If I say “ feather boa , ” you probably fancy the tropical rain forests of South America , where the poster male child of theBoidaefamily , Boa constrictor , slithers through the brush . Your mind belike does n’t leap to Los Angeles County or Colorado ’s desert , but you ’ll come up boas there , too . The United States really has two native boa species , the natural rubber boa ( Charina bottae ) and the rosy boa ( Lichanura trivirgata ) , above . Their combined orbit traverse much of the American W , from southern California up to Washington state , and from the Pacific coast east into Colorado , Wyoming , and Montana . The rubber boa even thwart the Canadian borderline into British Columbia , making it the most northern member of the fellowship .
Rubber and rosy boas are smaller than their Central and South American cousins , ordinarily maturate no longer than 3 or 4 feet ( Boa constrictorcan attain up to 13 fundament ) and only as wide around as a golf game ball . They ’re also slower and more docile than the other members of the family . Rather than siss and striking when confronted by bombastic predators or man , they ’ll roll themselves into tight balls , with their head protect in the center . Sometimes the rubber feather boa will also attempt to fuddle its attacker by striking out with its blunt tail end to further draw attention from its head and dead body .
While not as telling in size or vehemence , the American boas are formidable hunters , and kill their target using the same method as other boas : coarctation . Hunting at night when little mammalian like mice , rats , shrews and vole are more active , the American boas consist in hold and then ambush prey when it have too unaired . Striking quickly , they ensure their repast with sharp , petite tooth , kink around it and tweet until it suffocate . While hunting , the rubber boa again makes use of its rear as a steerer . It slithers into rodent burrow and offers its tail to any protective parent that adjudicate to lash out while forget the head costless to consume the nesting untried .
