In the 2012 President's Budget Request, the National Biological Information Infrastructure (NBII) is terminated. As a result, all resources, databases, tools, and applications within this web site will be removed on January 15, 2012. For more information, please refer to the NBII Program Termination page.
This database was developed for the USGS Brown Tree Snake Rapid Response Team to serve as a permanenent repository for Pacific Islands snake sightings data. It can be used to disseminate information about snake sightings to the public or other agencies and can aid early detection and rapid response efforts of local alien species control groups.
The OBIS-USA database brings together highly distributed marine species data sets, documenting where and when species were observed or collected, and allows them to be searched and mapped by geographic location.
Snakes are members of the taxon Squamata. Like other squamates (i.e. amphisbaenians and lizards) snakes have elongated bodies, skin that sheds in large fragments, a pair of hemipenes (male copulatory organs), and other typical squamate features. Snakes shed skin as one large piece, including (if present) the scale that covers and protects the eye.
Snakes are limbless reptiles. All snakes are carnivores and eat prey whole. Snakes have well-developed senses of smell and sight; hearing is a relatively undeveloped sense, with external ears absent and middle ears virtually nonexistent. Over 3,000 snake species exist worldwide. The most common in North America are colubrids (kingsnakes, rat snakes, whipsnakes, etc.). Other snake types of the continent include Rubber boas and Rosy boas (Boidae); coral snakes and water snakes (Elapidae); Texas blind snakes and Western threadsnakes (Leptotyphlopidae); and copperheads, pit vipers, and rattlesnakes (Viperidae).
Description:Largest snake species of Puerto Rico. Tends to grow 6-7 ft long. Skin varies from tan to dark brown with 70 to 80 crossbars or spots, outlined in very dark brown.
Habitat:Found in forests, on the ground or in trees. May hang from branches, vines, and rock ledges at the mouths of caves to capture bat prey.
Distribution:Puerto Rico
Status:Endangered and protected under the U.S. Endangered Species Act
