Mystery Locality Boa

[Nightflight99]

http://i.imgur.com/rU5oov0.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/KAeI3h1.jpg

How about a little ID game to beat the Monday blues?

Threads that ask the various boa communities to identify the locality/form/morph of a particular boa are extremely common, and are usually full of all sorts of interesting proposals. This is an adult boa with locality data. Can you guess which locality it is? What say you?

[Andy_G]

Total shot in the dark...and I am not certain as it has some atypical traits...but
..Peruvian?

[Albert Clark]

Don't know, but he is one healthy looking individual! He should be on the cover of REPTILES magazine. That much I do know. Haha.

[SnoopySnake]

Some kind of brazilian boa?

[Nightflight99]

There are some good guesses in here already! Anyone else wanna throw their answer into the hat?

[dannybgoode]

Looking at the body colour coupled with the little 'rosettes' on the sides I'd say a CA imperator and am going with a Nic...

[Andy_G]

No winner yet?

[Nightflight99]

Some of those were really good. Let's get a couple more before we reveal the answer.

[bigsnakegirl785]

A Colombian/constrictor mix?

[Nightflight99]

A Colombian/constrictor mix?
This is an interesting suggestion. I'm curious--what made you lean toward that?

[bigsnakegirl785]

This is an interesting suggestion. I'm curious--what made you lean toward that?

lol Well, everyone else already took my first guesses!

Then I looked at the saddle shape vs. the contrast, and then at the face patterns. There's a good contrast, and the saddles have really good outlines and are nice and dark, but solid. I figured, it's a constrictor for sure, but it's body shape didn't have the over-muscled look of a constrictor so I thought maybe there's some imperator influence allowing it to have a looser muscle structure. I know peaks don't decide a constrictor or imperator, so I was looking more at how the saddles connected with sides (not the diamonds). Not sure what they're called, but those little triangles directly on the side. Looks very imperator. Constrictors don't appear to have as big of triangles or have as big of a white spot on the edges of the dorsal portion of the saddles.

Then there's also a mix of the high color contrast of constrictor and the dirty blurriness of the imperator in between the saddles, with the snake becoming a much lighter brown at the front. Again, you don't notice this so much in constrictor.

I could be completely wrong, but these are the most obvious things I've noticed looking at all the different examples of constrictor and imperator, and since Peruvian and Brazilian were already taken I just threw it out there. haha

[sirtalis]

Im gonna guess peruvian? maybe a bcl?

[Andy_G]

lol Well, everyone else already took my first guesses!

Then I looked at the saddle shape vs. the contrast, and then at the face patterns. There's a good contrast, and the saddles have really good outlines and are nice and dark, but solid. I figured, it's a constrictor for sure, but it's body shape didn't have the over-muscled look of a constrictor so I thought maybe there's some imperator influence allowing it to have a looser muscle structure. I know peaks don't decide a constrictor or imperator, so I was looking more at how the saddles connected with sides (not the diamonds). Not sure what they're called, but those little triangles directly on the side. Looks very imperator. Constrictors don't appear to have as big of triangles or have as big of a white spot on the edges of the dorsal portion of the saddles.

Then there's also a mix of the high color contrast of constrictor and the dirty blurriness of the imperator in between the saddles, with the snake becoming a much lighter brown at the front. Again, you don't notice this so much in constrictor.

I could be completely wrong, but these are the most obvious things I've noticed looking at all the different examples of constrictor and imperator, and since Peruvian and Brazilian were already taken I just threw it out there. haha

All valid points...my guess was Peruvian BCC because even their tails don't always stay as red as some other BCC subspecies...but I definitely wouldn't be surprised if you're correct.

[reptiledude987]

Im voting venezuelan or trinidad bcc

[Mad Max]

Ecuadorian BCC

[jpsteele80]

I don't think its a peruvian, peruvians have a nice red in there tail sometimes almost a purple, this guy is dark almost like an argentine but i know its not that either, some sort of cross id guess but have no clue

[Andy_G]

Some peruvians can have a rather brown tail almost similar to BCI actually...more so than some other BCC...which is the only reason I threw it in as a guess. :)

[Nightflight99]

Alright, time to shed some light on this mystery boa. I was hoping that this guessing game would generate some discussion about color variation, which it kind of did. There were some really good guesses mentioned in this thread, with several being based on very interesting and logical interpretation of the coloration and pattern of this boa. Of course, I picked this particular boa because it is a bit of fascinating case. It stems from the infamous Charles Deering Estate, a 444-acre coastal preserve in the Cutler section of Miami, and home to the only documented established population of the genus in the United States. The population is estimated to have been established there since the 1970s, with many neonates and juveniles having been found in the park over the years. They seem to prefer pine rockland and rockland hammock as their habitat, which are unique to southern Florida.

Of course, the next question is which geographic location(s) did these invasive boas descend from? Even though this would be relatively easy to answer with molecular techniques, those data have yet to be published (if they have even been generated). With the renewed interest in this genus over the last few years, there is a reasonable chance that we will have an answer to that question sometime soon. This would be a perfect project for a Master's thesis if any of you or someone you know is interested in going to grad school...

[dannybgoode]

Interesting. Thanks for sharing NF. Beautiful snake...

[bigsnakegirl785]

Alright, time to shed some light on this mystery boa. I was hoping that this guessing game would generate some discussion about color variation, which it kind of did. There were some really good guesses mentioned in this thread, with several being based on very interesting and logical interpretation of the coloration and pattern of this boa. Of course, I picked this particular boa because it is a bit of fascinating case. It stems from the infamous Charles Deering Estate, a 444-acre coastal preserve in the Cutler section of Miami, and home to the only documented established population of the genus in the United States. The population is estimated to have been established there since the 1970s, with many neonates and juveniles having been found in the park over the years. They seem to prefer pine rockland and rockland hammock as their habitat, which are unique to southern Florida.

Of course, the next question is which geographic location(s) did these invasive boas descend from? Even though this would be relatively easy to answer with molecular techniques, those data have yet to be published (if they have even been generated). With the renewed interest in this genus over the last few years, there is a reasonable chance that we will have an answer to that question sometime soon. This would be a perfect project for a Master's thesis if any of you or someone you know is interested in going to grad school...

If I go to grad school, I've still got a few years, but that would definitely be right up my alley!

That certainly explains why it was so hard to pinpoint what it was, and why I figured it could be a cross. It would be interesting to have a reliable test out there!

[Nightflight99]

Since my locality boa army is continuously growing, and this male isn't going to be easy to pair up, I've decided to surplus this particular specimen. I know that some of you are true fellow boaphiles, so before I officially post him in the various classifieds, I figured I'd give you guys a heads-up.

If any of you are interested in him, please shoot me a pm.