More Critters

The Cuban Boa

This picture is of a young Cuban Boa that Natalie and I found on one of our nightly walks.  He (she?) is pretty young.  He was about two feet long and somewhere between the size of a quarter and a fifty-cent piece in diameter.  We had an in-service my first weekend here from some biologists from the Toledo Zoo.   They are studying the reptiles of GTMO.  They brought a tub of 21 snakes that were the recent off-spring of one Cuban Boa.  The snakes were about two weeks old and they were not quite as big as the one that Natalie and I saw.  The mother of these 21 babies is about twelve feel long (according to the zoo folks… we didn’t get to see her).  She is a collared snake, so they keep track of her.  In an interesting twist from what we always learned in biology the egg encasing the snake dissolves before it is born… so in effect they are live-births.  

They are constrictors, so they squeeze their prey to death.  Although as we also learned from the Toledo Zoo visit they will bite.  This one wasn’t too interested in either Natalie or I.

Turkey Vultures

The most visible wildlife at GTMO is the turkey vulture.  They are everywhere.  They can be seen in groups of 4 or 5 circling above the terrain, or feasting on a dead hutia on the side of the road.  If they weren’t such a cliche’ for death and scavenging, they would be beautiful.  They soar with the grace of the American Eagle who also eats carrion, but alas they do not have the same respect.  The truth is they kind of give me the creeps.