Rick:
Thanks for the input about where the specimen was found. Quite a few years ago I found a number of boas in NE Wash. 30 - 40 miles north of Spokane just west of that area in Idaho.
At 8 5/8" in the manner you obtained the total length of your specimen, my technique of stretching specimens would put the specimen closer to 9 5/8" to perhaps 10". As and example, when I used your method of obtaining a length for a boa born last year, it measured 8", perhaps 8 1/8" but when I used my stretching method, it is 9 1/4" in total length.
Back in the mid to late 1960's, I combed the scientific literature dealing with the techniques used to obtain lengths of small snakes. None produced a reliable and repeatable method for obtaining maximum lengths. I then devised my own technique which is very reliable and reproducable.
As and another example, my son measured a number of boas in Utah last year. I then visited him to examine all of those specimens. He uses my method which I did not know at the time. I just assumed that the total lengths he had obtained for each specimens would be lower than what I would obtain. There were something like 8-9 boas I examined. I can recall being astonished that our measurements were exactly the same with perhaps one being an 1/8 inch off. I know of no other method that produced that kind of reliability.
In fact, it was on the basis of this technique that I discovered that with a substantial loss in weigh, these snakes shrink in total length. I reported this point in one of my publications but I would bet that most individuals in the scientific community would either be skeptical or outright reject that notion--as I did at first. But this phenomenon has occurred so frequently with both recaptured and captive specimens it is no longer a matter of mismeasuring specimens or a figment of the imagination. I would not be surprised that this situation occurs in other species as well.
Richard F. Hoyer
