Iguana b&w text


IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 2  •  JUNE 2007 85CONSERVATION OF GREEN ANACONDAS

Henderson and R. Powell (eds.), Biology of the Boas and Pythons. Eagle
Mountain Publishing Company, Eagle Mountain, Utah.

Struhsaker, T.T. 1998. A biologist’s perspective in the role of sustainable har-
vest in conservation. Conservation Biology 12:930–932.

Thorbjarnarson, J.B. 1999. Crocodile tears and skins: International trade, eco-
nomic constraints and limits to sustainable use of crocodilians.
Conservation Biology 13:465–470.

Thorbjarnarson, J.B., H. Messel, F.W. King, and J.P. Ross. 1992. Crocodiles, An
Action Plan for Their Conservation. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

Thorbjarnarson, J.B. and A. Velasco. 1999. Economic incentives for manage-
ment of Venezuelan caiman. Conservation Biology 13:397–406.

Vickers, W.T. 1991. Hunting yields and game composition over ten years in an
Amazon Indian territory, pp. 53–81. In: J.G. Robinson and K.H.

Redford (eds.), Tropical Wildlife Use and Conservation. University of
Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois.

Waller, T., P.A. Micucci, M. Mendez, and E. Alvarenga. 2007. The management
and conservation biology of Yellow Anacondas (Eunectes notaeus) in
Argentina. In: R.W. Henderson and R. Powell (eds.), Biology of the Boas
and Pythons. Eagle Mountain Publishing Company, Eagle Mountain, Utah.

World Bank. 1992. World Development Report. Oxford University Press, New York.

World Bank. 2001. Adjustment lending retrospective: Final report operation
policies and country services. World Bank, Washington, D.C. (http://
siteresources.worldbank.org/Projects/Resources/ALR06_20_01.pdf).

Yunus, M. 1994. Preface: Redefining development, pp. ix–xii. In: K. Danaher
(ed.), 50 Years Enough: The Case Against the World Bank and the
International Monetary Fund. South End Press, Boston, Massachusetts.

The most geographically and ecologically widespread of
the eight currently recognized species of the

Neotropical treeboa genus Corallus, C. hortulanus ranges
from Amazonian Colombia and Venezuela, through the
Guianas, throughout Amazonian Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, and
Bolivia, and south into Brazil’s Atlantic Forest to about 26º
08’ south latitude, and on Ilha Grande (off southeastern
Brazil). It occurs in diverse habitats, including primary and
secondary rainforest, mixed forest, second growth, palm
forests, swamp forest, cerrado, caatinga (where it is proba-
bly confined to gallery forests), and savanna/grassland with
stands of trees. It is often associated with edge situations
and may be especially common in trees at the margins of
bodies of water (rivers, lagoons, lakes). It also exploits heav-
ily disturbed situations, such as fruit orchards (bananas,
cacao), and will enter human edifices (outbuildings,
homes), likely seeking shade, a diurnal retreat, or a human
commensal rodent. Altitudinal distribution is from sea level
to about 915 m, although it is uncommon above 300 m. 

Few snake species worldwide can compete with
Corallus hortulanus when it comes to variation in color and
pattern. Dorsal ground color of the boas may be various
shades of yellow, orange, gray, taupe, and/or brown. They
may be virtually patternless yellow or orange, or have an
ellipse-like shape that may be a shade of the ground color
or in sharp contrast to it, or it may appear extremely mot-
tled (but close inspection usually reveals the ellipse shape).

Amazon Treeboas are nocturnal and, as the name
implies, largely arboreal. Their bodies are laterally com-
pressed, and snakes may attain snout-vent lengths (SVL)
over 1.6 m, and can reach SVLs of 1.8–1.9 m. Both active
and ambush foraging strategies are employed, and the diet
consists almost entirely of endotherms. When young
(<750 mm SVL), birds (and, to a lesser degree, bats) com-

prise a significant portion of their diet (likely captured via
active foraging while the birds are at roost) but, with
increasing size, mammals (especially rodents) become their
principal prey. Frogs and lizards are taken infrequently by
C. hortulanus.

References
Henderson, R.W. 2002. Neotropical Treeboas: Natural History of the Corallus

hortulanus Complex. Krieger Publishing Co., Malabar, Florida.

Pizzatto, L., O.A.V. Marques, and M. Martins. 2007. Ecomorphology of
boine snakes, with emphasis on South American forms, pp. 35–48.
In: R.W. Henderson and R. Powell (eds.), Biology of the Boas and
Pythons. Eagle Mountain Publishing, Eagle Mountain, Utah.

S P E C I E S  P R O F I L E

Amazon Treeboa (Corallus hortulanus)
Robert W. Henderson

Milwaukee Public Museum

Although Corallus hortulanus demonstrates tremendous color and
pattern variation throughout its range, this individual exhibits a
much higher percentage of white scales than typically observed.
It was captured in a small section of bamboo forest near the Rio
Cristalino in northern Mato Grosso, Brazil. The habitat is tran-
sitional between southern Amazonian rainforest and the vast
savanna-like Cerrado to the south. A second snake with similar
coloration was found several days later. Whether these individu-
als are just variants of an extremely variable species or a color pat-
tern anomaly is unknown.

LA
U

R
IE

 J
. V

IT
T