Drymarchon Melanurus) on a Central American Boa (Boa Imperator)
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
HTTPS://JOURNALS.KU.EDU/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSREPTILES • VOL & AMPHIBIANS15, NO 4 • DEC 2008 • 28(2):189 229–233 • AUG 2021 IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY TABLE OF CONTENTS SnakesFEATURE ARTICLES on the Menu: A Predation Attempt . Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: byOn thea Road Central to Understanding the Ecology American and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Indigo Serpent ...................... JoshuaSnake M. Kapfer 190 . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: (DrymarchonA Hypothetical Excursion melanurus ............................................................................................................................) on a CentralRobert W. Henderson American 198 RESEARCH ARTICLES Boa. The Texas Horned(Boa Lizard in Central imperator and Western Texas .......................) Emilyand Henry, Jason Remains Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perryof 204 a . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida Mexican ............................................. ParrotBrian J. Camposano, Snake Kenneth L. Krysko, ( KevinLeptophis M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michaelmexicanus Granatosky 212 ) CONSERVATION ALERT . World’s Mammals in Crisis ............................................................................................................................................................. 220 Identified. More Than Mammals in ............................................................................................................................... Feces on Utila Island,....................................... Honduras 223 . The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ........................................................................................................................................... 225 Tom W. Brown1, 2 and Francin V. Murcia1 HUSBANDRY 1Kanahau Utila Research & Conservation Facility, Isla de Utila, Islas de la Bahia, Honduras ([email protected]; [email protected] . Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ....................................................................................................... Shannon Plummer 226 [corresponding authors]) 2 PROFILERed Mesoamericana y del Caribe para la Conservación de Anfibios y Reptiles (Red MesoHerp Network) . Kraig Adler: A Lifetime Promoting Herpetology ................................................................................................ Michael L. Treglia 234 COMMENTARY he Central American. The Turtles IndigoHave Been WatchingSnake Me(Drymarchon ........................................................................................................................ mel- both snakes were locked in combat Eric Gangloff and 238 brought to us at the anurus) is a fast-moving, large-bodied, non-venomous Kanahau Utila Research & Conservation Facility in a rice- T BOOK REVIEW colubrid (maximum. Threatened total Amphibianslength 2,950of the World mm; edited Duellmanby S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann,sack. We J.S. Chanson,immediately N.A. Cox, placed both snakes on the floor to 1960, 1963), that inhabitsR. Berridge, a P.diverse Ramani, andrange B.E. Youngof habitats .............................................................................................................. from photograph the event and noted Robert Powell that 243the D. melanurus had the southern United States through Mesoamerica to north- a firm grasp of the B. imperator by the posterior part of its western South America CONSERVATION (Wüster RESEARCHet al. 2001; REPORTS: Wallach Summaries et al. of Publishedhead, Conservation while inResearch defence, Reports .................................the B. imperator 245 had tightly coiled NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 2014), including NEWBRIEFSHonduras ............................................................................................................................... (McCranie 1980, 2011) and its body around....................................................... the neck and head 248of the D. melanurus, the three major BayEDITORIAL Islands INFORMATIONof Utila, Roatan, ............................................................................................................................... and Guanaja effectively constricting and immobilizing...................... 251 the predator (Fig. (McCranie et al. FOCUS 2005; ON McCranie CONSERVATION and : Orellana A Project You 2014). Can Support ...............................................................................................1). Dry leaves were trapped in the coils 252 of the boa, suggest- Compared to other snakes on the Bay Islands, D. melanurus is ing the initial predation attempt occurred on the ground. rarely encountered (McCranie et al. 2005) and little is known We decided to separate the snakes within ten minutes, given about its natural history. The species, formerly considered a that neither snake could withdraw from the situation and we subspecies of the Western IndigoFront Snake Cover. ( D.Shannon corais Plummer.; Wuster were Backconcerned Cover. Michael for theirKern welfare if left without intervention. Totat et velleseque audant mo Totat et velleseque audant mo et al. 2001), was first confirmed estibusin surveys inveliquo of velique Guanaja rerchil and Afterestibus uncoiling inveliquo velique the rerchiltail and body of the boa, the D. melanurus Roatan by Wilson and Hahn (1973),erspienimus, who quos also accullabo. noted Ilibus that a erspienimus,immediately quos accullabo.released Ilibus its head and both snakes assumed defen- specimen was collected during earlyaut dolor surveys apicto byinvere J.S. pe dolumColman siveaut dolor postures, apicto invere breathing pe dolum heavily with slightly open mouths fugiatis maionsequat eumque fugiatis maionsequat eumque in 1937. McCranie (2011) examinedmoditia ererea total nonsedis of masix sectiatur known (Fig.moditia 1). erere We nonsedis subsequently ma sectia- confined them in separate cotton museum specimens from Roatan,ma onederrovitae from voluptam, Guanaja, as quos and bags,tur ma collected derrovitae voluptam,morphological as data, and released both snakes one from Utila; to our knowledge,accullabo. these are the only pub- separately within 48 h. lished records from these islands. Herein we present natural The adult male D. melanurus had an SVL of 125 cm, history and morphological data for a single D. melanurus on a partial tail length of 12 cm, and weighed 875 g. We con- Utila, including details of a predation attempt on a Central firmed the sex by cloacal probing at a depth of 4–5 subcaudal American Boa (Boa imperator), novel evidence of a prey spe- scales. Its external characteristics were consistent with the few cies, a Mexican Parrot Snake (L. mexicanus), obtained from a descriptions of this species on the Bay Islands (Wilson and fecal sample, and notes on ectoparasites. Hahn 1973; McCranie 1980, 2011), which, unlike main- At about 1030 h on 19 February 2021, Ibis Saúl land specimens, usually have 14 scale rows anterior to the Fernández of Jaspers Animal Shelter, Utila, encountered a vent (mainland snakes have 15, rarely 13). The small adult large adult D. melanurus on Pumpkin Hill Road in north- female B. imperator measured 82 cm SVL, 10 cm tail length, eastern Utila, attempting to prey on a juvenile B. imperator; and weighed 310 g. It had a laceration on its head from the Copyright is held by the authors. Articles in R&A are made available under a 229 Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 2332-4961 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. BROWN AND MURCIA REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 28(2): 229–233 • AUG 2021 bite of the D. melanurus. We found various ectoparasites tweezers. The Boa imperator had a total of 11 ticks surround- on both snakes; the D. melanurus had countless red mites ing skin lesions (visible in Fig. 1B). Both species of ecto- (Hirstiella cf. boneti) between dorsal scales and four engorged parasites have been reported previously from two species of ticks (Amblyomma cf. dissimile), which we removed with iguanas (Ctenosaura similis and C. bakeri) on Utila (Gutsche Fig. 1. A predation attempt by a Central American Indigo Snake (Drymarchon melanurus) on a Central American Boa (Boa imperator). Both snakes were locked in combat for over 10 min; the D. melanurus had a firm grasp on the posterior portion of the boa’s head, which, in defense, had coiled its body around the head and neck of the D. melanurus (A & B); both snakes assumed defensive postures after intervention and separation (C & D). Photographs © Tom W. Brown. 230 BROWN AND MURCIA REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 28(2): 229–233 • AUG 2021 et al. 2012; Novakova et al. 2015). Amblyomma dissimile is in the opportunistic diet of indigo snakes (Stuart 1949; widely known to parasitize B. imperator and other squamates Stevenson 2010; Goetz et al. 2018), and some species may (Carrascal et al. 2009; Fiorini et al. 2014), but ours may be even possess physiological resistance to the venoms of sym- the first records of these ectoparasites on wild D. melanurus. patric snakes (e.g., rattlesnakes) on which they prey (Goetz During the night, the D. melanurus defecated and we et al. 2019). While reviewing the literature, we compiled a examined the feces in 70% clinical alcohol. The fecal sample list of 17 species of snakes in the diet of D. melanurus (Table contained numerous dorsal, ventral, and subcaudal snake 1).