![]() Robert Henderson, curator emeritus of herpetology at the Milwaukee Public Museum and one of the world’s most renowned experts on boas, shares his colleagues’ enthusiasm about the find. ![]() “However, it could be one of the reasons why there are so few records.” “All the individuals reported so far were found on the ground or in easily accessible places, which contradicts this idea,” he says. The new live specimen showed “great dexterity” in climbing when placed on a tree trunk, and Franco’s educated guess is that the species lives in the forest canopy, hidden from human eyes. cropanii-a dead snake that someone had photographed-and the first one found in Guapiruvu.ĭue to its scarcity in herpetological collections, researchers know little about the ecology and behavior of C. Six years ago, Franco and his team described the fifth known specimen of C. “That is not luck, it’s scientific merit.” “Rocha elaborated a project, decided to use a specific methodology, and obtained a result,” Franco says. cropanii, says that the rare species cropping up now is the result of more than just chance. So they decided to capture it and call Rocha.įrancisco Franco, a herpetologist who also works at the Butantan Institute but was not involved in the search for C. cropanii said they were about to kill it when one of them recalled the snake from the brochures. Just two months later, Rocha’s approach proved successful. cropanii and his contact information in case someone spotted it. After the event, he distributed brochures with a photograph of C. He was careful to stress the scientific relevance of the reptile above its economic value, because Rocha knew that the species would be attractive to snake smugglers seeking to make a quick buck by selling live boas to the pet trade. “And that if people continued to kill it, it could go extinct before we learn anything about it.” “I told them that it’s a special animal, that this is the only place where it lives,” Rocha says. He got funding from the International Union for Conservation of Nature and, with the aid of some colleagues and a local association, “ Amigos da Mata,” he set up an environmental education event in Guapiruvu late last year.įor the first part of the event, Rocha listed some of the 18 species of snakes that inhabit the region and informed attendees how to identify venomous ones. To enhance his chances of finding a living specimen of the rare boa, Rocha decided to enlist the help of the locals in finding and collecting the snake-populations of which are likely extremely rare, though researchers have never been able to conduct a thorough census. cropanii for so long is that, although boas are not venomous, people who live in the same forests as the snakes tend to kill them on sight. Robert HendersonĪmong the reasons why researchers have not had access to living specimens of C. We know next to nothing about the Cropan’s boa’s natural history: its habitat and how it uses the habitat, diet, foraging behavior, activity patterns, et cetera. All known specimens of the boa came from a region of São Paulo state called Vale do Ribeira, listed by the UNESCO as a World Heritage site (now called Atlantic Forest South-East Reserves and including part of the state of Paraná) for having one of the largest continuous stretches of the Brazilian Atlantic Forest, a highly threatened biome and biodiversity hotspot. And there are just a handful of others held at other institutions. cropanii is poorly represented-the institute only has one specimen. Yet, among thousands of preserved snakes floating in the liquid-filled jars lining the shelves of collection rooms at the institute, C. ![]() For the past century, the Butantan Institute has received snake specimens from all over Brazil. ![]() Ever since 1953, researchers had been trying unsuccessfully to get hold of another live Cropan’s boa. ![]()
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