Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Anybody know of any rainbow boas ala Brazilians that are on islands and if so what are some island locality names?? Also any dwarf forms known from such islands like in the Bci??

Jason

Don't really know, but I did produce a fully formed, so far, from what I can tell, healthy, "mini" Brazilian this year! It's a little girl, that you can coil up on a .50 piece! The kids named her "Peanut"!

Jason,
...There are few Islands off of the east coast of Brazil. The Atlantic is pretty deep along there with not so many seamounts forming Islands. Likely looking Islands off the northeast coast are Isla Rata and isla Fernando Noronha. I do not know if there are any Epicrates on those Islands. There is a large island in the mouth of the Amazon called Marajo that has it's own subspecies of Rainbow Boa called appropriately Isla Marajo Rainbow Boa. Isla Marajo does not look like a typical Island on a map because it is formed by the seperation of channels of the Amazon. Those snakes are very much like Brazilian Rainbows except a little darker colored, often dark wine colored. Along the north coast of Colombia there are several near shore Islands that have Colombian Rainbows. I have gotten many photos of these snakes from people living on or visiting those Islands. Aruba probably had Colombian Rainbows. I have seen no photos of them from there leading me to guess that developement may have exterminted them there. Nearby Islands do have them though. There are also Colombian Rainbow Boas off the Pacific coast of Panama on the Islands of Coiba, Jicarita and Uva. Further east back to the Carribean side north of Venezueala and Guyana there are quite a few Islands that have Rainbow Boas. I had gotten quite a few photos of them from people again either living there or visiting. Some of them look like and probably are Colombians. Some of them particularly further east look like and probably are variations of the Guyana subspecies which may or may not be crosses of Brazilians and Colombians. There is quite a bit of variation in snakes from islands along there leading me to be totally confused on the subject. As far as I know the people in Brazil working on reorganizing the Rainbow Boas have ignored those snakes. Perhaps they like me are confused about them and the variations between snakes from the same or close together Islands. Have a look at Henderson and Tolsons book on insular Epicrates and Tropidophis. I think I rmemeber a little info about insular Rainbows in there. Perhaps Tom Crutchfield who posts here can add a bunch to my post. He knows plenty about the Trops and Epics around the Carribean.
Jeff

Thanks Jeff, great answer!! I ask because I saw a guy at a show recently who had some rainbows that looked a bit different so I asked about them and he knew very little other than they were sold to him as a insular rainbow. They looked like average Brazilians in color, not our line bred screamers but not all the way over to Columbians either. They were interesting looking and not higher in price than any other. Of interest also, they were older animals but under 4 feet. Might have to contact the guy...

Jason