Wild and captive observations on the Burrowing Python, Loxocemus bicolor (Loxocemidae)

Abstract

The Burrowing Python, Loxocemus bicolor Cope, 1861, is a secretive snake that occurs primarily in subhumid lowlands and adjacent premontane slopes along the Pacific versant from Nayarit, Mexico, to northwestern Costa Rica, and on the Atlantic versant in interior valleys in Chiapas, Mexico, Guatemala, and Honduras, at elevations from sea level to 979 m (Castro-Franco and Bustos Sagal, 1994; Savage, 2002; Solórzano, 2004; McCranie, 2011; Carbajal-Márquez et al., 2015). The total length (TL) of this snake is known to range from 700 to 1,600 mm (Alvarez del Toro, 1982; Mora and Chaves-Quiroz, 1989; Solórzano, 2004). This species preys primarily on terrestrial vertebrates, including anurans, lizards, snakes (including its own species), and rodents, as well as the eggs of turtles (including sea turtles) and iguanids (see Merchán and Mora, 2001, Savage, 2002, and Solórzano, 2004, and references therein).

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