World's smallest snake rediscovered 20 years since last sighting
The Barbados threadsnake, which measures 3-4 inches long, was "lost" to science for about 20 years, as researchers had not made a verified sighting of the reptile since 2006. But during an ecological survey in March, the snake was found in central Barbados, carefully tucked under a rainforest rock.
"I was making a joke and in my head I said, 'I smell a threadsnake,'" Justin Springer, a program officer at the biodiversity nonprofit Re:wild, said in a news release about the finding. "I just had a feeling, but I couldn't be sure because we turned over a lot of rocks before that and we saw nothing."
During the survey, conducted by Re:wild and the Barbados Ministry of the Environment and National Beautification, Connor Blades, a project officer for the ministry, flipped over a rock that was trapped under a tree. To much surprise, under the rock was an earthworm and a tiny snake, according to the news release.
Blades took the snake back to the University of the West Indies to examine it, where he discovered that the reptile was a Barbados threadsnake. He then returned the snake to the forest.
The Barbados Ministry of the Environment and National Beautification had been searching for the threadsnake, and several other native reptiles, for more than a year as part of a project focused on conserving local reptiles, Blades told USA TODAY.
The threadsnake happened to be part of a "double discovery" for the team that day, he said. In addition to searching for the threadsnake, the team was looking for a jack-in-the-box tree, a broadleaf evergreen known for growing in one single location on Barbados, Blades added. The team discovered the tree shortly before the threadsnake.
An effort to rediscover 'lost' species
The Barbados threadsnake had previously been included in Re:wild's Search for Lost Species, a list of more than 4,300 plants, animals and fungi that have not been officially sighted or documented in at least 10 years.
Since launching the program in 2017, Re:wild, in conjunction with other wildlife organizations, has rediscovered at least 15 species, including the Omiltemi cottontail rabbit, De Winton's Golden Mole and Wallace's Giant Bee. As of July 24, the list on the Re:wild website did not include the Barbados threadsnake.
Why is the Barbados threadsnake so rare?
Several factors may contribute to the rarity of the Barbados threadsnake. The snake reproduces sexually, and females only lay one egg at a time.
"If they're small and they can't find other treadsnakes because they don't travel very far, then they aren't mating and they're not replacing themselves in populations and the population is dwindling," Blades said.
Additionally, threadsnakes' natural habitat is under attack, with 98% of Barbados' primary forest having been cleared for agriculture, specifically sugar cane, over hundreds of years since colonization, according to Re:wild.
When asked why he returned the threadsnake to the forest after examination, Blades said there wasn't a need to keep it, as threadsnakes must be killed to determine their sex and age.
"I didn't want to take the easy way to just kill it and not have to go back. I mean, it's the only one that we've seen in 20 years. I felt uneasy preserving it, to be honest."
Blair Hedges was the last one to officially spot a Barbados threadsnake, back in 2006. In total, only a handful of sightings have been confirmed, dating back to 1889, according to the news release.
What's next?
Scientists still know very little about the Barbados threadsnake, Blades said, but now that there's knowledge they are still around, scientists can enact more holistic conservation efforts to consider them.
"I think the discovery is just the tip of the iceberg," Springer told USA TODAY. "It's kind of a renewed hope that exists and now we can continue to search for it."
Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at gcross@usatoday.com.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Lost' for 20 years, world's smallest snake rediscovered in Barbados
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Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
World's smallest snake rediscovered 20 years since last sighting
The world's smallest snake has reemerged from hiding after nearly two decades. The Barbados threadsnake, which measures 3-4 inches long, was "lost" to science for about 20 years, as researchers had not made a verified sighting of the reptile since 2006. But during an ecological survey in March, the snake was found in central Barbados, carefully tucked under a rainforest rock. "I was making a joke and in my head I said, 'I smell a threadsnake,'" Justin Springer, a program officer at the biodiversity nonprofit Re:wild, said in a news release about the finding. "I just had a feeling, but I couldn't be sure because we turned over a lot of rocks before that and we saw nothing." During the survey, conducted by Re:wild and the Barbados Ministry of the Environment and National Beautification, Connor Blades, a project officer for the ministry, flipped over a rock that was trapped under a tree. To much surprise, under the rock was an earthworm and a tiny snake, according to the news release. Blades took the snake back to the University of the West Indies to examine it, where he discovered that the reptile was a Barbados threadsnake. He then returned the snake to the forest. The Barbados Ministry of the Environment and National Beautification had been searching for the threadsnake, and several other native reptiles, for more than a year as part of a project focused on conserving local reptiles, Blades told USA TODAY. The threadsnake happened to be part of a "double discovery" for the team that day, he said. In addition to searching for the threadsnake, the team was looking for a jack-in-the-box tree, a broadleaf evergreen known for growing in one single location on Barbados, Blades added. The team discovered the tree shortly before the threadsnake. An effort to rediscover 'lost' species The Barbados threadsnake had previously been included in Re:wild's Search for Lost Species, a list of more than 4,300 plants, animals and fungi that have not been officially sighted or documented in at least 10 years. Since launching the program in 2017, Re:wild, in conjunction with other wildlife organizations, has rediscovered at least 15 species, including the Omiltemi cottontail rabbit, De Winton's Golden Mole and Wallace's Giant Bee. As of July 24, the list on the Re:wild website did not include the Barbados threadsnake. Why is the Barbados threadsnake so rare? Several factors may contribute to the rarity of the Barbados threadsnake. The snake reproduces sexually, and females only lay one egg at a time. "If they're small and they can't find other treadsnakes because they don't travel very far, then they aren't mating and they're not replacing themselves in populations and the population is dwindling," Blades said. Additionally, threadsnakes' natural habitat is under attack, with 98% of Barbados' primary forest having been cleared for agriculture, specifically sugar cane, over hundreds of years since colonization, according to Re:wild. When asked why he returned the threadsnake to the forest after examination, Blades said there wasn't a need to keep it, as threadsnakes must be killed to determine their sex and age. "I didn't want to take the easy way to just kill it and not have to go back. I mean, it's the only one that we've seen in 20 years. I felt uneasy preserving it, to be honest." Blair Hedges was the last one to officially spot a Barbados threadsnake, back in 2006. In total, only a handful of sightings have been confirmed, dating back to 1889, according to the news release. What's next? Scientists still know very little about the Barbados threadsnake, Blades said, but now that there's knowledge they are still around, scientists can enact more holistic conservation efforts to consider them. "I think the discovery is just the tip of the iceberg," Springer told USA TODAY. "It's kind of a renewed hope that exists and now we can continue to search for it." Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at gcross@ This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 'Lost' for 20 years, world's smallest snake rediscovered in Barbados
USA Today
4 days ago
- USA Today
World's smallest snake rediscovered 20 years since last sighting
"I think the discovery is just the tip of the iceberg," Justin Springer, Re:wild Caribbean program officer, said. "It's kind of a renewed hope that exists and now we can continue to search for it." The world's smallest snake has reemerged from hiding after nearly two decades. The Barbados threadsnake, which measures 3-4 inches long, was "lost" to science for about 20 years, as researchers had not made a verified sighting of the reptile since 2006. But during an ecological survey in March, the snake was found in central Barbados, carefully tucked under a rainforest rock. "I was making a joke and in my head I said, 'I smell a threadsnake,'" Justin Springer, a program officer at the biodiversity nonprofit Re:wild, said in a news release about the finding. "I just had a feeling, but I couldn't be sure because we turned over a lot of rocks before that and we saw nothing." During the survey, conducted by Re:wild and the Barbados Ministry of the Environment and National Beautification, Connor Blades, a project officer for the ministry, flipped over a rock that was trapped under a tree. To much surprise, under the rock was an earthworm and a tiny snake, according to the news release. Blades took the snake back to the University of the West Indies to examine it, where he discovered that the reptile was a Barbados threadsnake. He then returned the snake to the forest. The Barbados Ministry of the Environment and National Beautification had been searching for the threadsnake, and several other native reptiles, for more than a year as part of a project focused on conserving local reptiles, Blades told USA TODAY. The threadsnake happened to be part of a "double discovery" for the team that day, he said. In addition to searching for the threadsnake, the team was looking for a jack-in-the-box tree, a broadleaf evergreen known for growing in one single location on Barbados, Blades added. The team discovered the tree shortly before the threadsnake. An effort to rediscover 'lost' species The Barbados threadsnake had previously been included in Re:wild's Search for Lost Species, a list of more than 4,300 plants, animals and fungi that have not been officially sighted or documented in at least 10 years. Since launching the program in 2017, Re:wild, in conjunction with other wildlife organizations, has rediscovered at least 15 species, including the Omiltemi cottontail rabbit, De Winton's Golden Mole and Wallace's Giant Bee. As of July 24, the list on the Re:wild website did not include the Barbados threadsnake. Why is the Barbados threadsnake so rare? Several factors may contribute to the rarity of the Barbados threadsnake. The snake reproduces sexually, and females only lay one egg at a time. "If they're small and they can't find other treadsnakes because they don't travel very far, then they aren't mating and they're not replacing themselves in populations and the population is dwindling," Blades said. Additionally, threadsnakes' natural habitat is under attack, with 98% of Barbados' primary forest having been cleared for agriculture, specifically sugar cane, over hundreds of years since colonization, according to Re:wild. When asked why he returned the threadsnake to the forest after examination, Blades said there wasn't a need to keep it, as threadsnakes must be killed to determine their sex and age. "I didn't want to take the easy way to just kill it and not have to go back. I mean, it's the only one that we've seen in 20 years. I felt uneasy preserving it, to be honest." Blair Hedges was the last one to officially spot a Barbados threadsnake, back in 2006. In total, only a handful of sightings have been confirmed, dating back to 1889, according to the news release. What's next? Scientists still know very little about the Barbados threadsnake, Blades said, but now that there's knowledge they are still around, scientists can enact more holistic conservation efforts to consider them. "I think the discovery is just the tip of the iceberg," Springer told USA TODAY. "It's kind of a renewed hope that exists and now we can continue to search for it." Greta Cross is a national trending reporter at USA TODAY. Story idea? Email her at gcross@
Boston Globe
5 days ago
- Boston Globe
Scientists in Barbados rediscover world's smallest-known snake
'After a year of searching, you begin to get a little pessimistic,' said Blades, project officer with the Ministry of Environment in Barbados. The snake can fit comfortably on a coin, allowing it to elude scientists for almost 20 years. Too tiny to identify with the naked eye, Blades placed it in a small glass jar and added soil, substrate, and leaf litter. Several hours later, in front of a microscope at the University of the West Indies, Blades looked at the specimen. It wriggled in the petri dish, making it nearly impossible to identify. Advertisement 'It was a struggle,' Blades recalled, adding that he shot a video of the snake and finally identified it thanks to a still image. It had pale yellow dorsal lines running through its body, and its eyes were located on the side of its head. 'I tried to keep a level head,' Blades recalled, knowing that the Barbados threadsnake looks very much like a Brahminy blind snake, best known as the flower pot snake, which is a bit longer and has no dorsal lines. On Wednesday, the Re:wild conservation group, which is collaborating with the local environment ministry, announced the rediscovery of the Barbados threadsnake. 'Rediscovering one of our endemics on many levels is significant,' said Justin Springer, Caribbean program officer for Re:wild, who helped rediscover the snake along with Blades. 'It reminds us that we still have something important left that plays an important role in our ecosystem.' Advertisement The Barbados threadsnake has only been seen a handful of times since 1889. It was on a list of 4,800 plant, animal, and fungi species that Re:wild described as 'lost to science.' The snake is blind, burrows in the ground, eats termites and ants, and lays one single, slender egg. Fully grown, it measures up to four inches or 10 centimeters. 'They're very cryptic,' Blades said. 'You can do a survey for a number of hours, and even if they are there, you may actually not see them.' But on March 20 at around 10:30 a.m., Blades and Springer surrounded a jack-in-the-box tree in central Barbados and started looking under rocks while the rest of the team began measuring the tree, whose distribution is very limited in Barbados. 'That's why the story is so exciting,' Springer said. 'It all happened around the same time.' S. Blair Hedges, a professor at Temple University and director of its center for biology, was the first to identify the Barbados threadsnake. Previously, it was mistakenly lumped in with another species. In 2008, Hedges' discovery was published in a scientific journal, with the snake baptized Tetracheilostoma carlae, in honor of his wife. 'I spent days searching for them,' Hedges recalled. 'Based on my observations and the hundreds of rocks, objects that I turned over looking for this thing without success, I do think it is a rare species.' That was June 2006, and there were only three other such specimens known at the time: two at a London museum and a third at a museum collection in California that was wrongly identified as being from Antigua instead of Barbados, Hedges said. Advertisement Hedges said that he didn't realize he had collected a new species until he did a genetic analysis. 'The aha moment was in the laboratory,' he said, noting that the discovery established the Barbados threadsnake as the world's smallest-known snake. Hedges then became inundated for years with letters, photographs, and emails from people thinking they had found more Barbados threadsnakes. Some of the pictures were of earthworms, he recalled. 'It was literally years of distraction,' he said. Scientists hope the rediscovery means that the Barbados threadsnake could become a champion for the protection of wildlife habitat. A lot of endemic species on the tiny island have gone extinct, including the Barbados racer, the Barbados skink, and a particular species of cave shrimp. 'I hope they can get some interest in protecting it,' Hedges said. 'Barbados is kind of unique in the Caribbean for a bad reason: it has the least amount of original forest, outside of Haiti.'
