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This is my peruvian rainbow boa. he is a male and about one year old. he's three feet long and i call him hormel He's very tame and an extreme eater. please post ur comments!

Brock,
. That is a very pretty snake. How do you know that it is a Peruvian Rainbow?
Jeff

>>This is my peruvian rainbow boa. he is a male and about one year old. he's three feet long and i call him hormel He's very tame and an extreme eater. please post ur comments!
>>

Take a look at the kingsnake classifieds or go to www.smartshoppersave.com, they have True Peruvian Rainbow boas identified.

Paul,
. I disagree with your use of the word identified. Snakes are not identified at those sites. Snakes are advertised at those sites. I have been keenly interested in Rainbow boas for over 35 years. For the last 15 years I have been seriously looking for Peruvian Rainbow Boas. I have seen hundreds advertised for sale but when I attempted to positively identify them as Peruvian Rainbow Boas they nearly all turned out to be Brazilian Rainbow Boas. Many of the people advertising them for sale honestly do not know the difference. Many others advertising them for sale know the difference but are dishonestly representing them because they can get more money if the customer thinks it is a Peruvian Rainbow Boa. For many years the government of Peru has banned the export of wildlife from their country. Their is one breeder who has a permit to export captive born boids from Peru. The last time I communicated with him he was producing and exporting Brazilian Rainbows but no Peruvian Rainbows. The range of the Brazilian Rainbow Boa extends across northen Peru. Peruvian Rainbow Boas are from the southern part of Peru. The Peruvian Rainbow Boa, Epicrates cenchria gaigei was identified by Stull in the 1930s. He described gaigei as having 41 to 44 scale rows at mid body. Brazilian Rainbow Boas have 45 or more scale rows at midbody. Peruvian Rainbows that I have seen have all been at least a little more heavy bodied than Brazilian Rainbow Boas. With the fewer scales the scales are noticeably larger. If you know something more about this subject or have actually identified any true Peruvian Rainbows being offered for sale I would appreciate it if you would let me know.
TIA,
Jeff

Hi Jeff,

Best way is to do a scale count on the snakes.

>>Hi Jeff,
>>
>>Best way is to do a scale count on the snakes.

I had several Peruvian rainbows over the past decade. They were absolutely from Peru too as they were caught by friends.
I had EXACT locality data too like "This one I caught in my banana clump when I was living on Swiss Mission Road in Pucallpa" or "We caught this one in in our hen house in Cashibo Cocha" or "This one we found in Orellana". They were brought into the states by my friends who declared them at customs. In only one instance were they ever taken away--that was one time when they had brought four with them. The customs officer in Miami then notified Fish and Wildlife who took them and said something to the effect "Bringing one is one thing, bringing in four is suspicious and stinks of commercialism".
Anyway, NONE of these rainbows looked ANY different in ANY way from the scores of Brazilians that I have seen over the years.
That's about all I can add to the 'mysterious' gaigei.

Mayday,
. Just because they came from Peru does not mean that they are Peruvian Rainbows. Yours looked like Brazilian Rainbows because that is probably what they were. Brazilian Rainbow Boas range across at least seven different countries including much of Peru. Orellana is within the range of the Brazilian Rainbow rather than the Peruvian Rainbow. I suspect that Pucallpa is also within the range of the Brazilian Rainbow but I do not know for sure. Where is Cashibo Cocha?
Jeff

>>I had several Peruvian rainbows over the past decade. They were absolutely from Peru too as they were caught by friends.
>>I had EXACT locality data too like "This one I caught in my banana clump when I was living on Swiss Mission Road in Pucallpa" or "We caught this one in in our hen house in Cashibo Cocha" or "This one we found in Orellana". They were brought into the states by my friends who declared them at customs. In only one instance were they ever taken away--that was one time when they had brought four with them. The customs officer in Miami then notified Fish and Wildlife who took them and said something to the effect "Bringing one is one thing, bringing in four is suspicious and stinks of commercialism".
>>Anyway, NONE of these rainbows looked ANY different in ANY way from the scores of Brazilians that I have seen over the years.
>>That's about all I can add to the 'mysterious' gaigei.

I agree. All of the rainbows I have had were from the middle part of the country to the northern part. All I was saying was that they didn't appear to be even the slightest bit different.
Cashibo Cocha is a very small settlement just north of Pucallpa.
Orellana is about 200 K north of Pucallpa on the Ucayali River.
The others I had were from the Rio Putumayo which is right on the Colombian border. Most however, were from the Pucallpa area.
Pucallpa is in the middle of the country.
BTW...many of the 'Pucallpa' redtails that the boa breeders are so fond of were actually found in Orellana. The prettiest ones that I got were from there.

So Peruvians are from the south of Peru, huh. I have often wondered that. Isn't there probably a wide area where Brazilians & Peruvians crossbreed making it even harder to identify of find a true Peruvian?
-----
Jaremy Douglas

Jaremy,
. If you look at a map of Peru you will see that the country is very mountainous. The northeastern half of the country drains down north and east into the Amazon and it's earliest tributaries. The southern part of Peru drains south and west down the other side of the mountains into small rivers and then into the Pacific. I am not certain but I would guess that the mountains make a natural divide between the two subspecies. The elevations are way too high to be suitable habitat for a Rainbow Boa.
Jeff

>>So Peruvians are from the south of Peru, huh. I have often wondered that. Isn't there probably a wide area where Brazilians & Peruvians crossbreed making it even harder to identify of find a true Peruvian?
>>-----
>>Jaremy Douglas
>>

I think Jeff is correct when he says that most, if not all of the "Peruvian' rainbows in this country are in fact "Brazilians"---or more should I say E. c. cenchria? We have a tendency to give common names that are all too often misleading. In this case the range of what we call "Brazilian" rainbows does include a number of countries. When an animal comes out of, say Peru, that does not mean that it has to be what is known as the "Peruvian' rainbow, E. c. gaigei.
But WAY too many dealers are in a hurry to lable them as such.
Also, the rainbows that I had that I know where from Peru I never sold, (or gave away usually) as gaigei but only as locality known E.c. cenchria.