Page 15 - ARUBA TODAY
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LOCAL Tuesday 1 OcTOber 2019
Get to know Aruba’s small snake Episode XXXVII
Aruba`s Xerophil vegetation, which grows on the topsoil that covers old island lime stone plateaus.
Continued from Page 14 “Snakes may be prevented by natural selec- smallest of other types of animals usually lay
tion from becoming too small because, below only one egg or give birth to one offspring. The
Biologists think the Barbados snake may be at a certain size, there may be nothing for their Aruban variety is no exception to this pattern.
or near the minimum possible size for snakes, young to eat.” Like others to which it is related It produces a single slender egg that occupies
though cannot say for sure that no smaller spe- the snake feeds primarily on earth worms and a significant portion of the mother’s body. “If
cies exists — several other snake species are larvae of ants and termites. In contrast to larger a tiny snake were to have two offspring, each
nearly as small. While it is possible that a smaller species — some of which can lay up to 100 eggs egg could occupy only half the space that is
species exists, finding such an animal is unlikely. in a single clutch — the smallest snakes and the devoted to reproduction within its body.”q
