sczlogover.gif (3787 bytes)

© Sedgwick County Zoo, credit: Brent Ward

Argentine Boa

Boa constrictor occidentalis

Physical Characteristics

  • These snakes have a brownish background color with a complicated light and dark pattern. There are dark bands on the side of the head from the tip of the snout to the neck. A dark band also runs form the top of the head in front of the eyes to the neck. The belly is grey with dark spots.
  • Size of average adult
    • length: 4 - 9 feet

Diet

  • Wild: small mammals and birds

Behavior

  • Kills its prey by constriction
  • Nocturnal: active at night
  • Frequents trees as well as the ground
  • Reproduction
    • mating season: November to March
    • females bear live young in June and July
    • litters can contain as many as 43 young

Environmental/Global

  • Habitat: forest, grassland and scrub
  • Distribution: Paraguay and Argentina
  • Numbers: no estimates on wild populations are available
  • Status: CITES Appendix I
    • skin trade

Conservation Efforts

  • Importation regulated
  • Paraguay Faunal Interest Group being established by the Sunset Zoo in Manhattan, Kansas

Click here to visit the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA). Click here to visit Sedgwick County, Kansas. COPYRIGHT 2004 Sedgwick County Zoo all rights reserved. No part of this website may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any electrical, mechanical, photocopying, recording means or otherwise without prior written permission of the photographer or author. Unless marked otherwise, materials are from the Sedgwick County Zoo. Sedgwick County Zoo is accredited by the American Zoo and Aquarium Association (AZA).