Leeward Island racer

Description

The Leeward Island racer (Alsophis rijgersmaei) is a species of snake in the family Colubridae.The species is found in Anguilla,Saint Barthélemy,and probably extinct on Sint Maarten. The grass snake Alsophis rijgersmaei is the only snake in St.Maarten.It was named by Edward Drinker Cope in 1869,the specific name honouring the Dutch government physician in St.Maarten,Hendrik Elingsz van Rijgersma,who was an avid amateur naturalist.It was thought to have been eradicated by the mongoose (Westerman,1955;Sajdak and Henderson,1991 in Powell et al.,1992).However,in 1992 there was a report of five specimens that were captured at Mary's Fancy,and in the same year one was observed in the field (Powell et al.,1992).A snake was also seen after the hurricane in January 1996 during a field trip at Flagstaf (Ecovision/AIDEnvironment,1996).Snakes of the genus Alsophis and Liophis prove to be more sensitive to introduced predators than other genera (Henderson,1992).A.rijgersmaei is not rare in mongoose-free Anguilla and St.Barths,and other species of the same genus are common in other mongoose-free islands of the Lesser Antilles (even extremely abundant in some areas of Saba,Dominica and St.Eustatius),even though dogs and cats have probably been living on these islands for hundreds of years already.This snake is not venomous.It lives on insects,small amphibians,reptiles and warm-blooded animals.For its survival it is important to control the mongoose,and convince people not to kill snakes.The animal's habitat should also be protected.