Our Surinam Red Tailed Boas

The Red-tailed boa is a form of the common boa or, as it is often known, the Boa constrictor. Common boas with red tails, such as the one illustrated, occur in several parts of South America, including Surinam, Peru and parts of Brazil. Other forms occur throughout Central and South America and on a few Caribbean islands.

Although common boas do not grow as large as most people think, they occasionally approach about 4 meters in length. They feed mostly on mammals and birds, including domestic livestock such as chickens. As their name suggests, they constrict their prey, throwing several coils of their muscular body around it and squeezing; this prevents it from breathing and may also restrict the circulation of its blood. Common boas give birth to live young after a gestation period of about six months; a typical litter consists of about fifteen to twenty young measuring approximately 30 centimetres in length.

Common boas are extremely adaptable and occur in a wide variety of habitat types, including rainforest, grasslands and dry scrub. In addition, they frequently live around villages, farms and other human settlements, where they benefit from the increased numbers of rats and mice found in such places. They climb well but are equally at home on the ground and, if necessary, are prepared to take to the water.

As a species, the common boa has such a wide distribution, from Mexico in the north to Argentina in the south, that it is in no immediate danger of extinction. Large areas of its range, especially rainforest regions, are being seriously depleted, however, and in many places it is not as common as in previous times.   Of more immediate concern are the island populations; a dwarf form of the common boa has been almost exterminated on several small islands off the coast of Honduras and the population on Dominica is also vulnerable through habitat destruction and the introduction of domestic animals such as cats and dogs, which kill young boas.