CC300 Population monitoring of Boa Constrictors, Spiny-tailed Iguanas and Turtles
Maximum 12 volunteers.

Boa constrictors
The Hog Islands Boa as the endemic pink coloured boa constrictor found on the Cayos Cochinos is known is in large demand in the pet trade. in the 1970's a number of these boas which are restricted to the Cayos Cochinos islands were illegally caught and exported for the pet trade. Since then many of the Hog Island Boas sold in the pet trade have been bred from this original core stock. However, the illegal capture and sale of these snakes from the wild still continues and in 2004 the Honduran Coral Reef Foundation confiscated a consignment of wild caught Hog Island Boas that were destined for illegal export to the pet trade.

One of the main reasons the Cayos Cochinos have protected status is the presence of the Boa Constrictor sub-species. However, at present there are no data on the size of the population or on their basic biology (feeding, growth rates, habitat selection). A team of boa biologists led by Dr Bob Reed, Scott Boback and Chad Montgomery completed the first stage of a long-term monitoring programme for the pink boas on the two islands of the Cayos Cochinos. Sweep surveys across the island captured an average of 1 snake a day and each of these were measured, sexed and a pit tag injected into them so that re-captures in future years can be used to assess population size, growth and mortality rates.

A 5-year programme based on this pilot study is being launched in 2005 and volunteers are needed to help with the island-wide searches for the snakes to increase the number of tagged animals and to monitor growth rates from previously tagged animals. In addition a few of the boas will be fitted with radio transmitters and their locations plotted each day throughout the season.

Personne ne peut être sûr de la provenance tant qu'il a pas été lui même les capturer. Quand les "grands" du marché américain ( je nommerai pas de noms ) arrêteront de s'inventer des croyancesla mentalité ne changera malheureusement pas.

Lawrence van Sertima, born and raised in Guyana, is currently dwelling in the U.S. and earns his living with the import of boas from Guyana that he gets from his son who is still living there. Here is his report:

My name is Lawrence van Sertima, I am now in my mid sixties, and was born and grew in Guyana. As a hobby I collected reptiles from in my teens and was then considered a madman for doing so. In my mid twenties I became an animal exporter primarily working with reptiles. The boa constrictor has always been my favorite reptile, and I have collected and owned hundreds of these snakes. I do not market myself as an expert, but as my history will have shown I am not exactly a novice.

Though I can not remember the exact year, some what over ten years back when the Peoples Progressive Party came to power in Guyana, the new President Dr. Cheddy Jagan closed the wild life trade.
The buyers did not go out of business, but simply took their trade next door to Suriname, at the same time our trappers still had to feed their families so instead of selling the snakes from Guyana, they took them across the Curantine river to Suriname , thus giving our traditional market over to our competitors. All of a sudden Suriname became the leading shipper of red tail boas.


When Guyana re-opened for trade, we had lost the edge, and the Suriname boa was the big thing.
I have seen a wide variety of red tail boa color phases often taken from the same area by the same trapper. I have also had the amusing pleasure of having a young man in the U.S. explain to me the difference of the two types as he separated a shipment that had actually come from MY farm in Guyana.


So now you have the history of the Suriname boa and the Guyana boa.


As you mentioned the border is political and not natural. I hope that this helps to deflate the bull shit of two different snakes.
Lawrence van Sertima.

Suriname, at the same time our trappers still had to feed their families so instead of selling the snakes from Guyana, they took them across the Curantine river to Suriname ,

The Hog Island Boa boom in the early 90s resulted in the excessive exploitation of these animals. Along with habitat destruction and the common killing of boas by the natives, this lead to the number of boas on Cayo de los Cochinos apparently decreasing to an amount at which the existing population had no chance of long-term survival.

It seems that the Hog Island boas exist only in captivity now. However, even the number of captive born specimens is declining (at least in Europe).

Hog Island boas change their shade. While they are extremely bright and almost without recognizable markings in the morning, they are darker and rich in contrast in the evening. The "Hogies" are a small morph. Normally the females reach 6 ft in length at the most.

Two prominent field Biologists conducted a herpetofaunal survey of the Islands in March of 1988 and found not a single specimen of Boa ( Wilson & Cruz, 1993 ). Therefore it is strongly believed that the Hog Island Boa may very well be extinct on the Cayos de Los Cochinos- “REPTILES” april 2004

NOTE: Rumors & some reports state that the Hog Island Boa population is on the Rebound as a few specimens were cited there in 2004

However, the illegal capture and sale of these snakes from the wild still continues and in 2004 the Honduran Coral Reef Foundation confiscated a consignment of wild caught Hog Island Boas that were destined for illegal export to the pet trade.

il y a des jours qu’on ne pas observer meme un serpent