The Bahamas Boa Chilabothrus s. strigilatus is a species that relatively few private persons keep and, to our knowledge, no zoo worldwide has these fascinating boas on display.  We are more than pleased to announce that a litter of C. strigilatus was  born on October 1st in Germany.

Birth began in the morning hours from 8.30am.  The moon phase was in between half and new moon.  The pressure system was high and the morning was sunny, however, in the evening a low pressure system came in and it started to rain.

The post ovulation shed of the female boa occurred on June 13th, thus 110 days passed between post ovulation shed and birth.  Noticeably, the yolk was entirely used up in all babies and only the allantois was present as extraembryonic tissue.

The litter contained 27 perfectly healthy babies. weighing between 12 and 16 grams.  Average weight was 14.07 grams.  The length of the babies is around 43 cm.  The litter did not contain any unfertilized eggs, deformed or stillborn babies.

The relative clutch mass (RCM) indicates the amount of mass spent on the babies by their mother.  The babies had a combined birth weight of 380 grams and the mother weighed post parturition 1087g.  The RCM is calculated as: baby mass / (baby mass + mother mass post parturition).  The mother spent 25.9% of her mass in babies, not accounting for fluids and extraembryonic tissue which could not be accurately weighed.

More information on the species can be found here.