This Elusive Snake’s Habitat Is Under Threat in Ecuador. Here’s How Conservationists Are Fighting Back
How do you protect an endangered serpent with a special talent for hiding in plain sight?
Coild in the canopy of the lowland rainforests of northwestern Ecuador and southwestern Colombia, the elusive and endangered Blomberg’s tree boa can remain motionless for hours, like a trap waiting to be sprung. The snake uses large eyes in daylight and heat-sensing divots along its lips in darkness to detect and ambush unlucky birds, bats and rodents that come too close, stopping their hearts with a muscular embrace.
The constrictor, named for Rolf Blomberg, the Swedish naturalist who first described the species, can reach six feet in length and comes in an array of earthy browns, oranges and reds, with patterned spots along its sides. Despite these sometimes vibrant colors, the snake is nearly impossible to spot in daylight. “I’ve seen this species alive in the wild twice during my own fieldwork,” says Diego Cisneros-Heredia, an ecologist at the San Francisco University of Quito in Ecuador. “It’s almost invisible because of the shades of light in the forest.”
But the boa’s elusiveness isn’t just a trick of light. They’re also scarce due to a reduction of the intact and flourishing forests they inhabit. “This is a tree boa, and it cannot survive where there are no trees,” says Martin Schaefer, who leads the Jocotoco Foundation, a conservation nonprofit that has worked with local communities to establish 15 reserves across Ecuador. Today only 3 percent of the snake’s habitat in western Ecuador remains, after the ravages of logging and agriculture.
Scientists don’t have enough data to estimate the number of Blomberg’s tree boas, but their future—and that of harpy eagles, jaguars, brown-headed spider monkeys and dozens of species found no place else on Earth—is inextricably tied to what remains of their forest habitat. To protect these ecosystems, Jocotoco has spent 25 years purchasing lands in northwestern Ecuador, guided by a strategy Schaefer likens to “playing chess for conservation.”
As part of Jocotoco’s approach in areas experiencing high levels of deforestation, analysts determine where roads could be built. Then the properties are acquired to prevent development, Schaefer explains. The goal is to make these ecosystems inaccessible to extractive industries like logging that threaten Ecuador’s 800,000-acre Cotacachi Cayapas Ecological Reserve and similar lands due to insufficient funding and staffing. Schaefer says Jocotoco’s strategy has blocked seven such roads, creating force fields beyond the reserve’s borders.
Fortunately, saving Blomberg’s tree boa and its fellow forest dwellers isn’t just a matter of protecting what’s left: Jocotoco is also restoring degraded areas. “We are seeing Blomberg’s tree boa return to former cattle pastures and cacao plantations that have been regenerating for around 20 years,” Schaefer says. These sightings offer hope that this snake may return to lands it was once pushed out of.
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This article is a selection from the June 2025 issue of Smithsonian magazine
