Once seen, our attention immediately turned from birds to snakes.
We looked long and hard for this little Trope, Tropidophis maculatus, and when they were found is was entirely by accident. Accident or not, we were elated. Our tour leader, Dr. Luis Diaz, had taken us to a Conservation Area where he and we were welcomed by the caretaker. We were looking in particular for Cuban Grassfinches, and we were delighted to see two small flocks along a grassy, palm shaded, roadway.

Of course, lying beneath each palm were fair numbers of dead fronds that we simply could not walk by without turning. Smart move, that. Because beneath the fallen fronds were numbers of broken cinderblocks and many turnable,flat rocks and chunks of concrete.Together these all held a bit of moisture on the reddish earth, so several rocks were carefully turned and just as carefully replaced. Soon someone said “snake!”

So, within moments of arriving we had in hand one of our several target species, the Spotted Red Trope (old name, Dwarf Boa) that had found suitable temperatures and moisture beneath the debris. And we truly had lucked out, because under the fronds and beneath other rocks, we found several additional examples.

This is one of the smaller trope species,being fully adult at 12 to 15 inches in length. Most found by us were in the 8-10 inch range indicating this to be a good breeding site.

Great memories to share, of a species seldom seen except in its homeland.