Bolyeria multocarinata (Round Island Burrowing Boa)

[sebbe67]

Bolyeria multocarinata

Bolyeria multocarinata was formerly restricted to Round Island, a 151 ha volcanic islet approximately 0.25 ha NNE of Mauritius. It was last recorded in 1975.

This fossorial Boa was found in the palm groves of mid-altitude top-soil layers on volcanic slopes.

The introduction of rabbits and goats to the island in 1840 resulted in damage to the vegetation, consequently causing soil erosion on the volcanic slopes and deterioration of palm forest habitat. This decline in habitat quality is thought to have been the main reason for the extinction of the Round Island Burrowing Boa.

[another specialist]

web.archive.org/web/20040316031532/http://research.amnh.org/biodiversity/crisis/extincspec.html

[sebbe67]

An intensive search on the island in 1974 only manage to locate a single specimen.

[another specialist]

On the other hand, there is a small boa-like snake on Round Island that also lays eggs, but is commonly called the Round Island boa, even though it is not a boa nor a python (Kluge, 1991). So it appears that it is completely subjective in how names are applied.

www.kingsnake.com/rrreptiles/groundboas/ground_boas_007.htm

[another specialist]

with one species down to one individual. In 1975 the last sighting of the Burrowing Boa was made.

www.mauritian-wildlife.org/round.htm

[sebbe67]

www.freepler.de/cgi-bin/hpm_homepage.cgi?user=swift1

[another specialist]

FAMILY BOLYERIDAE (Round Island Boas): 2 species of highly endangered snakes, Bolyeria multocarinata and Casarea dussumeiri found only on Round Island (near Mauritius) in the Indian Ocean. No vestigial pelvis or hind limbs and their left lung is much smaller than in primitive boas. Bolyeria may already be extinct, and is believed to be a burrower. Casarea specialises in eating skinks.

www.szgdocent.org/resource/rr/c-boa.htm

So both species are very unique - evolving into something new and different to other Boas

[RSN]

Species:
Bolyeria multocarinata

Synonyms:
Eryx multocarinata BOIE 1827: 513
Tortrix pseudoeryx SCHLEGEL 1837: 19
Platygaster multicarinatus DUMêRIL & BIBRON 1844: 497 (emendation)
Bolyeria multicarinata - GRAY 1849: 106
Bolieria multicarinata - BOULENGER 1893: 122
Bolyeria multocarinata - STIMSON 1969: 4
Bolyeria multocarinata - MCDIARMID, CAMPBELL & TOURê 1999: 213

Common name:
E: Round Island Burrowing Boa
G: Mauritius-Boa

Subspecies:
Family:
Bolyeridae, Henophidia, Serpentes (snakes)

Distribution:
Round Island (off the coast of Mauritius)

Terra typica: "Port Jackson"

Comment:
May be extinct now (fide Glaw, pers. comm.)

Holotype: MHNP 7185

info: research.amnh.org/biodiversity/crisis/extincspec.html

References:
Bauer, A. M. and R. GÅnther 2004
On a newly identified specimen of the extinct bolyeriid snake Bolyeria multocarinata (Boie, 1827).
Herpetozoa 17 (3/4):179-181

Boie, F. 1827
Bemerkungen Åber Merrem's Versuch eines Systems der Amphibien, 1. Lieferung: Ophidier.
Isis van Oken, Jena, 20: 508-566.

Boulenger, G.A. 1893
Catalogue of the snakes in the British Museum (Nat. Hist.) I.
London (Taylor & Francis), 448 pp.

DumÇril, A. M. C. and G. Bibron. 1844
Erpetologie GÇnÇrale ou Histoire Naturelle Complete des Reptiles. Vol.6.
Libr. EncyclopÇdique Roret, Paris.

Goin,C.J., Goin,O.B. & Zug,G.R. 1978
Introduction to Herpetology, 3rd ed.
W.H. Freeman & Co., San Francisco

Gray, J. E. 1849
Catalogue of the specimens of snakes in the collection of the British Museum.
London, i-xv; 1-125.

McDiarmid,R.W.; Campbell,J.A. & TourÇ,T.A. 1999
Snake species of the world. Vol. 1.
Herpetologists' League, 511 pp.

Schlegel, H. 1837
Essai sur la physionomie des serpens. Partie GÇnÇrale: xxviii +251 S. + Partie Descriptive: 606 S. + xvi.
La Haye (J. Kips, J. HZ. et W. P. van Stockum)

//

Source:
srs.embl-heidelberg.de:8000/srs5bin/cgi-bin/wgetz?-e+[REPTILIA-Species:'Bolyeria_SP_multocarinata']

[another specialist]

[another specialist]

[another specialist]

Bauer, A. M. and R. GÅnther 2004
On a newly identified specimen of the extinct bolyeriid snake Bolyeria multocarinata (Boie, 1827).
Herpetozoa 17 (3/4):179-181

[another specialist]

www.volny.cz/richardhorcic/clanky/Blboun/nejenom%20blboun.htm

[sebbe67]

Evidence for oviparity in the extinct bolyeriid snake Bolyeria multocarinata

www.zsm.mwn.de/her/pdf/Hallermann_and_Glaw_2006_Bolyeria_oviparity.pdf

And a new specimen found in a Museum collection.

[another specialist]

Apr 16, 2009 9:18:56 GMT @sebbe67 said:

Evidence for oviparity in the extinct bolyeriid snake Bolyeria multocarinata

www.zsm.mwn.de/her/pdf/Hallermann_and_Glaw_2006_Bolyeria_oviparity.pdf

And a new specimen found in a Museum collection.

[surroundx]

Korsos, Zoltan and Trocsanyi, Balazs. (2006). The enigmatic Round Island boa (Bolyeria multicarinata): survival in the wild remains unconfirmed. African Herp News 40: 2-7.

Available online:

www.freeweb.hu/zkorsos/PDF/116_Afr%20Herp%20News.pdf

[Peter]

The date of the last sighting is somewhat confusing....

From: "Bullock, D.J. (1986). The Ecology and Conservation of Reptiles on Round Island and Gunner's Quoin, Mauritius. Biological Conservation 37:135-156.":

B. multocarinata has been recorded only four times in the last fifty years. The last sighting was in 1975 (Bullock, 1977).
---
Bullock, D. (1977). Round Island: A tale of destruction. Oryx, 15, 51-8.

From "Korsós, Zoltán and Trócsányi, Balázs. (2006). The enigmatic Round Island boa (Bolyeria multicarinata): survival in the wild remains unconfirmed. African Herp News 40: 2-7.":

Altogether four reliable sightings were reported during the 20th century. These date from 1937, 1953, 1963 and 1974, and describe a mediumsized (ca. 80 cm) snake with a shovel-shaped head and hence possibly with burrowing habit. The last live specimen was encountered in 1974 during the Edinburgh Expedition to Round Island, on the rocky surface of the western slope (Bullock & North 1975).
---
Bullock, D. & North, S. 1975: Report of the Edinburgh University Expedition to. Round Island Mauritius, July and August I975. Unpublished report, University of Edinburgh, 82 pp.

from "Cheke, A, and Hume, J, (2008). Lost Land of the Dodo: An ecological history of Mauritius, Réunion and Rodrigues. T & A D Poyser, London.":

Bolyeria multocarinata was last seen and photographed in 1975 and is now almost certainly extinct.

I think 1975 is the right date, as the date 1974 in Korsós & Trócsányi (2006) is based on Bullock & North (1975): Report of the Edinburgh University Expedition to. Round Island Mauritius, July and August I975.

[koeiyabe]

"Lost Animals (in Japanese)" by WWF Japan (1996)

[Sebbe]

Here is a video with David Bullock and Steve North describing how they encountered what may have been one of the last Round Island burrowing boas. They also show a few photographs taken of this individual found in August 1975, which I find very interesting as I didn't knew that photographs of this individual even existed.

www.facebook.com/DurrellWildlife/videos/1593929254756618

[Melanie]

Sept 28, 2024 7:50:29 GMT Sebbe said:

Here is a video with David Bullock and Steve North describing how they encountered what may have been one of the last Round Island burrowing boas. They also show some of pictures taken of this individual found in August 1975, which I found very interesting as I didn't even knew that pictures of this individual existed.

www.facebook.com/DurrellWildlife/videos/1593929254756618

Great to see this video I didn't know too that there are photos of living specimens.

[redpinnipedgamer]

This photo also exists but was cropped and the origional website is partially lost so it's now lost media.

/photo/1

snakesarelong.blogspot.com/2012/04/round-island-splitjaw-snakes.html