( Chiaraviglio, et al., 2003 Mattison, 2007 O'Shea, 2007 Stafford, 1986)īoa constrictors occupy a variety of habitats. Some islands off the coast of Belize and Honduras are also inhabited by this species. Islands included in the boa constrictor range are: the Lesser Antilles, Trinidad, Tobago, Dominica, and St. Boa constrictors are also found on numerous islands off the Pacific coast and in the Caribbean. On the west side of the mountains, the range extends into Peru. constrictor is found as far south as northern Argentina. In South America the range splits along the Andes mountains. Boa constrictors range from northern Mexico south through Central and South America. Boa constrictor is an exclusively New World species which has the largest distribution of all neotropical boas. No worse for wear, the team released the lucky survivor back into the wild.įollow Jason Bittel on Twitter and Facebook. "We have no idea what was going on," says Boback, "but seemed totally fine." (Also see " Freshly Eaten Snake Makes Amazing Escape-Find Out How.") In the morning, they were surprised to discover the animals at either end of the observation tank, with the iguana alive and well. After the snake constricted its prey for an hour, the team collected both animals-assuming the iguana was dead-and went to bed. When you're an anaconda, you don't need venom to take down your prey, even if it's the world's largest rodent, a capybara, weighing nearly 100 pounds (45 kilograms)! Ectotherm's RevengeĪs interesting as his revelation is, Boback says there's still much we don't know.įor instance, there's evidence that boa constrictors have a tougher time killing ectotherms, animals such as lizards and snakes that rely on external heat to regulate their body temperatures.ĭuring a recent expedition to Honduras, for instance, Boback and several other scientists observed a boa constrictor attacking a spinytail iguana. Watch a video of an anaconda stalking a capybara. "If it doesn't get the attack exactly right, something big like a capybara can chew right through the body of an anaconda." "Almost every time an anaconda takes something down, it's putting its face on that animal," says Rosolie, who wasn't involved in the new research. ( Watch a video of an anaconda taking down its prey.) But a snake just has a mouth-making it extremely vulnerable. Think about other animals living alongside boa constrictors in tropical rain forests, says Rosolie: They have teeth, hooves, and claws capable of kicking and ripping. "That absolutely makes sense," says Paul Rosolie, a conservationist who has spent the last decade working with anacondas. The quicker the snakes can disable their prey, the lower the chance the predator will get hurt in the process. The team theorizes that killing by circulatory arrest has given all constricting snakes-which includes pythons and anacondas-an evolutionary advantage. Once blood flow ceases, organs with high metabolic rates-such as the brain, the liver, and the heart itself-begin to shut down. (See " Giant Python Meals That Went Bust.") "A boa constricting a small rat is generating the kind of pressure that would stop the blood flow in your arm," says Boback, whose study appears July 22 in the Journal of Experimental Biology.īut even this light pressure, when applied to a rat's torso, makes its system goes haywire, the team discovered. Surprisingly, the pressures at which the snakes cinched against the rats weren't all that remarkable. Then they fed the outfitted rats to captive boa constrictors and measured what happened to the lab rats. (Also see " Pictures: How a Python Can Swallow a Crocodile.") Vascular catheters measured blood pressure, for instance, while electrodes secured within the rats' chest cavities provided information about the heart's electrical activity. To better understand the snakes' constriction mechanism, Boback and his colleagues at Dickinson anesthetized lab rats and then rigged the animals with various instruments. If executed perfectly, the powerful squeeze causes the animal to pass out within a matter of seconds. Click here to read more: " Why We Were Totally Wrong About How Boa Constrictors Kill" Video courtesy Dickinson College JBoa constrictors kill their prey not by suffocating them but by cutting off their blood circulation, new research shows.
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