Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I came across a great website while researching temperatures in Guyana. If you're looking at breeding locality boas, this site could be VERY useful when designing a breeding program.

http://www.weatherbase.com

Here's some of the info I pulled off for Guyana.

Lethem, Guyana was the warmest city on record (for which there was data). It was also at a latitude closer to the equator than most other cities. A possible confounding factor is that there is only about 3 years worth of data available which could skew the data.

Additional note; Lethem has 12:01 of daylight on June 23rd (approx summer solstice) and 11:56 of daylight on December 23rd (approx winter solstice). Although the number of daylight hours and minutes is nearly identical, the angle of the sun would be DRASTICALLY different. Daylight hour data was taken off of:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/data/docs/RS_OneYear.php by entering latitude and longitude of the cities.

Mazaruni was the coolest (on average) city for which extensive data was available.

Mazaruni has 12:30 of daylight on June 23rd (approx summer solstice) and 11:45 of daylight on December 23rd (approx winter solstice). So, being 3 degrees north made a difference of 45 minutes of light between the two cities when comparing summer solstice and winter solstice.

Notice the difference in annual rainfall!!! WOW! Again, this could be influenced by the number of years for which data is available, or it could be how it actually is.

The final thing to keep in mind (and I've mentioned this before in other threads), temperature readings are taken in the shade, four feet off the ground. So surface temperatures are higher if they're in direct sunlight. I imagine (although I don't know for sure and maybe someone smarter than me can confirm or deny) that surface temperatures are hotter in the summer time (independent of the air temperature) due to the angle of the sunlight.

Anyway, just thought I'd toss that out there.

Any thoughts?

jb
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What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

I know what the temperature readings are that they have recorded. However temperatures in the city are quite different from temperatures in the rain forest. You have to take those temperatures with a grain of salt.

I was talking to a guy I knew who went to Peru a lot about 20 years ago. Mainly to get away from his wife and see his girlfriend. No he was not a Governor. LOL He happened to also have some interest in Boas and that's how I knew him. He said it was 100 degrees in Iquitos where he visited every day. I asked him to take a thermometer with him and do a survey of temperatures and I bet him it wasn't anywhere near that hot in the rain forest.

When he returned he reported this; When it was in the mid 90's in the city, he went on a little trip into the forest. He said the temperature was 82 degrees on the forest floor and 85 degrees 6 feet off the ground. Temperatures are very much relative to the natural vegetation around.

So there is just a little bit of anecdotal info to chew on. Basically the smaller the city or town you get readings from in areas of rain forest, the lower those high temperatures are due to the cooling effect of the forest. It's like taking a temperature in the middle of a Walmart parking lot in August at noon in Miami and checking it in the middle of a large park at the same time in Miami. I'll bet someone has done a study of exactly that where you could have much better and more accurate real temperatures of areas where Boas live and thrive.
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Jeff Ronne Sr
The Boaphile
Director USARK

Originator of Boaphile Plastics
The Boaphile Boa Site

Something to note, Lethem is located in the Savannah grasslands, no rainforest there to cool. I can't speak from any personal experience, but I would imagine the temperatures listed would be pretty close to what is seen in reality in that region. Afterall, the average daytime highs are similar to what we see here in Orlando during the summer.
jb
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What's written above is purely my opinion. In fact, MOST of what you read on the internet is someone's opinion. Don't take it too seriously

Jonathan Brady
DeviantConstrictors.com
Deviant Constrictors picturetrail

Very cool! Thanks

Adam