CraigC
Guru
As requested by rascal, I'm starting this thread. I have been keeping snakes during parts of my life. Folks thought at first (my knowledge began in the mid 70's) that you simply kept snakes in an aquarium fitted with a lid to keep them in. That wasn't always successful. No thought was given to environmental requirements i.e. temperature, humidity and air circulation, let alone hiding places and in the case of arboreal species, perches, nor specific food. A lot of individuals didn't fare well and ended up dying during this learning curve. I fell in love the first time I saw an Amazon Basin Emerald Tree Boa back in the late 70's, but didn't start keeping the two sub-species until the late 90's.
Emeralds are nocturnal ambush hunters. Their front teeth, both upper and lower jaws are very long and recurved. When "hunting" they anchor themselves to a tree branch with several "S" coils hanging down. All of our emeralds, including neonates, yearlings and adults were switched to F/T (frozen thawed) food as soon as possible. Nothing larger than medium sized rats for our largest ones. The damage that can be done by live prey can be life threatening.
Deep heat sensing pits along the upper and lower jaws allow them to sense prey that comes within range. When an adult, prey is arboreal rodents. When they strike, the jaws open and engulf the prey and those front teeth act as meat hooks to secure the prey until the snake wraps coils around to slowly suffocate it. It takes a lot of energy to hunt and capture prey. If those front teeth don't do their job and the prey falls to the rain forest floor, all that expended energy is lost. As previously thought, birds are not part of the normal diet. They do not snag birds in flight. Beside how many birds, other than predators fly through the rain forest at night? Speaking or birds, the only known predator of an adult emerald is the Harpy eagle. Emeralds, like other boa species, are ovoviviparous and retain the eggs within the body until they hatch and thus bear living young. They have, in my mind, a python counter part of the Genus Morelia that fit the same niche as most tree boas, but lay eggs that require incubation. These were also know previously as chondropythons. They range from Indonesia in the Maluku Islands, east through New Guinea, including the Bismarck Archipelago and in Australia. I was also very interested in morelia, but being lazy, I didn't want to deal with eggs. Emeralds have a surprise at birth.
Although I have seen some born with adult colors, that is not common. Most are born the above coloration. Around 8-9 months they begin the ontogenetic color change which can take up to a year to complete.
Both pictures are of the same neonate and are of Corallus caninus, northern or Gyanan shield subspecies. It wasn't until the mid 2000's that corallus was split into two subspeices, Corallus caninus and Corallus batesii (Amazon Basin). As you can see below there is a big difference scale pattern on the head between the two subspecies.
Amazon Basin
Northern
Emeralds are nocturnal ambush hunters. Their front teeth, both upper and lower jaws are very long and recurved. When "hunting" they anchor themselves to a tree branch with several "S" coils hanging down. All of our emeralds, including neonates, yearlings and adults were switched to F/T (frozen thawed) food as soon as possible. Nothing larger than medium sized rats for our largest ones. The damage that can be done by live prey can be life threatening.
Deep heat sensing pits along the upper and lower jaws allow them to sense prey that comes within range. When an adult, prey is arboreal rodents. When they strike, the jaws open and engulf the prey and those front teeth act as meat hooks to secure the prey until the snake wraps coils around to slowly suffocate it. It takes a lot of energy to hunt and capture prey. If those front teeth don't do their job and the prey falls to the rain forest floor, all that expended energy is lost. As previously thought, birds are not part of the normal diet. They do not snag birds in flight. Beside how many birds, other than predators fly through the rain forest at night? Speaking or birds, the only known predator of an adult emerald is the Harpy eagle. Emeralds, like other boa species, are ovoviviparous and retain the eggs within the body until they hatch and thus bear living young. They have, in my mind, a python counter part of the Genus Morelia that fit the same niche as most tree boas, but lay eggs that require incubation. These were also know previously as chondropythons. They range from Indonesia in the Maluku Islands, east through New Guinea, including the Bismarck Archipelago and in Australia. I was also very interested in morelia, but being lazy, I didn't want to deal with eggs. Emeralds have a surprise at birth.
Although I have seen some born with adult colors, that is not common. Most are born the above coloration. Around 8-9 months they begin the ontogenetic color change which can take up to a year to complete.
Both pictures are of the same neonate and are of Corallus caninus, northern or Gyanan shield subspecies. It wasn't until the mid 2000's that corallus was split into two subspeices, Corallus caninus and Corallus batesii (Amazon Basin). As you can see below there is a big difference scale pattern on the head between the two subspecies.
Amazon Basin
Northern