A profile of a South Florida boa constrictor.
Boa constrictors? In Florida? Don’t you mean pythons?

Ummmm. No. Believe me, I am well able to separate boas from pythons—even without a field guide in hand.

Unlike the pythons that continually, though inadvertently, grab the headlines, the boas are a quiet snake that has survived in a small section of Miami for close to 60 years. They are so retiring that even in the 1960s when I was avidly searching for them I was able to find only one. They are an easily handled and easily kept snake that has always been a hobbyist favorite. As hobbyists are wont to do, over time, decades actually, and many failed attempts, a number of color morphs have finally been developed and stabilized. Just a few of the 25+ variations now available from herpetoculturists are blood, albino, Arabesque, hypomelanistic, leopard, jungle, and sunglow phases.

The boas in the population being discussed here are of normal color and are the result of animal trade escapees from back as far as the 1950s. More than one subspecies was involved, which fact results today in pretty snakes of muddled subspecific appearance.

Today, after being basically ignored for many years the FWC has decided they should be eradicated and has asked that all found be humanely killed.

The boas are beautiful snakes that are patterned in tans and red with a little black and a little white mixed in. They are adult at 6 to 10 feet in length but are usually closer to the lower figure in that size estimate than the upper.