14 Rare Fascinating Serpents

Snakes are one of those controversial creatures that are looked at differently depending on how you feel about them. Lovers can keep them as pets and for the owner the serpent can become a close friend and companion. Others would be terrified of being anywhere near the spawns of hell and would never dream of owning one. These, a group that are on the brink of extinction are well worth an in depth glance.

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6. Cropan’s (cropins) Boa
This boa constrictor, considered the rarest of it's kind in the world, made headlines recently when a five and a half foot long female was found in the Atlantic Forest outside of Sao Paulo in late January. Finding a snake usually isn’t that big of a deal, but as this was the first live specimen collected since 1953 you’ll understand that the discovery was a very big deal. Scientists may have also found a reason why they are so rarely seen by locals in the area, when they released it onto a tree, it made it's way quickly and smoothly up towards the top. On the rare occasion humans do encounter one, they usually get scared and kill them.

5. Sand (Ramsay’s) Python
Once abundant throughout the region of the world we call Western Australia, the sand python has become endangered, and in some regions critically endangered. They grow to be around four and a half feet long and have smooth dorsal scales. It’s natural habitat is being destroyed at an alarming rate, leading to it's current status. But the bright side is that they will breed in captivity. For humans they are very easy to handle, making them highly sought after in the exotic pet trade.

4. Wagner’s Viper
After years of misidentification or people assuming it was extinct Wagner’s viper, named after a German naturalist in the mid 1800’s, was rediscovered on a road in eastern Turkey in 1986. Collectors rushed to the Colchis (kol-kis) region and scooped up large numbers of the once thought to be extinct, beautiful snake, seriously endangering their population. So, in an effort to revitalize their numbers, the Saint Louis Zoo organized a cooperative breeding program that yielded nine newborns in August of 2013.

3. Madagascar Blind Snake
Ten inches long and about the width of a pencil a Madagascar blind snake was discovered in 2005 in, no surprise here, Madagascar. Seeing one at all however was shocking as it was the first time one had been seen in the wild since 1905 over a century ago! They are so rarely seen because of where they live, underground. They usually dig themselves underneath a layer of rocks or sand. Though they’re blind they can perceive and avoid light. They are the only snakes in the world that subsist strictly on insects. They prefer ants and termites along with their eggs and pupae (pyoo pah).

2. Conception Bank Silver Boa
As National Geographic reported in May of 2016, biologists discovered this striking snake climbing up a tree on Conception, an uninhabited island in the southern Bahamas. As it moved upwards they noted that it shined like metal in the sunlight, a truly spectacular site. They would discover a total of six throughout that same night, one of which was happened upon by a sleeping scientist as it crawled across his face, and DNA analyses told them that what they had found was a previously undocumented species. It's name was pretty easy to come up with based on it's color and, coincidentally that tree it was climbing is called a silver palm tree.

1. St. Lucia (loo-shuh) Racer Snake
The St. Lucia Racer made some dubious headlines in 2012 when it was revealed that it was the world’s single rarest snake. After an assessment that lasted five months scientists were able to determine that as few as 18 individuals remained anywhere on the planet. They all inhabit St. Lucia, an independent island nation in the West Indies. The snake shares the island with three other species, each like the racer named after the island, the boa, the thread snake and the fer de Lance. The thread snake looks like a worm, and is one of the smallest snakes in the world. The most recent news in regards to the racer snake that we could find is encouraging. An article written for stlucianewsonline.com from earlier this year states that a juvenile was recently spotted.

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