If you are getting a wild caught specimen, BCI and BCC are geographically seperated with most BCI's being from the Mexico and Central Amernican regions while most BCC's are from South America. There is however some overlap in geographical region in Columbia. Anything South of Columbia shoud be purely BCC. However, when you buy from a L.P.S., they may not have any locality data to back up what they are saying it is. Even more unfortunate is the fact the most L.P.S. boas are purchased thru distributors who may either be buying from breeders they have set up to do just that (breed boas), people that breed boas in large numbers that may not be keeping pure lines (this may be the case with some farm raised babies) or they may be coming from private individuals that are keeping several species together and oops, low and behold we have babies and we need to get rid of them.

If you can get specific data from the store or individual you are buying it from then that may be your best reference. If you are buying from someone on the website then just make sure they are a pure line breeder or they at least have records of what they are keeping and breeding together. Best of all, if you are buying from someone that specializes in either BCI's or BCC's, you can be sure of what you are getting. Otherwise, post a good clear picture on the forum and I'm sure you will get answers from several of the experts and non experts alike.

There are some really good books out there that have several pictures of different locality specific individuals which will get you somewhat close. If you want to use scale counts then be sure you are asking a good source for the information. Just remember that scale counts can overlap in the case of some individuals so even this may not be a definitive way to determine what you are getting. Two books that come to mind with such information in them are "The Boa Constrictor Manual" by Philippe de Vosjoli and "Red-Tailed Boas" A complete guide to Boa Constrictors from t.f.h. publications. These are beginners books that don't cost more than $15 at most stores. If you haven't started a good reference library it is well advised that you do so just so you don't get conflicting information from those that do know it and those that think they know it all. Either way, make sure you are getting a concensus on the information you are getting. I've spent years in the LPS scene and when I was specializing in the reptile areas I always made sure that we knew what we were selling.

Just remember that locality information was not as important to many people in the herp community 10 to 15 years ago so there may be many older bloodlines out there that are actually crossings between several localities by the time you are getting your juvi snake. In the past several years this has changed to everyone wanting to know everything about the locality their animals come from. There are even several individuals striving to keep their locality specific bloodlines available.

Personally, I think it really needs to come down to you deciding which species or subspecies you really want to maintain. Whether you choose BCC, BCI, BCA, BCO, any of the insular subspecies or any of the Morphs, just be sure that you know how to properly take care of and maintain the species you choose to keep. I have kept between 30 and 40 differernt species of baos and pythons over the past 15 years and have never found any one to be that difficult if it was properly maintained.

Hope this helps

Chris

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