Madagascar tree boa (Sanzinia madagascariensis) head Peyrieras

''Sanzinia madagascariensis'', also known as the Malagasy tree boaMehrtens JM. 1987. Living Snakes of the World in Color. New York: Sterling Publishers. 480 pp. . or Madagascar tree boa, is a

boa Kwon Bo-ah (; born November 5, 1986), known professionally as BoA, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, dancer, record producer and actress. One of the most successful and influential Korean entertainers, she has been dubbed the " Queen of K- ...

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

to the island of

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

. It was considered conspecific with the Nosy Komba ground boa. Like all other boas, it is non-venomous.

Description

Adults average 4–5 feet (122–152 cm) in length, although 6–7 foot (183–213 cm) specimens are not uncommon. Thermoreceptive pits are located between the

labial scales The labial scales are the scales of snakes and other scaled reptiles that border the mouth opening. These do not include the median scales on the upper and lower jawsWright AH, Wright AA. 1957. Handbook of Snakes. Comstock Publishing Associates (7 ...

. Females are larger than males. It is greenish in colour and is found on the east side of Madagascar.

Distribution and habitat

Endemic Endemism is the state of a species being found in a single defined geographic location, such as an island, state, nation, country or other defined zone; organisms that are indigenous to a place are not endemic to it if they are also found elsew ...

. The type locality given is "Madagascar". Favors trees and shrubs near streams, rivers, ponds and swamps.

Conservation status

This species was classified as Vulnerable (VU) on the

IUCN The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN; officially International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources) is an international organization working in the field of nature conservation and sustainable use of natu ...

Red List of Threatened Species The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, also known as the IUCN Red List or Red Data Book, founded in 1964, is the world's most comprehensive inventory of the global conservation status of biologi ...

in 2006 with the following criteria: A1cd (v2.3, 1994). This means that a population reduction of at least 20% has been observed, estimated, inferred or suspected over the last 10 years or three generations, whichever is the longer, based on a decline in area of occupancy, extent of occurrence and/or quality of habitat, and based on actual or potential levels of exploitation. It is now listed as

Least Concern A least-concern species is a species that has been categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) as evaluated as not being a focus of species conservation because the specific species is still plentiful in the wild. T ...

(LC) as it is widespread, present in heavily degraded habitats and it is not subject to any known or suspected threats. Also listed as

CITES Appendix I CITES (shorter name for the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora, also known as the Washington Convention) is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals from the threats of interna ...

, which means that it is threatened with extinction and CITES prohibits international trade except when the purpose of the import is not commercial, for example for scientific research.''Sanzinia madagascariensis''
a
CITES
an
United Nations Environment Programme / World Conservation Monitoring Centre
Accessed 10 July 2008.

Feeding

Arboreal Arboreal locomotion is the Animal locomotion, locomotion of animals in trees. In habitats in which trees are present, animals have evolved to move in them. Some animals may scale trees only occasionally, but others are exclusively arboreal. Th ...

and generally

nocturnal Nocturnality is an animal behavior characterized by being active during the night and sleeping during the day. The common adjective is "nocturnal", versus diurnal meaning the opposite. Nocturnal creatures generally have highly developed sens ...

, ''S. madagascariensis'' feeds on mammals and birds. Its thermoreceptive pits help it to locate its prey. It will also leave the trees to actively hunt for small mammals on the ground.

Reproduction

Ovoviviparous Ovoviviparity, ovovivipary, ovivipary, or aplacental viviparity is a term used as a "bridging" form of reproduction between egg-laying oviparous and live-bearing viviparous reproduction. Ovoviviparous animals possess embryos that develop insi ...

, females give birth to up to 12 young at a time, each about 15 inches (38 cm) in length. When females become

gravid In biology and human medicine, gravidity and parity are the number of times a woman is or has been pregnant (gravidity) and carried the pregnancies to a viable gestational age (parity). These terms are usually coupled, sometimes with additional te ...

, their skin color darkens. This adaptation provides increased heat absorption for the developing young. After giving birth, the color returns to normal as soon as it next sheds its skin. Neonates are a bright red that may warn predators to "stay away", while simultaneously providing

camouflage Camouflage is the use of any combination of materials, coloration, or illumination for concealment, either by making animals or objects hard to see, or by disguising them as something else. Examples include the leopard's spotted coat, the ...

among brightly colored treetop flowers.

Taxonomy

When Kluge (1991) moved ''Sanzinia madagascariensis'' (A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1844) to ''

Boa Kwon Bo-ah (; born November 5, 1986), known professionally as BoA, is a South Korean singer, songwriter, dancer, record producer and actress. One of the most successful and influential Korean entertainers, she has been dubbed the " Queen of K- ...

'' together with ''

Acrantophis madagascariensis ''Acrantophis madagascariensis'' is a species of boid snake in the subfamily Sanziniinae that is endemic to the island of Madagascar. Its common names include Malagasy ground boa and Madagascar boa. Description This species is included in the B ...

'' (A.M.C. Duméril & Bibron, 1844), it resulted in

homonymy In linguistics, homonyms are words which are homographs (words that share the same spelling, regardless of pronunciation), or homophones (equivocal words, that share the same pronunciation, regardless of spelling), or both. Using this definition, ...

. To fix this

nomenclatural Nomenclature (, ) is a system of names or terms, or the rules for forming these terms in a particular field of arts or sciences. The principles of naming vary from the relatively informal conventions of everyday speech to the internationally ag ...

problem, he proposed the specific name ''manditra'' as a replacement for ''S. madagascariensis''. It has since been shown that the Malagasy boids and the genus ''Boa'' do not form a

monophyletic In cladistics for a group of organisms, monophyly is the condition of being a clade—that is, a group of taxa composed only of a common ancestor (or more precisely an ancestral population) and all of its lineal descendants. Monophyletic gro ...

group, so that the lumping of ''Sanzinia'', ''Acrantophis'' and ''Boa'' was incorrect, and the name ''Sanzinia madagascariensis'' is therefore the correct name for this species.

References

External links

* {{Taxonbar, from=Q1883136 Sanzinia Reptiles described in 1844 Reptiles of Madagascar Endemic fauna of Madagascar Taxa named by André Marie Constant Duméril Taxa named by Gabriel Bibron