The world's smallest-known snake, unseen for nearly two decades, has been rediscovered in a forest on the island of Barbados.
For nearly 20 years, the world’s smallest-known snake, the elusive Barbados threadsnake, had disappeared from sight. Many scientists began to fear the worst. They worried the tiny species, last formally recorded in 2008, might have gone extinct.
But in March this year, that uncertainty turned into excitement when a sharp-eyed environmental officer made a remarkable discovery under a rock in a small patch of forest in Barbados.Connor Blades, a project officer with the Ministry of Environment in Barbados, had been searching for the snake for over a year. On the morning of March 20, while helping a team survey a rare jack-in-the-box tree in central Barbados, Blades lifted a rock and saw something wriggling. What he saw looked like a small, dark thread with pale yellow lines. It was the rediscovery of Tetracheilostoma carlae, the Barbados threadsnake.So small, it’s easy to missThe Barbados threadsnake is so tiny it can easily rest on a coin. Fully grown, it measures just about four inches long. It is blind, burrows underground, and survives on a diet of ants and termites. It lays only one slender egg at a time. Its small size and secretive behavior make it incredibly hard to find, even for trained researchers.“They’re very cryptic,” Blades explained. “You can do a survey for a number of hours, and even if they are there, you may actually not see them.”After carefully placing the snake into a small glass jar filled with soil, substrate, and leaf litter, Blades took it to the University of the West Indies for examination under a microscope. “It was a struggle,” he said, describing how the snake kept wriggling in the petri dish. Only a still image from a video confirmed what he hoped: he had found the rare species.The snake’s most recognizable features include pale yellow dorsal lines and eyes on the side of its head. Blades noted that it closely resembles the Brahminy blind snake, commonly called the flower pot snake. That species is a bit longer and lacks the yellow lines.A rediscovery that mattersThe rediscovery was officially announced by Re:wild, a conservation group working with Barbados’s Ministry of Environment. Justin Springer, Caribbean program officer for Re:wild, joined Blades in the search that day.“Rediscovering one of our endemics on many levels is significant,” Springer said. “It reminds us that we still have something important left that plays an important role in our ecosystem.”Before this rediscovery, the snake had only been seen a few times since it was first described in 1889. The most recent confirmed sighting was a photo taken in 2005. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the snake as Critically Endangered and noted that it might be genuinely rare and restricted to very specific areas in Barbados. According to the IUCN, if it were simply underreported, it would likely have been spotted more often, especially in such a densely populated island.A rare legacy and a hope for conservationThe man who first identified the Barbados threadsnake as a distinct species is S. Blair Hedges, a professor at Temple University and director of its Center for Biology. In 2006, after turning over hundreds of rocks in search of it, he finally found one. But it wasn’t until he ran genetic tests that he realized it was a completely new species.“The aha moment was in the laboratory,” Hedges said. He published the discovery in 2008 and named the species Tetracheilostoma carlae in honor of his wife. That moment also confirmed it as the smallest-known snake on Earth.Before that, only three specimens were known, two held in a museum in London and one in California, which was incorrectly labeled as being from Antigua. Since his discovery, Hedges said he was flooded with emails, letters, and photos from people who thought they had found the snake. Many were just earthworms. “It was literally years of distraction,” he recalled.Hedges now hopes this rediscovery will help draw attention to the urgent need for conservation in Barbados. The island has lost several endemic species, including the Barbados racer, the Barbados skink, and a cave shrimp species.“I hope they can get some interest in protecting it,” he said. “Barbados is kind of unique in the Caribbean for a bad reason: it has the least amount of original forest, outside of Haiti.”The rediscovery of the Barbados threadsnake offers a rare second chance.
Animals Barbados Biodiversity Conservation Conservation Rare Species Rediscovery Reptiles Snake
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
From a Custom Cigarette Case to a Weeklong Barbados Trip: 3 Drops on the VaultAn ultra-exclusive trip to Barbados and a custom Atlas Bespoke cigarette case are just two of the latest offerings on the Vault this week.
Read more »
Somber Rihanna attends dad Ronald Fenty's Barbados funeral with A$AP Rocky and sonsThe pregnant “Love on the Brain” singer was seen as she arrived at her father’s funeral in her native land on Tuesday.
Read more »
World's smallest known snake rediscovered in Barbados after nearly 20 yearsNo one had spotted the world’s smallest known snake for nearly two decades. Some scientists worried that maybe the Barbados threadsnake had become extinct. But Connor Blades lifted a rock in a tiny forest in Barbados and held his breath one sunny morning.
Read more »
Scientists in Barbados overturn hundreds of rocks to rediscover world's smallest-known snakeNo one had spotted the world’s smallest known snake for nearly two decades.
Read more »
World's smallest-known snake found under rocks in Barbados after nearly 20 yearsSome scientists worried that maybe the Barbados threadsnake had become extinct before it was rediscovered in March.
Read more »
Científicos redescubren la serpiente más pequeña del mundo en BarbadosSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Durante casi dos décadas, nadie había avistado a la serpiente más pequeña del mundo que se conocía.
Read more »