBOA BOOK

Warren H. Treacher

With contributions from:

Robert B. Miller Scott Miller David I. Nielsen Stephen Spawls Scott Stark Rick Staub

Treat Publishing Splatters 60 Vanishing 61 Calico 63 Dalmatian 66

5 | Rufescens 67 “Tigers” and other rufescens morphs 73 Tiger 74 Patternless/Solids 74 Stripes 74 Granites 75 Aberrant 75 Rufescens cross breeding outcomes 75 Pure rufescens with Normal 75 Stripe with Stripe 76 Normal (Tiger with Normal) 76 Granite with Granite 76

Foreword xiii Acknowledgements xv

Introduction 1

1 | Morphology 3 Sexual dimorphism 7 Determining the sex of Kenyan sandboas 8

2 | Taxonomy 11 Historical classification 12 Contemporary classification 13 Today’s taxonomy 14

3 | Natural History 21 Range 22 Habitat 22 Food 27 Breeding in the wild 34

4 | North American Breeding History 37 Normal East African 37 Anerythristic 38 Albino 40 Snow 42 Flame and Dodoma 43 Paradox Albino 48 Cal and Super Flame 50 Splash 52 Paint 53 Holloway Reduced Pattern Anerythristics 55 Nuclear 56 Hypo 59

The Sandboa Book | vii Splatters 60 Vanishing 61 Calico 63 Dalmatian 66

6 | Husbandry 77 Enclosures 77 Aquariums 79 Rack systems 80 Other equipment 85 Cleaning and sterilizing 85 Substrate 87 Sand 88 Shredded aspen 90 Sani-chips 91 Newspaper and paper towels 91 Crushed walnut shells 92 Shredded cypress 92 Feeding 93 Feeding babies 95 Tricks for stubborn feeders 96 Feeding frozen/thawed food 97 Force-feeding 100 viii | Contents 7 | Breeding 103 Trios 111 Breeding one male to three or more females 112 Breeding one female to two males 113 Birthing 114 Litter Ratio Index 117 Breeding lifespan 118 Scott Stark on his “old Egyptian” 118

8 | Genetics 121 Recessive and dominant alleles 122 Heterozygous and homozygous 123 Genetic probabilities in offspring from a single trait cross 123 Genetic probabilities in offspring from a two-trait cross 125

9 | Health Issues 129 Dry sheds 130 Scent gland impaction 132 Respiratory infections 133 Contagious conditions 134 Parasitic worms 134 Cryptosporidiosis 134 Ophidian Paramyxovirus 135 Inclusion Body Disease 136 Avoiding contagious health problems 136

10 | Additional Sandboa Species 139 European spotted (Eryx jaculus) 139 Russian sandboa (Eryx milaris) 144 Rough-scaled sandboa (Eryx conicus) 150 Smooth-scaled or Indian sandboa 154 (Eryx johnii) 154 Tartar sandboa (Eryx tataricus) 160 Elegans sandboa (Eryx elegans) 163

The Sandboa Book | ix Chad Khartoum Eritrea Asmara Sudan

N'Djamena Djibouti Djibouti Addis Ababa Somalia Awash National Park Central South Deror African Sudan Ethiopia Republic Bangui Juba Wajir District 1 | Morphology Uganda Mogadishu

Kampala Kenya Democratic Republic Nairobi Eryx colubrinus (for- of the Lake Victoria merly Eryx colubrinus Congo Kigali Rwanda colubrinus and Eryx Bujumbura Tsavo West and East colubrinus loveridgeiVictoria) Kinshasa Burundi Kilimanjaro National Park was historically called Airport the Egyptian and Kenyan Dar es Salaam sandboa, respectively.Seychelles It Dodoma is a heavy-bodied, tightly Tanzania scaled, small, fossorial (an organism that is adapted Map adapted from FreeVectorMaps.com to digging and life under- Moroni Malawiground, such as the badger) boa. A true boa, it is a relative of the North American rubber and rosy boas. It has a streamlined body with

Wild Eryx colubrinus, Tsavo West, vicinity Mtito Andei, Kenya; S. Spawls

The Sandboa Book | 3 Chad Khartoum Eritrea Asmara Sudan

N'Djamena Djibouti Djibouti Addis Ababa Somalia Awash National Park Central South Deror African Sudan Ethiopia Republic Bangui Juba Wajir District

Uganda Mogadishu

Wild Eryx colubrinus, Kilimanjaro International Airport; S. Spawls Kampala Kenya Democratic Congo Republic Nairobi very smooth scales toward the front of the Lake Victoria of the body and more keeled scales Congo Kigali towards the tail. The wide, flattened Rwanda rostral plate, under-bite, and the eye Bujumbura Tsavo West andpositioning East on top of the head allVictoria Kinshasa Burundi Kilimanjaro National Parksuggest an evolutionary adaption for Airport burrowing. Dar es Salaam Seychelles The basic coloration varies from a Dodoma bright to a pale, almost white yellow Tanzania and from an orange to an almost red background color. Additionally, Map adapted from FreeVectorMaps.com an irregular series of dark brown to black blotches typically Moronioccur along the entire length of the body. The Malawi color, which is mainly visible down the back but also present every- Mamoudzou Angola Lilongwe where between the blotches,Comoros gives these snakes a beautiful, marbled Mozambique appearance. The belly is almostMayotte always white or cream colored. Lusaka Locale-specific color and pattern variations will be discussed at Zambia length later, but apparently often reflect the local soil color.

Harare

4 | Chapter 1 Morphology Algiers Tunis

Rabat

Tripoli Tunisia

Morroco Cairo 3 | Natural History Algeria

Libya Egypt Warren Treacher with Steve Spawls Western Sahara The natural history of the East African sandboa is challenging, par- ticularly for someone who has never been to Africa. Steve Spawls is Mauritania a published herpetologist who has lived for decades in East Africa Nouakchott Mali and Kenya in particular. Steve’s love of nature and animals as well Niger Chad as his talent for photography and writing make him an ideal person Khartoum Eritrea to contribute to this chapter. Having encountered many sandboas in Praia Dakar Asmara their native environments, he has also contributed his insight and Senegal Sudan Cape photos to this chapter. Banjul Bamako Niamey Verde Gambia Ouagadougou N'Djamena Bissau Djibouti Burkina Faso Djibouti Guinea-Bissau Guinea Benin Conakry Abuja Addis Ababa Ghana Somalia Freetown Sierra Ivory Leone Coast Togo Awash National Park Nigeria Central South Lome Sudan Deror Porto-Novo African Ethiopia Monrovia Yamoussoukro Republic Juba Liberia Cameroon Bangui Accra Wajir District Malabo Yaounde Uganda Mogadishu Eq. Guinea Kampala Kenya Sao Tome Libreville Democratic Congo Republic Nairobi Sao Tome Gabon of the Lake Victoria and Principe Congo Kigali Rwanda Bujumbura Tsavo West and East Victoria Brazzaville Kinshasa Burundi Kilimanjaro National Park Airport Dar es Salaam Seychelles Dodoma Luanda Tanzania

Moroni Malawi Mamoudzou Angola Lilongwe Comoros Tsavo West, Kenya; S. Spawls Mozambique Mayotte Lusaka Zambia The Sandboa Book | 21 Harare Antanarivo Zimbabwe Port Louis Madagascar Saint-Denis Windhoek Mauritius Botswana Réunion Gaborone Namibia Pretoria Mbabane Maputo Swaziland

Bloemfontein Maseru Lesotho South Africa

Cape Town

Copyright © Free Vector Maps.com Range The natural distribution of the East African sandboa is North Africa, from Niger east to Egypt including the countries of Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Somalia and Tanzania. It is difficult to determine precise and complete ranges due to inaccessibility, geopolitical insta- bility and poor infrastructure in many African nations; therefore, their ranges are subject to varied interpretations in the literature.

Adapted by L. Frey and W. Treacher from FreeVectorMaps.com Habitat A small ground snake, East African sandboas are slow-moving and live at or near the soil surface. Widespread throughout their East African range, they are found in a variety of environments. East African sandboas are typically associated with arid and semi-arid habitats, but they have been recorded at disparate altitudes ranging from sea level to about 1500 meters (Spawls et al., 2002).

22 | Chapter 3 Natural History 4 | North American Breeding History

The breeding history of East African sandboas is really a patchwork of individual stories from many dedicated and patient enthusiasts who have been breeding these animals together for decades. Their work has produced great morphological developments.

Their interest was channeled into long term projects that often led to new morphs and lines being introduced into the Kenyan community. In many ways it is like other technical endeavors that depend on the prior work of others to push the envelope further.

Normal East African To the best of our knowledge, the first successful East African sandboa breeding in the U.S. was by John M. McLain at the Houston Zoo in 1979 (McLain, 1982). His efforts followed on the heels of Olney who had worked with Kenyan sandboas and was mentioned in the International Zoo Yearbook, in the late 1970s.

Jeff Holloway started collecting and working with reptiles as a youngster in Georgia where his father routinely brought home a wide range of wildlife and encouraged his interest in reptiles. Jeff had his first litter 1992 male, of babies from a water snake he caught Eryx colubrinus, in a Tennessee creek when he was 8 years M. Bell, W. Treacher; old. By the time he was in his twenties, G. Merker with considerable experience with wildlife and reptiles in particular, he became involved as a volunteer at the Memphis Zoo reptile department.

The Sandboa Book | 37 Holloway was occasionally offered extra babies from captive clutches bred at the Memphis Zoo, which he took home to care for. In 1980 or 1981, he took home a pair of normal baby East African sandboas, likely from the first litter produced earlier by John M. McLain at the Houston Zoo. Jeff went on to breed and produce a litter from a pair of these babies in 1983, making him one of the original breeding pioneers of East African sandboas in the U.S. This pair went on to produce 114 babies in the following five years.

Anerythristic The first East African sandboa to appear in the U.S. with a new morphology from the original normals was the anerythristic, or axanthic East African. Anerythristic literally means without red, or orange. Thus the original orange background of the snake is replaced with a silvery white, creating a strikingly handsome black/brown to white/cream colored animal. We know from the herpetological book Reptiles and Amphibians of East Africa, which Norman G. Hedges published in 1983 by Kenya Literature Bureau, that these anerythristic animals were found in the wild in Kenya sometime prior to 1983. On page four of the book, the author says: “The irregular pattern of blotches is typical and is usually brown on fawn, although

Original U.S. anerythristic neonate, Eryx colubrinus, 1986; G. Fagioli

38 | Chapter 4 North American Breeding History Yellow-ish male snow, S. Miller; E. Clark

Platinum snow, L. Frey; L. Frey

186 | Morph Gallery Stockwell nuclear meltdown male, S. Miller; E. Clark

The Sandboa Book | 205 Hypo comparison, L. Frey; L. Frey

Hypo, L. Frey; L. Frey

The Sandboa Book | 207