Reptile & Amphibian Forums

while surfing the web for various cribo morsels i found a reference to a snake that once existed on st.lucia but is now said to be extinct there and remaining only on dominica and granada. the article said that they are rear fanged venomous but dont lend themselves to biting very often. anyone have any more info on ths species?
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Jaylon ( bigJ)

There are at least 7 subspecies of Clelia. I don't know which supspecies may have been on St.Lucia or their status on the other islands you mentioned.

You wouldn't confuse them with Cribos. From a distance you might mistake them for an Eastern or Texas indigo, but once up close you'd know it wasn't.

You can check out my page on Mussuranas at

http://members.tripod.com/tonkashouse/id45.htm

My critters are a bit older and bigger since I took the pictures.

Doug T

heres the link to that site, i figured there were some dog lover writing a snake srticle on there but i knew you guys would know the facts. http://www.stluciaanimals.org/snake.php. cool page and nice snakes. still on for breeding in 05? thanks
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Jaylon ( bigJ)

It probably was a dry' subspecies and not clelia on St.Lucia. Clelia are primarily snake eaters and I don't know if St.Lucia would have enough snakes for a snake eating species to thrive there.

Still, since Mu's and Cribos could be mistaken or misidentified by someone who didn't know, maybe it was a mussurana.

'05 breeding is still hoped for. We'll see how it works out.

DT

thanks for the info.. ill delve a little deeper into that to see what species actually are or have been on st lucia, now im curious, thanks for those pics too.. awsome snakes
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Jaylon ( bigJ)

The snake in questionw as decribed in 1995 as a new species, Clelia errabunda. There has been a long history of confusion as to what this was and where it came from, with specimens supposedly having been collected from several different islands. The best evidence came from stomach contents: a Bothrops caribbaeus. Sadly, the species does indeed appear to be extinct, most likely due to the introduction of mongooses. There is no evidence of Clelia being found, or ever having been found, on Dominica. The island retains plenty of good habitat, and remains mongoose-free. A number of colleagues have been doing regular, intensive fieldwork there for nearly 15 years, so I imagine that they would have found it if it occurred today.

The EMBL database is out of date as far as the occurrence of Clelia in the Caribbean is concerned.

I don't know what the situation is on Grenada.

Cheers,

Wolfgang
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WW Home

Friends of mine, Jim Harrison and Kristen Wiley of Kentucky Reptile zoo were in St. Lucia looking for Lanceheads this past October.

They were talking about how the mongooses were actually introduced intentionally in an attempt to control snakes. How ignorant.

To introduce them on a small island like that!

Interestingly, the boa population on the island seems to have enjoyed the introduction and is doing quite a good job of keeping the mongooses in check!