New Guinea Boa

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New Guinea Boa
Systematics
Subordination : Snakes (serpentes)
Superfamily : Boa-like (Booidea)
Family : Boas (Boidae)
Subfamily : Boa snakes (Boinae)
Genre : Pacific boas ( Candoia )
Type : New Guinea Boa
Scientific name
Candoia aspera
( Günther , 1877)

The New Guinea boa ( Candoia aspera ), also called viper boa , Pacific boa or South Sea boa, is a species of snake from the genus of the Pacific boas .

features

The New Guinea Boa is a stocky snake with an average of 60 to 90 cm, a maximum of about one meter in length. The head is triangular with a straight edge of the snout and is clearly set off from the neck. The head shields are granular in appearance. The eye is surrounded by a wreath of small scales. There are 9 to 14 supra- and 12 to 17 sub-labial shields . The trunk has 30 to 45 rows of keeled body scales, 127 to 153 ventral shields , 11 to 22 undivided subcaudal shields, and an undivided anal shield . The body has large saddle spots on a rust to black-brown basic color, which are more or less square shaped and brown to black-brown, rarely red, and black-edged and which sometimes merge into a zigzag or wavy band. The males have elongated anal spurs. The tail is very short and not designed as a grasping tail.

Outwardly, the species is reminiscent of the death otter Acanthophis laevis , with which it often shares its habitat.

Occurrence

New Guinea boas are found in primary and secondary tropical rainforests on Papua New Guinea , Irian Jaya , several Indonesian islands, the Moluccas , the Bismarck Archipelago , the Solomon Islands, and the Tokelau Islands . The species is mainly found near water bodies and only rarely in dry areas.

Way of life

The species is predominantly nocturnal and ground-living and is only found sporadically on trees. The animals usually hide under vegetation or leaf litter. When threatened, they curl up in a ball in the middle of which the head is kept hidden. Skinks , other lizards, frogs, small mammals and ground-dwelling birds serve as food . New Guinea boas are viviparous .

swell

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