Pet-eating reptiles are becoming more of a concern in Puerto Rico as of lately. Boa constrictors and pythons are invading various areas across the island, and swallowing any livestock, pets, and native birds in their path. While the issue initially became an issue more than a decade ago, locals have desperately continued to try to stop the snake population from growing.
But the snakes have resisted and continue to push deeper into the island, claiming territory and causing disruption.
“It’s very, very bad,” Alberto R. Puente-Rolón, a biologist at the University of Puerto Rico at Mayagüe, told Vox during a reporter’s visit to the island. “We have a serious problem and a serious threat to the bird species here.”
Boa constrictors, native to South and Central America, first began showing up in Puerto Rico around 2012. That's when they were accidentally released in connection with the exotic pet trade.
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Within the last four months alone, a team of surveyors rounded up over 150 invasive boa constrictors. Locals have taken matters into their own hands by becoming snake hunters, or reticuleros, as they're known on the island. “We need to find more, because my cats are gone, my chickens are gone,” Odalis Luna, a local hunter said. “It’s a problem.”
