

Let’s take a brief look at the different subspecies and what distinguishes them from each other.

There are 10 subspecies of the boa constrictor. Though they are often feared as dangerous, man-eating snakes, they usually do not grow large enough to prey upon humans.īoa constrictor-related incidents, according to the Humane Society, usually involve very large specimens attacking young children. These saddles become larger and rounder on the tail, giving them the appearance of having a red tail.īoa constrictors mainly hunt small mammals and birds, and occasionally reptiles such as lizards. Wild-type or “normal” boa constrictors are a cream to light brown in color, with a number of reddish-brown saddles along their bodies. They can reside in rainforests, woodlands, and semi-arid areas. Boa constrictors live exclusively in tropical areas where temperatures are high. One specimen, identified in the zoological journal Spixiana, was at least 14 feet long. Captive snakes tend to grow larger than wild ones, and females tend to be bigger than males. Boa constrictors are a large snake that often grows to 10 feet long, or much longer. The geographical range of the boa constrictor extends from the southern parts of Mexico, in North America, down to Argentina in South America. They are famous for their method of killing prey: constricting animals until they die from restricted blood flow. PMID 24315866.1.4.5 Head Shape What Are Boa Constrictors?īoa constrictors are a large, non-venomous snake native to the Americas. "Toward a Tree-of-Life for the boas and pythons: Multilocus species-level phylogeny with unprecedented taxon sampling".

"Phylogeny of South American and Malagasy boine snakes: Molecular evidence for the validity of Sanzinia and Acrantophis and biogeographic implications". "Dispersal and vicariance: The complex evolutionary history of boid snakes". Boine Snake Phylogeny and Research Cycles. Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, vol.

However, it has since been shown that the Malagasy boids and Boa constrictor do not form a monophyletic group, and the lumping of Sanzinia, Acrantophis and Boa was, therefore, an error. Kluge (1991) moved the genera Sanzinia and Acrantophis into Boa, based on a phylogeny derived from morphological characters. Lucia), on San Andrés, Providencia and many other islands along the Caribbean coasts of Mexico and Central and South America. One species is present in the Lesser Antilles ( Dominica and St.
