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Tag: Clarion Nightsnake

  • ‘Lost’ Snake Rediscovered on Mexico Island

    A species of snake not seen for almost 80 years was found on a remote island off of the Pacific coast of Mexico.

    Hypsiglena unaocularis, commonly known as the Clarión nightsnake, was first described by American naturalist William Beebe during his voyage to Clarión Island in 1936. Beebe encountered a single specimen, and the snake was not seen again in decades. Now researchers have confirmed the existence of the species, after collecting DNA samples from snakes on Clarión, which is part of the Revillagigedo Islands group.

    Daniel Mulcahy, a researcher for the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, was convinced that the snake might still exist, and he and Juan Martinez Gomez of Mexico’s Ecology Institute planned an expedition to the Revillagigedo Islands to find it. Martinez Gomez, an expert on the Revillagigedos, helped to form a plan for locating the nightsnake, using Beebe’s original field notes as a guide.

    Martinez Gomez commented, “Basically, following those directions, we essentially put ourselves in his place.” One of Martinez Gomez’ graduate students spotted the snake, the first seen alive since 1936. The team performed a DNA analysis to declare the animal as its own species, which revealed that it closely resembles snakes from Mexico’s Sonora-Sinaloa coast more than 500 miles away. Martinez Gomez thinks that the snakes may have floated on a tree trunk from the Mexican mainland to the island.

    Clarión Island is currently occupied by a small outfit of Mexican marines, and civilian visits to the area require a military escort, which has made it difficult to document the wildlife native to the region. This, along with a lack of sightings since Beebe’s 1936 find, caused scientists to presume that Beebe had provided an incorrect locality for the specimen

    Here is an old-school documentary on the wildlife of Clarión Island, with native species include the Clarión Burrowing Owl, the Clarión Wren, the Clarión Mourning Dove and the Clarion Island Whipsnake:

    The National Museum of Natural History commented that Mulcahy “uncovered the controversy surrounding the inclusion of this snake in the scientific record, and found that it appears to be the only species ever to be discarded due to a presumed locality error.”

    Image via YouTube

  • Clarion Nightsnake: The Lost Species Re-Emerges In Mexico

    A rare snake species once presumed “lost” forever has been rediscovered after a gap of nearly 80 years!

    The Clarion nightsnake is a species of snake that was first discovered back in 1936 by American naturalist William Beebe. Clarion was the name of one of the Revillagigedo Islands, the place where he first spotted the reptile.

    Unfortunately, subsequent trips back to Clarion failed to produce any more of the nightsnakes spotted by Beebe.

    As time passed, it was assumed that there were was some form of error and that the Clarion nightsnake simply no longer existed. This even lead to the species being removed from taxonomic registries.

    Not everyone was ready to give up on the Clarion nightsnake.

    One such person was Daniel Mulcahy. Mulcahy works as a researcher for the National Museum of Natural History in Washington. He worked closely with Juan Martinez Gomez of the Ecology Institute in Mexico to try to find the lost snake species.

    Gomez, who is said to be an expert on the Revillagigedo Islands, suggested that the pair of them set out under conditions that were similar to what Beebe would have experienced when he came across the Clarion nightsnake.

    Knowing that the islands changed season to season meant it was possible that the snakes would be easiest to find if they were present during certain times of the year. They also knew that the snake would be mainly active during the night hours and its skin patterns allowed it to blend in with the rock formations of the islands.

    Their calculations lead Mulcahy and Gomez to time their expedition for May. Thanks to “putting themselves in Beebe’s place”, the expedition was a success. Juan Alberto Cervantes, one of Gomez’s graduate students, was the one who spotted the lost snake. Cervantes has the distinction of being the first to do so since 1936.

    DNA testing on the snake determined that it was indeed its own species, though it is closely related to Mexico’s Sonora-Sinaloa snakes. The Sonora-Sinaloa is native to a region of Mexico nearly 500 miles away.

    Image via YouTube