Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Back in '97 an incredible litter of boas was imported from Suriname and sold to Pete Bandre of Incredible Pets. This line was known as the original litter of '97. Brian Abrahamson purchased one of the males from the group which founded his FLR bloodline (floridaredtails.com).

Debates came up saying that the animals where smuggled out of Brazil. The short tails, huge peaks, and golden color gave some doubts as to where these animals truly came from. They where renamed "Boas of Unkown Origin." Brian continued to work with these animals, producing numerous litters of hardy babies (this bloodline grows like nothing else).

Many of us felt that we would never know the true origin of these animals. I had just about given up, when I found the man who actually caught the female who gave birth to the original babies...

"I do remember these , their exact habitat was Kwamalasemutu, district of Sipaliwini ,southern most point of Suriname borders with Brasil home of dedrobates azureus(blue poison arrow frog)endangerd not exportable.

The female was huge and boldly printed with blue black inkspots on the belly , partial striping, scarred pretty well from the wild, the snake as a whole had bold black markings not like typical Surinames , nothing pastel about it.

We were not aware that it was gravid and I wrapped it around myself to scare the the workers in Suriname as a joke , I guess thats why she was tame because big wild caught redtails can be miserable.

Why I kept the best two (full striped ones) was because they were natural striped and not heated up/manipulated for abberancie , so I thought might be a passable trait.
Bart kept the female so he can become Surinames first captive breeder ..an idea that soon fizzled she probally passed away /or was let loose. Z/B"

Rumor had it that she was a monster 14-16ft+. When I emailed Al back, he simply replied "big!!!!!!!" So, there is still a little bit of mystery surrounding these boas.

Thanks to Al for setting the story straight, and Brian Abrahamson for producing these amazing animals for us to work with and enjoy.

-Kemper

You know...when I first bought my pair the guy told me they were "amazon basins" and that there were only 3 in the US. They do have a Brazilian look to them but nobody knew for sure. I have heard from another that they look french guianaish. I knew they were imported from Suriname but where were she found? I guess nothing gets by Kemper. Great job KRU!

Later

-Dylan Keays
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True Redtails

Interesting I guess if Al says it , it must be true? Ok. I`ll say maybe it`s not impossible for Al to be telling the truth but.............The Bart Al mention`s is Bart Henzon.The Henzon family worked the system each family member getting an export license so they could try and monopolize the export quotas .Smuggled tons of animals out of Brazil that was really their thing. Al was getting 99% of his stuff from these guys and naturally would never want the truth known. They did have a good crew working for them but in the end .........very sad. I was there to ! Ernie Eison

from this litter back to his daughter. High yellow but thin lighter saddles instead of generally wider darker ones. However, there was a lot of variation as expected. Recent picture of 03' male.

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I had two animals from Brian,(I still have one,but sold the other one.)and,of course I'll always say that I don't claim to be an expert on locality B.c....however,that being said,I had a strong feeling from the very begining that what I was looking at had an overwhelming Brazilian appearence,or influence. I mentioned this to another individual,but didn't really want to sound as though I was trying to be accusatory with my statement,(and,of course,I'm more than thrilled to own the one I have,so I really didn't care,even if it was an intergrade of some sort.)there is a difference in head shape,tail pattern/color/configuration,base color,as well as a few other things,that by themselves,don't really mean that much,given the range of individual variance,but together...well,I just knew they were unlike anything I've seen from the Suriname/Guyana region...not to say they still couldn't be...just very unique from what I was used to. thanks for the info Kemper,certainly interesting to know.
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