Which medium-sized to giant snake has a barely compressed physique, giant eyes with vertically elliptical pupils, and loves to point out up in my yard? You guessed it, the Central American lyre snake.
The Central American lyre snake (Trimorphodon quadruplex) is called the culebra lira or toboba gata in Spanish. The English title comes from the v-shaped or lyre-shaped markings on the highest of its head. (For these of us not sure of the definition of lyre, I simply appeared it up. It’s u-shaped string instrument.)
Lyre snakes reside within the Pacific northwest area of Costa Rica as a result of they predominantly reside in dry areas. They are nocturnal and may generally be noticed crossing the street in entrance of your automobile at night time. They are tolerant of habitat alteration and haven’t any downside residing round people, generally getting into houses or outbuildings on the lookout for prey.
These snakes have a gentle venom which is run through enlarged rear fangs. They use this venom to subdue smaller prey objects like lizards, small mammals, birds, and bats. For bigger prey objects, like grownup inexperienced iguanas, the venom isn’t sturdy sufficient to do the job, so that they depend on constriction.
Lyre snakes are oviparous which is a flowery method of claiming that they lay eggs. They produce clutches of as much as twenty eggs which they lay through the wet season. The eggs hatch through the dry season, maybe to coincide with a better density of lizards.
Since lyre snakes are one of many extra frequent species of snakes in Guanacaste, I’ve had a number of run ins with them over the years. The first time I heard of a toboba gata was shortly after shifting to the Pacific coast. A pal was raking leaves when she by accident raked a snake onto the highest of her sandaled-foot and acquired a chunk. Though the venom is called weak, and my Costa Rica reptiles e-book says it has ‘no deleterious effect on humans,’ she felt faint and customarily unwell sufficient to require a visit to the native hospital.
More just lately, over a span of a few months, I eliminated 4 or 5 totally different lyre snakes from my yard the place I’d discover them hiding below my children’ toys, gardening instruments, you title it. It turned frequent sufficient that I needed to really take a minute to contemplate the sudden up-tick of mildly venoms snakes within the space the place my children prefer to hangout. It turned out it was my fault. The bubble-thing on a stick which was within the water tank in my yard was damaged.
Without this little gadget that often stopped water from getting into the tank when it was full, the tank was persistently overflowing, creating a continuing puddle. Frogs get pleasure from fixed puddles and lyre snakes get pleasure from frogs. As quickly as I lastly heeded my spouse’s recommendation to repair the tank, the puddles stopped, the frogs left, and the snakes stopped coming.
I’ve but to file a lyre snake on my digicam traps, however I do have a video clip to share. About a 12 months in the past, a safety guard from one of many properties I’ve cameras on handed me a burlap bag with a boa constrictor in it and requested me to launch it off of the property.
I took the bag to a patch of forest removed from individuals and after I dumped it out, the boa turned out to be a lyre snake. I shot a fast video as a result of I assumed it was fairly and now, I’m sharing it with you.
About the Author
Vincent Losasso, founding father of Guanacaste Wildlife Monitoring, is a biologist who works with digicam traps all through Costa Rica. Learn extra about his tasks on fb or instagram. You may also e-mail him at: [email protected]
