Roel Uckerman and his wife Hesther are of Dutch descent. They are living on Aruba for 10

years now. Mr. Uckerman is working for the Arubian coast guard.

Aruba, Dutch West Indies is an island 20 kilometers off the coast of the peninsula Paraguana of Venezuela.

map of Aruba

The size is approximately 190 square kilometers. The length is 31km and the most widen part has a width of 9km.

Aruba belongs to the Kingdom of the Netherlands since 1636. Together with its neighbouring Islands Curacao and Bonaire, which are respectively 60nm and 120nm to the east.

Aruba, scenery

It is estimated that there are approximately 75.000 people living on Aruba, this is of course without illegal immigrants and tourists.

You may ask yourself now, why we publish a report about this island on our website.

The reason, that this is the first documented case that Boa constrictor has become an invasive species.

Invasive species (Neobiota) are animals who were brought to an ecosystem by humans where they have not existed before and where they are firmly established now.

Three criterions must be fulfilled by a species to be rated as neobiota:

directly or indirectly introduced by humans

introduction must have taken place after the year 1492 (beginning of the colonization and the related integration of the countries all over the world)

self - reproducing population, who doesn't needs the help of humans to exist

The Boa constrictor is not a native snake on the island of Aruba. Nevertheless nearly every day specimens up to 2 meters long are captured. In March 2005 a 6 ft. (1,80 m) long boa even visited the garden of Mr. and Mrs. Uckerman.

Boa constrictor on the Island of Aruba. The photo was made in the garden of the Uckerman family. Sadly, the neighbour killed the animal soon afterwards.

Most likely irresponsible owners of pet Boa constrictors released their animals in the wild. Since these boas are fast breeders and since they adapted well on the environment of Aruba they are showing up everywhere, even in the city. This is also due to the fact that they have no natural enemies there.

This newcomer in the snake world of Aruba is regarded as a plague by many of the natives.

Aruba, scenery

Some boas are born in sewage wells and people on Aruba say that if you're bitten by such a snake you're infected with bacteria from the sewage. Up till now nothing serious has happened. But the common opinion of the people on Aruba is that this snake ruins the original wildlife.

These photos of a Boa constrictor were taken by the dutch tourist J. Beijaard during a vacation on Aruba. He kindly put it to our disposal.