Green snake

Snake

I'm guessing that this unidentified snake was looking for a place to hide from me. Unfortunately for the snake, the hole wasn't big enough to get out of sight. When I left two hours later, it was still in the same position.

Visitor

This beautiful creature stopped by to see me this afternoon.

Frog x Snake x Me

A strange noise coming from the woods next to my office at the Arboretum; the dog that hangs out there was whimpering and showed reluctance to get any closer to the source of the disturbance. "Sounds like a cat in distress", I thought to myself. After hearing the sounds for a few minutes, I decided to have a closer look. To my surprise, I discovered a "papo-ovo" snake latched on to a rather large frog. The attack may have been going on for some time because the frog's right hind leg was swollen up and the anus of the frog bloody. Click on the images for enlargements. I decided to come to the frog's rescue by nudging it gently with my boot. It immediately released the frog and went for me. Third image. The frog remained put for a few seconds and then quickly jumped away to disappear into the woods nearby. I was impressed how fast the snake ran after it. It had no intention of losing lunch. I would like to think that the frog escaped, but I think it was much to crippled to to do so. The situation wasn't really any of my business, but I felt sorry for the frog.

Flora

Fruit from unidentified tree in the forest.

Holes, continued

These holes have been around for a long time. My guess is that armadillos were the original dwellers. I can also imagine that they are in the high rent district at Bosque Santa Lucia. Some day I'll stick around for awhile to see what comes out.

Boa constrictor

The baby boa constrictor in the image took me by surprise this morning. It was right in the middle of the dirt road that runs through Bosque Santa Lucia; and I almost stepped on it. I was looking for some mystery survey markers on one side of the road, thus the distraction. After the initial scare, I got the impression that the snake was dead because I didn't see its head. That turned out to be the case. "A good snake is a dead snake" is the local mentality here. I assume someone killed it intentionally, or ran over it. Well ...

Tropical Savanna, continued

Yes, anacondas still exist in the waters of the Tapajós and Amazon Rivers. Does the cobra grande exist? Well, I suspect that there are still some big ones around, but the most beautiful one I've ever seen was at the Escola Floresta, the environmental education center to which I've referred. It's 5-6 meters long, carved from one piece of jacarandá of Pará wood (Dalbergia spruceana). I found the head of the creature to be exquisitely done, as seen in the image.

Wild is wild, part 3

In the same article ( O Impacto) about a black-caiman eating a fisherman, Gerciene Belo writes about two large anaconda snakes found in our city of Santarém. The one shown in the newspaper article above was found in the Maracanã area by local dwellers. It measured 5 meters in length. Another one was at the Banco do Brasil Recreation Center closer to downtown. When I saw the picture above, I thought to myself that the snake was certainly not well fed. Gerciene went on to say in his article that local biologists point to the devastation of the native habitat of these animals as the cause for their invasion of urban areas. They're looking for something called food.