Corallus hortulanus

Tree Boa ( Corallus hortulanus )

The Tree Boa or Gartenboa ( Corallus hortulanus ) is a species of snake in the family of boas ( Boidae ), which occurs from southern Colombia and Venezuela and Guyana, French Guiana and Suriname across eastern Ecuador and Peru, and large parts of Brazil to northern Bolivia.

Features

Hundskopfboas are slender snakes with wedge-shaped, clearly contrasting the fuselage nose and large, protruding eyes with vertical pupils. They rarely reach lengths of over two and a half meters. They are brown, reddish, gray, black or gray-green with irregular dark spots on the back and flanks. These are listed on pages four, five or six square with a lighter center and more or less bright border. The back pattern is extremely variable and may consist of a zigzag belt or next to each other stains. The dark- spotted head has a black temporal stripe. The belly is dirty white or yellowish with black, gray or brown spots. The head has two rows of Lorealschilden, usually a large Präokularschild and two Subocularschilde and about ten other small Ocularschilde. The 11 to 15, rarely up to 24 Superlabialschilde, of which the fifth and sixth Subocularschilde the touch and the 14 to 17, rarely to 19 Infralabialschilde have heat sensory pores. The fuselage center has 47 to 63 oblique rows of smooth scales. There are 260 to 290 abdominal and 117-130 undivided Subcaudalschilde available. A long prehensile tail is well trained.

Way of life

The species prefers populated lowland rainforests to about 300 meters. The species is nocturnal and feeds on birds, small mammals and lizards. The species is aggressive and can cause with their backward curved fangs deep wounds and is therefore sometimes wrongly feared in Venezuela as toxic. Up to 40 young are born alive.

Evidence

• Ludwig Trutnau: Non-toxic snakes, Part 1 4th edition. Eugen Ulmer GmbH & Co., Stuttgart 2002, ISBN 3-8001-3223-0, pp. 173-176.