World’s Rarest Snake, the St. Lucia Racer (Population 11), is Rediscovered

Hi All,
The St. Lucia Racer or Ornate Ground Snake, Liophis ornatus, has the unenviable distinctions of being both the world’s rarest snake and the species with the smallest range…it may even be the rarest creature on the planet. The entire population – 11 individuals at last count – is confined to a 30 acre Caribbean island off St. Lucia.
Ever since reading Archie Carr’s wonderful books as a child, I’ve been drawn to the Caribbean’s islands and coastlines. As luck would have it, I eventually found myself working at Tortuguero, Costa Rica – the very site where much of his ground-breaking Green Turtle research was done. There I became hooked on the region’s fantastic array of creatures, and endeavored to become familiar with as many as possible. In time, I tagged Leatherback Sea Turtles on St. Croix, collected Bahaman Brown Racers, Alsophis vudii, on several islands, and vowed to find again a large, flying Mole Cricket that once stopped me in my tracks on St. Lucia. Unfortunately, Caribbean animals suffer some of the world’s highest extinction rates. In fact, the St. Lucia racer was “officially extinct” for nearly 40 years. Happily, we now know that it still holds on…but just barely. Read more here St. Lucia Racer, World?s Rarest Snake (Population 11) is Rediscovered
Please also check out my posts on Twitter http://bitly.com/JP27Nj.

Thanks, Frank
My Bio, with photos of animals I’ve been lucky enough to work with That Pet Place welcomes Zoologist/Herpetologist Frank Indiviglio to That Reptile Blog | That Reptile Blog
Face Book http://on.fb.me/KckP1m

 

Thanks for sharing this with us ! Very intresting stuff. Luckily it´s known that herp-populations can recover very well on predator-free-islands and let´s hope the St. Lucia Racer is one of them !

 

My pleasure, glad you enjoyed. Yes, some great restoration work has been done by Mr. Durrell's group and others, so I'm hopeful. Best regards, frank

 

Another Caribbean snake that urgently needs investigation is the Jamaican Black Racer (Hypsirhynchus ater). It's regarded as 'possibly/probably extinct', having apparently been wiped out by introduced mongooses, but it was once widespread on Jamaica and maybe relict populations could cling on - perhaps on offshore islands. Some conservation body should look into this.

 

Blackduiker

That's fantastic news! Seems the introduced mongoose has created havoc to many species on islands everywhere. While visiting the Hawaiian island of Oahu back in 2002, they were running rampant around the parking lot of Hanauma Bay. Introduced to Hawaii in the 1880s, the Indian Mongoose was brought over to help control the rodent population, introduced centuries earlier by the arriving Polynesians. Of course, along with rodents, Hawaii's native ground nesting birds began to suffer:
[
Taking a gander at mongoose menace | Hawaii Insider | an SFGate.com blog

 

Yes, thanks for mentioning this species; there were some reports in the '70's, but none documented. The American Zoo Association formed a Taxon Advisory group to investigate this and related species in the mid "80's,, I believe, but nothing came of it as far as I know. I'll keep alert for updates in Herpetological Review, best, Frank

 

Thanks...yes, i too have run into mongoose on many islands, and it always seems that birds and small herps fare much worse than rats...the diurnal mongoose rarely encounter rats!...much like the Marine Toad being spread about to control cane beetles - the beetles forage well above the toads' reach! best, frank

 

I lived for a few years on the Caribbean island if Trinidad, and I saw many mongooses. They were brought in to control rats and more importantly, to control the snake population that would have killed slaves and indentured labourers who were cutting sugar cane. I do wonder though how many species went extinct before being studied and described formally....

 

Yes, snake control was important there and on other islands; this entry from Introduced mammals of the World addresses mongooses on Trinidad; as you suggest, I believe it to be very possible that small, secretive snakes and lizards were exterminated before being studied. Best, Frank

 

Recently, 24 new skink-species were discribed from the Caraibian but most of them are already extinc and the species which still survaive do hardly so because of the mongoose !
The species were discovered through re-examen museum-collections so from the extinc-species we will never know much more then how they have looked like

 

Thanks for the link. Yes, the things that were done in the old days in the name of 'pest control' boggles the mind.

 

That's a very interesting book...expensive, but stocked in many libraries, best, frank

 

Thanks for that info, amazing diversity there, ...seeing more and more of what you describe as genetic tech advances..as you say, many are already gone; maybe they'll figure out how to bring them back as well?! Best, frank

 

Hedges, S. Blair and Conn, Caitlin E. (2012). A new skink fauna from Caribbean islands (Squamata, Mabuyidae, Mabuyinae). Zootaxa 3288: 1–244.