Boa constrictor imperator
WHERE
These boa hail from the city of Cancun within the state of Quintana Roo that sits on the eastern side of the Yucatan Peninsula which is located in southeast Mexico. The very name of the city Cancun can be translated from the original dialect into one of two titles both having to do with snakes. A link will follow this paragraph where you can read about this and other interesting facts about Cancun. Any person being an aficionado of the boa constrictor owes it to themselves and their boa to learn about the environment and habitat they come from.
Size
These boa in culture are quite small. I currently have a gravid female that is just barely over three feet. A medium rat is a large meal for her. These also tend toward being more lean and have some size/pattern/color elements common to boa from Central America. Perhaps they represent a transition in morphology as we move from the darker Mexico Boa that reside in the North of Mexico to the boa in Central America. At one time the popular information on these boa was that they were calmer than other Mexico Boa. My group defy that notion. They aren’t nasty boa as adults at all but like most boa they may start out a bit defensive and grow out of it. I find them to be very typical in temperament for a Mexico or Central America Boa.
APPEARANCE
Interestingly we often see photos of boa from this area that are taken in modern time by travelers or natives to the area. Those boa may or may not look like the boa in culture. Considering that there is no real mode of isolation for boa that inhabit the area this contradiction should be no surprise. Most mainland boa populations lacking an environmental influence that forces a population of boa to become isolated are highly variable. It will come as no surprise to those whom have been keeping up with locality boa for a decade or more that even the original boa who founded this bloodline where in some case very light and colorful, almost looking hypomelanistic. However this is not a gene mutation. Selectively breeding those hypo looking boa has not yielded the expected result. It seems quite random that these lighter and more colorful boa occur. Some will fill in with wonderful darker tones as they grow while some remain very colorful with pale saddle markings. These are very colorful Mexico boa regardless, possessing a lighter grey to brown tone in the saddles and speckling. Underneath that are layers of peach, orange, pink and red that also exist on other Mexico Boa whom happen to have a very dark black saddle and speckling.
The pictures below are of adult boa. There are more photos of these boa on my Facebook page www.facebook.com/tcreptile. These are pure Rio Bravo bloodline boa.