Antiguan racer

The Antiguan racer is a snake that belongs to the family Colubridae, which includes about half of the world's known snake species. It belongs to the genus Alsophis, which contains several species of West Indian racers. Many West Indian racers are threatened or extinct. ==Description==

This racer exhibits sexual dimorphism. However, older individuals of both sexes can be highly variable in colour hue and pattern, and are frequently heavily speckled or blotched in a range of hues, including white, taupe, reddish brown, brown, and black. ==Distribution and habitat==

The Antiguan racer originally inhabited Antigua and Barbuda and probably all of the islands on the Antigua Bank. By 1995, the species was found only on Great Bird Island, a small island 2.5 km off of the northeast coast of Antigua. The island is extremely small at only 8.4 hectares. The Antiguan racer prefers to live in shady woodlands with dense undergrowth, although it is also found on sandy beaches and rocky outcrops. ==Ecology and behavior==

The Antiguan racer is harmless to humans and has a gentle temperament. The racer primarily eats a diet of lizards, including the local Antiguan ground lizard. While the species sometimes hunts for its food, it is typically an ambush predator, waiting for prey with most of its body buried beneath leaves. ==Relationship with humans==

In the centuries before the Europeans arrived in Antigua, the Antiguan racers were numerous and widespread. The thick forest that covered the islands teemed with lizards, the snakes' favored prey, and the racer had no natural predators to threaten it. In the late 15th century, European settlers began to colonize and develop Antigua and Barbuda for huge plantations of sugarcane. The ships that brought slaves to the island (and those that also or instead carried away rum or other tropical products) also brought rats. Feasting on the sugarcane and, among other things, the eggs of the Antiguan racer, the rat population rocketed. Conservation work quickly got under way with the eradication of rats, which threatened the racers on Great Bird Island. The effort succeeded. In 1996, five adult racers were collected and sent to the Jersey Zoo for the first attempt at captive breeding. However, 20% of the racers were underweight because of the lack of prey lizards to maintain the population levels. The Antiguan racer was recently threatened by hurricanes, such as Hurricane Luis, Hurricane Georges, and Hurricane Irma, and now by deliberate killing by humans (despite being protected by law), flooding, drought, and inbreeding due to low genetic diversity. ==References==