One estimate suggested that the cost of migrating to their nesting sites represented half the reproductive effort of female Galápagos land iguanas. They choose protected lava reefs for this purpose, which are in short supply on most islands. Marine Iguanas have to dig nests and lay their eggs in soft sand, away from the rocky, tidal foraging grounds of the adults. Depending on which sources you consult, there are between 4 and 7 species of Pseudalsophis in the Galápagos, as well as one in mainland South America.įates of rock iguana hatchlings, over half of which wereĮaten by Cubophis and Epicrates snake predators in theirįirst month of life. Galápagos Racers belong to the genus Pseudalsophis.
Although these snakes are called "racers", they're not closely related to North American racers (genus Coluber) it's been about 45 million years since these two snakes last shared a common ancestor. Throughout the clip, Attenborough calls them "racer snakes" 1, but herpetologists would normally call the snakes on the screen Galápagos Racers.
Fernandina island racer snakes free#
If you have one that isn't listed, feel free to ask it in the comments! And, if you want to know more about the process I used to dig up some of this information, check out my tutorial for teaching oneself about obscure snakes. For a few days after it aired, the Internet was buzzing with these questions, and I've cataloged the answers to some of the most popular ones below.
In addition to being a highly dramatic cinematographic masterpiece, it raises a number of interesting questions about the biology of the snakes in the clip. If you haven't seen the incredible footage of the "iguana chase scene" from the BBC's Planet Earth II Islands episode, I encourage you to watch it right away. On Fernandina Island, from the BBC's Planet Earth II footage Galápagos Racers ( Pseudalsophis occidentalis)
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