Corallus cookii

Corallus cookii
Cook's Tree Boa
Conservation status
Near Threatened  (IUCN 3.1) [1]
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Reptilia
Order:	Squamata
Suborder:	Serpentes
Family:	Boidae
Genus:	Corallus
Species:	C. cookii
Binomial name
Corallus cookii Gray, 1842
Synonyms [2]
Corallus Cookii Gray, 1842 Corallus hortulanus Melanea Gray, 1849 Corallus cookii — Boulenger, 1893 Boa cooki — Ihering, 1911 Boa cooki — Griffin, 1916 Boa enydris cookii — Stull, 1935 Boa cookii — Stull, 1935 Corallus enydris cookii — Forcart, 1951 Corallus hortulanus cookii — Roze, 1966 Corallus hortulanus cooki — Stafford & Henderson, 1996 Corallus cooki — Henderson, 1997

Corallus cookii, also known as Cook's tree boa ^[3] , Cooke's tree boa ^[4] or ,Saint Vincent Treeboa ^[5] , is a species of nonvenomous snake in the family Boidae. The species is endemic to the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean. There are no recognized subspecies. ^[3]

Etymology

The specific name, cookii, is in honor of English artist and naturalist Edward William Cooke. ^[4]

Description

C. cookii is similar to C. hortulana and C. grenadensis , only smaller, with adults reaching a total length (including tail) of 5 feet (152 cm), and being mainly gray or brown in color. ^[6] Not more than a few specimens exist in captivity. ^[6] The taxonomy of the Corallus hortulanaus complex has undergone a number of revisions. The main morphological differences between C. cookii and C. hortulana are coloration and scale count. "Corallus cooki is most easily distinguished from other members of the C. hortulanus complex by its color pattern. It lacks the color variation (pale yellow, orange, red, many shades of brown) found in C. hortulanus and C. grenadensis. Likewise, the main element of the dorsal pattern is relatively constant, and it rarely occurs in populations outside of St. Vincent. The diamond-shape pattern characteristic of C. ruschenbergerii does not occur in this species. Corallus cooki is distinguishable from C. hortulanus by maximum number of dorsal scale rows: invariably less than 50 in C. cooki (39–48; x = 43.9 +/- 0.34) and almost always more than 50 in C. hortulanus (47– 63; x = 55.0 +/- 0.17; specimens with less than 50 occur occasionally in Guyana, Suriname, Bolivia, and Peru)." ^[7]

Reproduction

C. cookii is oviviparous. ^[8]

Geographic range

Endemic to the island of St. Vincent in the Caribbean, C. cookii is known only from a few locations on the island. The type locality given is "West Indies", which was restricted to "St. Vincent" by Henderson (1997). ^[2]

Habitat

The preferred natural habitat of C. cooki is forest, but it is also abundant in urban areas. It is found from sea level to an altitude of 500 m (1,600 ft). ^[1]

References

1. Henderson RW, Powell R (2021). "Corallus cookii ". The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2021: https://dx.doi.org?10.2305/IUCN.UK.2021-2.RLTS.T203209A2762187.en. Accessed on 05 April 2022.
2. McDiarmid RW, Campbell JA, Touré TA (1999). Snake Species of the World: A Taxonomic and Geographic Reference, Volume 1. Washington, District of Columbia: Herpetologists' League. 511 pp. ISBN   1-893777-00-6 (series). ISBN   1-893777-01-4 (volume).
3. "Corallus cookii ". Integrated Taxonomic Information System . Retrieved 14 July 2008.
4. Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. ISBN   978-1-4214-0135-5. (Corallus cookii, p. 58).
5. Rinne, Jooel; Kulkarni, Ritwik; Soriano-Redondo, Andrea; Correia, Ricardo; Di Minin, Enrico (2025). "Using automated content analysis to monitor global online trade in endemic reptile species". Diversity and Distributions. 31 (3) e13771. doi:10.1111/ddi.13771. ISSN   1472-4642.
6. Stafford PJ, Henderson RW (1996). Kaleidoscopic Tree Boas: The Genus Corallus of Tropical America. Malabar, Florida: Krieger Publishing Company. 120 pp. ISBN   0-89464-975-2.
7. "Corallus cookii". The Reptile Database. Retrieved 2024-03-29.
8. Species Corallus cookii at The Reptile Database www.reptile-database.org.

Further reading

• Gray JE (1842). "Synopsis of the species of prehensile-tailed Snakes, or family Boidæ". Zoological Miscellany, London2: 41–46. (Corallus cookii, new species, p. 42).
• Henderson RW (1997). "A Taxonomic Review of the Corallus hortulanus Complex of Neotropical Tree Boas". Caribbean Journal of Science33 (3-4): 198–221.
• Schwartz A, Thomas R (1975). A Check-list of West Indian Amphibians and Reptiles. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication No. 1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Carnegie Museum of Natural History. 216 pp. (Corallus enydris cooki, p. 181).