ˆ Researchers Response To The Media Coverage, and Response Of People of Barbados That This Was Not a New Species of Snake. From ˆ Blair Hedges, State College, Pennsylvania.
8/29/08. Published in local papers of Barbados
My Research on the Barbados Threadsnake was discussed in an article by Bryan Walker on August 8.
I understand the reaction of Barbadians to the news reports, when the snake was known already on the island. But this is true of almost any new species of reptile ˆ they are known by local residents.
The news reports were not clear, and caused much of this confusion. The thing that was discovered was not the presence of the snake on Barbados, but that it is an endemic species known nowhere else ˆ this was new. The research article can be obtained freely at:
Zootaxa
Before, that snake was considered the same species as the one on Martinique and St Lucia, and therefore not so special. The discovery was made by sequencing its DNA and by studying it carefully in a laboratory.
News reports failed to mention that I named the snake the "Barbados Threadsnake" in my scientific article. The scientific name ˆ which people rarely use ˆ was dedicated to my wife who helped with the research. This is a normal practice in the field of science called taxonomy, to dedicate a scientific name after someone.
What about the size? Wasn't it already the smallest? Because the species was confused, scientifically, the size was also confused. As it turns out, perhaps by chance, the new species defined on Barbados is even smaller than the one it was confused with previously, on Martinique.
Now, Barbados has a unique species, the Barbados Threadsnake, and one that is quite special because it is the smallest, unless someone finds a large specimen of it, or a smaller species elsewhere. It should be studied and protected.
In THE NATION article, Damon Corrie is quoted as saying that he showed me where to find the Threadsnake. That is not exactly true. He accompanied us on one day but there were no snakes at his places. The snakes came from a place that I found in the old literature, although he was present when one was collected and we enjoyed his company.
Finally, I must point out that there is a second very small snake on Barbados that is easy to confuse with the real Barbados Threadsnake. It is called the Flowerpot Blindsnake and is thin and black; it was introduced from Indonesia and is common in gardens and around houses (Bridgetown, and so on).
Most sightings of the "threadsnake" are probably of this different species.
Sun 7 Sep - 14:47
