Boa constrictor imperator
The founder stock for these small dwarf boa were collected from Mainland Belize by Dr. Scott Boback. Thanks to collaboration between both Dr. Boback and Vin Russo captive bred offspring have been made available. They are very interesting boa and likely some of the rarest boa constrictors in captivity. The offspring have been somewhat variable and it seems some hypomelanistic examples may have been produced although I have none of those pictured here.
Any devotee of the dwarf locality boa can’t help but wonder about how these boa from mainland Belize relate to the boa on the various Belize cays. It is typically a widely held theory that boa on various islands are the result of mainland boa somehow rafting to an island from the mainland and then becoming isolated, evolving over often thousands of years into something unique that can survive in what may be a quite stingy environment on some islands, especially the boa on islands off the coas of Belize. Could these boa be descendants of the very boa from which all or some of the cay boa came to be?