My goal is for this report to serve as a continually updated record of Panamanian Boa constrictor imperator in United States captive breeding programs. Hopefully this answers questions for those who had them, and works as a reference for everyone else.
To begin, after a 10 year ban on export, Panama permitted a shipment to the United States in early 2005.
There seems to be a lot of confusion as to the contents of this shipment. And most of it seems to be rumors that get passed on through word of mouth and taken as fact. In an effort to address this I have decided to post a scanned image of the CITES permit that accompanied this first shipment. It is not full size because I did not want someone to be able to print it out and use it to sell boas that were not from this shipment, nor the progeny of said boas.
While not fully clear you can make out that the quantity of boas in the shipment was 60. The next detail you will notice is the absence of a subspecies listed. There is a line for the genus, Boa and another for the species, Boa constrictor. However nowhere does it mention Imperator or Sabogae. (This image is purposely reduced in size for security reasons.)
Just as comparison this is the CITES for the '04 Costa Rican shipment, again no subspecies label:
***Amended note: The Sabogae obtained by Rich Ihle of Salmonboa.com came in on CITES permits that DID denote subspecies. While I have seen a copy of this document, I do not hold the rights to publish a copy of it.
So now the question is what made up those 60 boas. There were 3 Sabogae, and 57 Imperator. The information about these contents I got from Kevin Barnett and Matt Lerer (separate inquiries to check validity). In Daytona 2005 I was fortunate enough to see one of the Sabogae on John Berry's table. Identical in appearance to those that Rich Ihle had with him. When John moved back to the UK he sold those boas to Vin Russo.
So now to the 57 Imperator. Kevin notified me of the shipment shortly after he received many of the boas, my dad decided to buy 2.2 of them. They were bred this season in two separate pairings (not group breeding, so as to be sure of parentage). The first litter was born March 22, 2008 resulting in 22 live babies, no slugs or stillborns. This was the first litter born in the United States from Panamanian boas to come into the country under legal permits since Panama's placement of a ban on exports 10 years prior. The second litter was born April 16, 2008 consisting of 17 babies and 5 slugs.
Now there is a very important piece of information that people seem to have missed and/or get confused about. This is the lack of locality data with these boas.
What exactly does that mean?
That means, the exact place of origin, such as the City of collection, was never noted. They may very well come from many Panamanian locales.
Some people seem to think that they are not Panamanian, because the information of no locality information, has been misunderstood. They are without a doubt Panamanian boas, however the collection point is not known. It is the collection point, the city and region that makes the locale definition. Country of origin, and political boundary are just a reference point. So these boas are as much locality boas as a Suriname boa. A boa from Suriname, but with no locale information. Where as a Pokigron Suriname is a locality Suriname boa. Hopefully this example will clear up any added confusion to my explanation.
Back to the 57 boas. This group consisted of Hypos, Wild Type (normal), and reverse striped boas of varying degrees from both color phases.
Matt Lerer of GHI Reptiles bought the shipment directly from the importer. Matt reported to me that of those 57 Boas, 23 were Hypos. The number of 26 quoted in other sources seems to have included the Sabogae as Hypos, although the true Hypomelanistic Panamanians were BCI. So, 34 Wild Type, 23 Hypo BCI, and 3 Sabogae.
Now of those Hypos and wild type BCI there were some with full reverse stripes. I have seen 2 wild type stripes, and Matt has 7 Hypos with full reverse stripes.
Others, such as this male which we have, have lesser stripes.
The same male braving this shot:
Some of you may now be asking about those Sabogae. How did they end up there? Well, the Pearl Islands, the island of Toboga, and other islands in the Bay of Panama (exit of Panama canal) are all under Panamanian governmental control, and home to wild populations of Boa constrictor sabogae. So those 3 boas, which have been authenticated as Sabogae, could have come from one of those islands. There may be mainland Sabogae populations, but I do not know.
So that pretty much sums up the first Panamanian shipment. However, there were others.
In Vin Russo's book The Complete Boa Constrictor, he mentions only one shipment. However that was written before the other shipments. Keep in mind the extensive time from writing to publishing to release.
Again, quoting Matt Lerer, the second shipment in 2005 contained 12 boas. 6 of which were Hypos.
There was not another shipment to the United States until 2007. There were 2 shipments in 2007. The first of which contained 20 boas, and no Hypos. These boas were publicly offered for sale on Kingsnake.com classifieds.
Now the 4th and final shipment. Matt did not mention how many boas were in the shipment, only that it was small and contained one hypo. Matt did mention that Sabogae were coming in more often now. Jared Horenstien and Matt Lerer have both confirmed that multiple shipments have come in from Panama recently that are of Sabogae, but NOT Imperator. The important point is that only 4 shipments of Panamanian BCI have come in, at least legally and documented. With the numbers just above 89, and less than 100. I have also received two private accounts from individuals that obtained boas from the first shipment, which later died, between the two people at least 7 of the boas are dead. There may be more as I do not know who all has them to check current quotas.
I would love to talk more about Panamanian Sabogae, but that is another topic, which I still do not have all the information for. And the focus here is on the Imperator.
So in concluding, Panamanian BCI are rare boas in culture. With numbers less than 100 in the country. As well, because of the methods of import, all valid examples should be accompanied by CITES permits. With the exception of the March 22nd litter, I am not aware of any others yet being produced in the US. Matt has a few gravid Hypo Reverse Stripes, and my dad is expecting a second litter from a gravid Wild Type. Vin Russo should also hopefully have a few litters this year. These should be the first US CBB litters, as 2008 marks F1 Panamanian imperator.
One final side note. The CA Motleys introduced to those of us in the US by Alex Barriero of Boa Republic have been reported by John Berry to have originated in the UK from Panamanian stock. John is originally from and currently resides in the UK.
The CA Motleys have been bred to Nicaraguan and other boas of Central American lineage, as well as a breeding to a Colombian EBV Red Group. I spoke with Alex this summer and he does have 1.1 original CA Motleys, whatever their original origin may be. However they are siblings. Perhaps this has become like the original Salmon matriarch that Rich Ihle started with, a boa of unknown origin reported to be Panamanian.
Hopefully more pure Panamanians will be produced, and incorporated into pure examples of Motley and Hypo mutations. At least one breeder last year produced cross litters with Panamanian sires, and I am aware of a few such breedings this year as well. While I am sure that the breeders have good reasoning for their projects, I hope that lineage information will be well maintained and that they will not falsely be sold as pure. Pure Panamanian BCI are, and will remain by virtue, rare.
Here a few post shed pictures of some of the babies from the recent Panamanian litter born March 22. The first ones born in the US from new stock following Panama's ten year export ban.
And now, for the pictures, of the U.S. CBB F1 Panamanian BCI from CITES imported founder stock!
-----
Gilbert Boas
The Boa List!
