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Neotropical Sunbeam Snake: Loxocemidae

Diet

This snake will eat small mammals and adult and young lizards, including whip-tailed lizards. It also eats the eggs of black and green iguanas and olive Ridley seaturtles. The snake apparently crawls into the lizard and turtle nests, wraps its body around the eggs, then moves in with its head to swallow them whole. In captivity, the snakes will sometimes bite into the eggs, but then swallow the entire egg. A snake may eat several eggs, sometimes more than two dozen, at one time.

WHAT IS CITES?

CITES is the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora. Governments from all over the world volunteer to participate in CITES to control the buying and selling, called trade, of plants and animals from one country to the next. This is especially important for species that are threatened with extinction or otherwise in danger, because such collecting could possibly wipe out an entire species. CITES protects these plants and animals by listing each species under one of three sets of rules that control or ban almost all trade of animals. Currently, CITES protects about five thousand species of animals, including the neotropical sunbeam snake, and twenty-eight thousand species of plants.

Additional topics

Animal Life ResourceDinosaurs, Snakes, and Other ReptilesNeotropical Sunbeam Snake: Loxocemidae - Physical Characteristics, Diet, Behavior And Reproduction - GEOGRAPHIC RANGE, HABITAT, NEOTROPICAL SUNBEAM SNAKES AND PEOPLE, CONSERVATION STATUS