Boa constrictor Linnaeus, 1758

Guedes, Thaís B., Nogueira, Cristiano & Marques, Otavio A. V., 2014, Diversity, natural history, and geographic distribution of snakes in the Caatinga, Northeastern Brazil, Zootaxa 3863 (1), pp. 1-93 : 21

Boa constrictor Linnaeus, 1758 “Cobra-de-veado, Salamanta-boi, Jibóia”

(Figs. 9.2 and 21.4)

It occurs in all portions of the Caatinga, from sea level to 750 m elevation. There are no records from central region of the state of Bahia (e.g. municipalities of Jacobina, Seabra, Mundo Novo, Iramaia, Boninal, and Barra do Mendes) probably due to lack of sampling. It is recorded in many other Brazilian natural regions, such as the Atlantic Forest, Amazon Forest, Cerrado, and Pantanal ( Cunha & Nascimento 1978; Strüssmann & Sazima 1993; Martins & Oliveira 1998; Marques et al. 2001; Argôlo 2004; Marques et al. 2005; Sawaya et al. 2008; Nogueira et al. 2010). It inhabits all habitats within the Caatinga, including typical caatinga, cerrado formations, caatinga on dunes, and forested areas. The wide range in the Caatinga is in accordance with its wide occurrence in most natural regions of Brazil ( Martins & Oliveira 1998; Cechin 1999; Marques et al. 2001; Lema 2002a; Marques et al. 2005; Bérnils et al. 2008; Nogueira et al. 2010, 2011). It has semi-arboreal habits, is nocturnal and diurnal, and feeds on vertebrates ( Marques et al. 2001).