Erythrolamprus ornatus, also known commonly as the ornate ground snake and the Saint Lucia racer, is a species of snake in the family Colubridae. The species is native to the eastern Caribbean. It is the rarest snake on earth with fewer than 20 left in the wild.
Geographic range Erythrolamprus ornatus is endemic to Saint Lucia,Schwartz A, Thomas R (1975). A Check-list of West Indian Amphibians and Reptiles. Carnegie Museum of Natural History Special Publication No. 1. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Carnegie Museum of Natural History. 216 pp. (Dromicus ornatus, p. 183). an island nation in the West Indies, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. It once lived all over Saint Lucia, but now is only found on the islet of Maria Major.
Description Adults of this non-venomous snake, E. ornatus, may attain a total length (including tail) of .Malhotra A, Thorpe RS (1999). Reptiles & Amphibians of the Eastern Caribbean. London: Macmillan. ix + 134 pp. . (Erythrolamprus ornatus, p. 97). Its coloration is variable. Some individuals have a broad brown vertebral stripe. In others, the brown stripe is interrupted by alternating yellow spots.
Behavior and ecology The preferred natural habitats of E. ornatus are forest and shrubland, at altitudes from sea level to . E. ornatus is an ambush predator of small rodents and lizards, and probably diurnal. E. ornatus is oviparous.
Conservation status The introduction of the Small Indian Mongoose to Saint Lucia is believed to be the primary cause for the population decline of this species. There had been no recorded sightings of the snake on Saint Lucia since the 1800s, and in 1936 the species was declared extinct. However, a single individual was rediscovered in 1973 on a small island called Maria Major, off the coast of Vieux Fort, Saint Lucia. The remaining wild population is only found on Maria Major due to it being free of invasive predators like mongooses. In 2012, 11 individuals were found on Maria Major and estimates put the total population size around 18 individuals. Currently the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust, working with Fauna & Flora International, Saint Lucia National Trust and Saint Lucia Forestry Department, are working to build a captive breeding population with two facilities, one for breeding the snakes and one for cultivating food sources.
References
Further reading Garman S (1887). "On West Indian Reptiles in the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy, at Cambridge, Mass". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 24: 278–286. (Dromicus ornatus, new species, p. 281). Grazziotin FG, Zaher H, Murphy RW, Scrocchi G, Benavides MA, Zhang Y-P, Bonatto SL (2012). "Molecular Phylogeny of the New World Dipsadidae (Serpentes: Colubroidea): a reappraisal". Cladistics 28 (5): 437–459. (Erythrolamprus ornatus, new combination, p. 457). Parker HW (1936). "Some extinct Snakes of the West Indies". Annals and Magazine of Natural History, Tenth Series 18: 227–233. Schwartz A, Henderson RW (1991). Amphibians & Reptiles of the West Indies: Descriptions, Distributions, and Natural History. Gainesville, Florida: University of Florida Press. 720 pp. . (Liophis ornatus, p. 625). Smith HM, Dixon JR, Wallach V (1993). "Dromicus giganteus Jan (Reptilia: Serpentes) is a nomen nudum ". Bulletin of the Maryland Herpetological Society 29 (3): 77–79. Williams RJ, Ross TN, Morton MN, Daltry JC, Isidore L (2016). "Update on the natural history and conservation status of the Saint Lucia racer, Erythrolamprus ornatus Garman, 1887 (Squamata: Dipsadidae)". Herpetology Notes 9: 157–162.