A Case of Cannibalism in the Common Catsnake Boiga Trigonata

WWW.IRCF.ORG/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSJOURNALTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSIRCF REPTILES • VOL15, &NO AMPHIBIANS 4 • DEC 2008 189 • 25(1):68–69 • APR 2018

IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURE ARTICLES A Case. Chasing Bullsnakes of (Pituophis Cannibalism catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: in the Common On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...... Joshua M. Kapfer 190 Catsnake. The Shared History Boigaof Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis trigonata) and Humans on Grenada: (Schneider 1802) A Hypothetical Excursion ...... Robert W. Henderson 198 (Squamata:RESEARCH ARTICLES Colubridae) from Surat, India . The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ...... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in FloridaKrunal Trivedi1 and Mehul Thakur2 ...... Brian J. Camposano, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212 126, Kasturba Mahila Society, Palanpur Patiya, Surat, India 395009 ([email protected]) CONSERVATION2B-55, G.I.D.C.ALERT Colony, Pandesara, Surat, India 394221 ([email protected]) . World’s Mammals in Crisis ...... 220 . More Than Mammals ...... 223 . The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ...... 225

annibalism hasHUSBANDRY been reported in a number of animal spe- head; this mark starts between the eyes and extends to the Ccies (e.g., Polis .1981;Captive CarePolis of the and Central Myers Netted Dragon 1985; ...... Mitchell posterior labials. The species’ Shannon Plummerrange includes226 India, Pakistan, 1986; Campbell andPROFILE Lamar 2004; Robbins et al. 2013). It Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal (Leviton is relatively rare in reptiles,. Kraig Adler: although A Lifetime Promotingit has been Herpetology described ...... in 1959), and possibly Bhutan Michael (Lenz L. Treglia 2012). 234 It is a common spe- a number of species (e.g., Mitchell 1986). True cannibalism cies found throughout India except for the states northeast of COMMENTARY in snakes, whereby an. The individual Turtles Have Beenactively Watching subdues Me ...... and swal- Sikkim. Boiga trigonata is a nocturnallyEric Gangloff 238 active, arboreal species lows a conspecific, is rarely observed in the wild. Instead, such often associated with low vegetation, bushes, scrub, or trees, events usually are artifactsBOOK REVIEWof confinement in captivity, where but it also occurs in areas without a shred of vegetation (Daniel . Threatened Amphibians of the World edited by S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, accidental predation is moreR. Berridge, frequently P. Ramani, and observed B.E. Young ...... and docu- 2002; Whitaker and Captain Robert 2004). Powell 243 Its venom is capable of mented in captive snakes (e.g., Hoser 1993). paralyzing small prey, which consists mainly of lizards, small The Common Catsnake,CONSERVATION Boiga RESEARCHtrigonata (SchneiderREPORTS: Summaries 1802; of Publishedrodents, Conservation and Research birds Reports(Whitaker ...... and Captain 245 2004).  NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ...... 247 Fig. 1), is a mildly venomousNEWBRIEFS colubrid ...... snake of southeastern At 2234 ...... h on 18 September 248 2014, Prayas Team Asia. These snakes alsoEDITORIAL are known INFORMATION as Indian ...... Gamma Snakes Environment, an animal-welfare...... NGO, 251 received a distress  because of the “Y” orFOCUS Gamma-shaped ON CONSERVATION marking: A Projecton top You of Can the Support ...... call regarding a snake from Dipli Village252 (21°06’57.2”N, 72°49’07.8”E). The caller described the situation as a snake seen moving inside wooden scrap in their backyard. Team

Front Cover. Shannon Plummer. memberBack Cover. Bipin Michael Patel Kern was deployed to rescue the snake. He Totat et velleseque audant mo reachedTotat et vellesequethe site audant within mo 20 min and started rooting through estibus inveliquo velique rerchil theestibus scrap inveliquo lumber. velique Afterrerchil a few minutes, he saw two Common erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum Catsnakesaut dolor apicto in invere a wooden pe dolum box. After clearing the space around fugiatis maionsequat eumque thefugiatis box, maionsequat he noticed eumque that the larger snake (total length 134 moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos cm)tur mawas derrovitae swallowing voluptam, the as other (83.7 cm; Fig. 2). The former accullabo. subsequently regurgitated the latter, presumably in response to being disturbed. The regurgitated individual was dead. The live snake was rescued and relocated nearby and the carcass was discarded in the natural environment. Cannibalism had not been reported previously in B. trigonata.

Acknowledgements We express our gratitude to Dr. Raju Vyas, Darshan Desai, and Snehal Patel for their constant motivation and support. Fig. 1. A Common Catsnake (Boiga trigonata) from the Dang Forest, We thank Bipin Patel for providing details of the rescue and Gujarat, India. Photograph © M. Thakur. the photograph.

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