Gibson’s World

Madagascar Tree Boas are probably the most interesting out of the 72 snake species in Madagascar. They are members of the Boidae family which is made up of large, non-venomous, constricting, primitive snakes. On some Boidae snakes, you can even see one or two toes sticking completely out of the skin because snakes evolved from lizards.

Madagascar Tree Boas are really beautiful snakes (in my opinion). They are grayish-green snakes with black diamonds or cross-bars all over their bodies. The only exceptions are  juveniles, which can be bright red in color but they still have the black markings on them!  Madagascar Tree Boas have triangular heads which are characteristic of both Boidae and a Viperidae snakes. They also have a thick black stripe behind the eye which is a great field identification characteristic. These thick snakes have been measured at more than 7 feet long!!

The Madagascar Tree Boa?s biology is amazing. Despite Their name (Madagascar Tree Boa),they are commonly found on the ground as well as in the trees. They also give birth to live young instead of laying eggs as most snakes do. Madagascar Tree Boas will feed on many animals including birds, lizards, frogs, and small mammals. They will even eat some small lemurs!!

While we were in Madagascar we were lucky enough to see a Madagascar Tree Boa (baby) in the wild. It was really interesting and I hope to come back to Madagascar some day to see more of these snakes and many other animals.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 6th, 2008 at 12:32 am and is filed under Animals, Africa. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.