- Scientists rediscovered the world’s smallest snake, the Barbados threadsnake, after it had been missing from scientific observation for 20 years.
- The tiny blind snake required microscopic examination to distinguish it from an invasive look-alike species before being confirmed and returned to the wild.
- The finding represents a rare success story on an island where 98% of primary forests have been cleared and many endemic species have gone extinct.
- Researchers plan continued surveys to map the snake’s range and develop habitat protection strategies for this critically endangered species.
“I was making a joke and in my head I said, ‘I smell a threadsnake,'” Justin Springer, Caribbean program officer for the NGO Re:wild, recalled. “I just had a feeling, but I couldn’t be sure because we turned over a lot of rocks before that and we saw nothing.”
Springer’s intuition proved correct when his colleague, Connor Blades, pried a rock loose from under a tree root. There, in the soil of central Barbados, they found both an earthworm and the world’s smallest snake.
Scientists had been searching for the Barbados threadsnake (Tetracheilostoma carlae) for more than a year. Before this day, the tiny snake, which measures just 7.5-10 centimeters (3-4 inches) long and is about the width of a spaghetti noodle, had not been observed by scientists for 20 years.
“Barbados threadsnakes are blind snakes, so they’re very cryptic,” said Blades, a project officer with the Barbados environment ministry, referring to the tendency of blind snakes to spend most of their time underground. “They’re quite rare also, it seems. There have only been a handful of confirmed sightings since 1889, so there are not many people who have ever seen it, unfortunately.”
The expedition was conducted in March by the environment ministry and Re:wild as part of the Conserving Barbados’ Endemic Reptiles (CBER) project. On an island where many endemic species have been driven to extinction, finding this rare snake is a big deal.
“When you are so accustomed to looking for things and you don’t see them, you are shocked when you actually find it,” Springer said. “You can’t believe it. That’s how I felt. You don’t want to get your hopes up too high.”
The threadsnake closely resembles the invasive Brahminy blind snake (Indotyphlops braminus), which was introduced to Barbados in recent decades, so the finding required careful verification. Microscopic examination at the University of the West Indies confirmed the snake’s identity via its pale orange stripes and specific head scale patterns.
“I began to look over the snake and it was clear to me that I really needed to take it to a microscope to get a proper look at it,” Blades said. “The morphological [physical] differences between the threadsnake and blind snake are really difficult to tell by eye, particularly because it was the first threadsnake we had seen, so we weren’t familiar with the species yet.”
After examination, the snake was returned home to the forest.
Over the past 500 years, an estimated 98% of the primary forest in Barbados has been cut down for farming. Before European colonization in the 16th century, Barbados was inhabited and maintained by Indigenous people.
The remaining forests are mostly located in the undeveloped Scotland district, named by early Scottish settlers for its hilly terrain, gullies and limestone outcrops that resemble those found in their homeland.
“It’s an important reservoir for biodiversity on the island,” Blades said of the forests where the threadsnake was found. “If the threadsnake population isn’t very dense, I’m worried about their ability to find mates — particularly if their habitat is under threat and being degraded.”
Unlike some snakes that can reproduce without mating, the critically endangered Barbados threadsnake reproduces sexually, and females lay only one large egg per clutch.
Invasive species and habitat loss have driven many endemic species on Barbados to extinction, including the Barbados racer (Erythrolamprus perfuscus), Barbados skink (Alinea lanceolata), and the Barbados rice rat (Megalomys georginae).
The Barbados skink and Barbados racer were both likely driven to extinction by the Indian mongoose (Urva auropunctata), which was introduced to Barbados in the 1870s to control rats.
The Conserving Barbados’ Endemic Reptiles project now plans to continue surveying to better understand the species’ range and develop conservation strategies to protect both the snake and its critical habitat.
The threadsnake had been included on Re:wild’s global list of 4,300 plant, animal and fungi species lost to science, those that have not been seen in more than ten years. Since 2017, fifteen of these species have been found including mammals, birds, reptiles and plants.
“The threadsnake’s rediscovery is also a call to all of us as Barbadians that forests in Barbados are very special and need protection,” Springer said. “Not just for the threadsnake, but for other species as well. For plants, animals and our heritage.”
Banner image of a Barbados threadsnake photographed on a coin in 2005. Image © Blair Hedges, Penn State, via Wikimedia Commons.
Liz Kimbrough is a senior staff writer for Mongabay and holds a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Tulane University, in New Orleans, Louisiana where she studied the microbiomes of trees. View more of her reporting here.
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