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I was watching a show on the National Geographic Channel the other day about Boas that have invaded the Island of Cozumel Mexico. The Boas are causing all kinds of problems on the Island. Apparently before 1971 there were no Boas native to Cozumel. They believe that the boas were released after being brought in from the main land and used on a movie set. 6 boas were released 30 years ago and now they have estimated that there are over 6,000 of them on the island. The Mexican mainland is three miles off the coast and the currents go in the opposite direction to allow rafting so there was never any chance of them coming over. But now that they are here they are destroying the native wild life. They showed the animals and they are smaller Island sized boas more like Nics in color then anything else. Pretty snakes. I think they should just allow us all to go and collect them to try and save the environment? What do you think, a massive Boa gathering trip to Cozumel Mexico? I was just there a couple of years ago but did not go hunting for Boas because I was told they were not endemic to the Island DAMN!!!!
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

If they have been on the island for about 35 years and only 6 were released initially...I'm no good at math but is it possible for that to occur? Even if it was 1 male and 5 females originally, could that statistically happen in 35 years (6000 offspring)? I'm not being critical, I'm just really curious about the numbers aspect of it. Anyone wanna help me out on that? Either way, it is nice to hear of an OVERpopulation for snakes somewhere in the world for once. However, I wonder how much is exaggerated b/c of fear and lack of knowledge. Don't get me wrong...I'm not taking on NGS.LOL I also wonder if after 30 years, if the population would at least stabilize to the point where its no longer a threat? Who knows...is it the brown tree snake that invades alot of islands like Guam & Hawaii and basically eats all bird species? Maybe its a similar predator/prey situation. Either way, this whole story sounds really fascinating..thank you for sharing...let me know if its ever on again..I'd love to see it.
~Jason

ps...if ya ever go that way...be sure to p/up one or two for me if they're that desperate to remove them I'll give them a good home LOL. I'm sure they're beautiful!
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www.members.aol.com/northeastsnakes
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0.2 Green Tree Pythons
2.2 Ringed Pythons
2.3 Ball Pythons
1.2 Hog Island Boas
1.1 Argentine Boas
0.1 Solomon Island Ground Boa
1.1 Brazilian Rainbow Boas
7.8 Corns (various morphs)
1.1 N. Pines (Pituophis)
0.0.1 N.Diamondback Terrapin

33 years of being on the island and assuming the snakes bred the first year at a 2.3 ratio with them being small boas I will use average litters of 15 breedings every 2 years and 4 years to become adult for the first breedings. For sake of argument this is under ideal conditions with 50/50 split on sex ratios......
1st yrs breedings produced 45 new snakes 23.22 male female...
So for the second year we had 25.25 snakes on the island and no breedings.
3rd year we had the original 2.3 breed again and produced 22.23 babies again we no have 47.48 pairs on the island 4th year no breedings
5th year the first 2.3 snakes breed as well as their first litter so we have a total of 25.25 breeding that is now another 375 baby snakes on the island the say at a ration of 188.187 m/f to bring us to a total of 235.235 snakes on the island... oh no this is going to get big!!!!!
6th year no one breeds, 7th year the second breeding of the 25.25 produces another 375 snakes at 187.188 we now have 422.423 snakes on the island in less then a decade.
The 8th year is the first year for the second group of babies to breed so the 22.23 from year 3 produce another 345 babies at 173.172 we now have 594.594 in 8 years and it is still growing well I will skip top the end number for those of us getting board, no keep in mind this may be off by 10,000 or so babies but if you figure just the 594.594 babies from the 8th year breed just once that is 8,910 or 4,455.4,455 added to the 594.594
that works out to be 5,49 male boas and 5,049 female boas in just 12 years, jump 4 more years up the ladder and at 16 years on the island the 5049 female boas of breeding age will produce 75,735 baby boas for this one season and that is just the half life of the 30plus years on the island, so I guess 6,000 baby boas is easy to figure on. National Geographic based their estimates on statistcal data from how many boas were found every so many miles of road crusing, not super acurate but a much more realistic number then my math came up with LOL.
I guess I am just board tonight
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Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
Hopkins Holesale Herps
Hopfam1@aol.com

haha...that is fantastic....you are certainly better with statistics than I am...I can't even balance my check book.lol

Thank you for that...it was interesting to say the least.

Sincerely,
Jason

>>I was watching a show on the National Geographic Channel the other day about Boas that have invaded the Island of Cozumel Mexico. The Boas are causing all kinds of problems on the Island. Apparently before 1971 there were no Boas native to Cozumel. They believe that the boas were released after being brought in from the main land and used on a movie set. 6 boas were released 30 years ago and now they have estimated that there are over 6,000 of them on the island. The Mexican mainland is three miles off the coast and the currents go in the opposite direction to allow rafting so there was never any chance of them coming over. But now that they are here they are destroying the native wild life. They showed the animals and they are smaller Island sized boas more like Nics in color then anything else. Pretty snakes. I think they should just allow us all to go and collect them to try and save the environment? What do you think, a massive Boa gathering trip to Cozumel Mexico? I was just there a couple of years ago but did not go hunting for Boas because I was told they were not endemic to the Island DAMN!!!!
>>-----
>>Jim Hopkins "Hoppy"
>>Hopkins Holesale Herps
>>Hopfam1@aol.com

I agree! If they are having so many problems, let some collectors go in there to keep the population down, rather than killing them on sight.

I watched the show too, and wondered that myself. I'd be more than interested in a pair of Cozumel boas.
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