True Mexican Boa c. imperator for sale

When a new and scarce Boa constrictor variant is introduced to the market it doesn't take long until fakes are offered. The litters in Tarahumara boas comprise only a small number of babies, thus the demand on this variant exceeds the supply by far. Unfortunately, the beauty and scarcity of the Tarahumara boas makes them a precedent target of fraud. This poses the question for unmistakable characteristics of Tarahumara Mountain Boas in order to rule out at least the most obvious fakes.

Very helpful in such a matter is a direct comparison, which we are offering now. In the first case a visitor of our website kindly put some photos of his recently acquired boa to our disposal. According to the invoice this animal is allegedly a Tarahumara dwarf boa captive born in Germany 2010.

Another visitor of our website purchased Tarahumara boas from the same source and decided to show us the animals in the flesh for a direct comparison because the rapid growth rate of his newly acquired boas nourished his doubts.

Here is our "Tarahumara Fake Check":

1. The size:

The Tarahumara Boas are one of the most dwarfish boa constrictors that exist. Our biggest female (captive born in the U.S in 2002, always well fed and slightly overweight) is now a little more than 120cm in length.

Tarahumara Boas do not grow much larger!

The animal on top is a Tarahumara Boa male from our stock, cb 2007 in the US, bred by Gus Rentfro. The animal below was put to our disposal for a comparison. According to the invoice it is a German offspring 2010 (in words: two thousand ten!), gender: male. As you can clearly recognize there is hardly a difference in size although the boa in question is only 1 year old on this photo and therefore 3 years younger than our adult male!

photo: H + E Stöckl

Here is another case. The owner has sent us a photo of his newly acquired specimen because he is in doubt that it is actually a Tarahumara boa. The boa is from the same source:

Alleged Tarahumara dwarf boa. Datas according to the owner:

10 months old, weight 650 gramm, size about 1,15 m (!)

photo: MWY

When a Boa constrictor is 1,15m in length at the age of 10 months, how large will it be at the age of 5?

2. The headmarkings:

Tarahumara boas have the typical pitch-black headmarking of Boa c. longicauda. This is the most important and most obvious characteristic, which is found in ALL (!) Tarahumara boas.

Unlike Boa c. longicauda, the Tarahumara Boas have these pitch-black headmarkings BY BIRTH!

Real Tarahumara Moutain Boa - H + E Stöckl

Tarahumara Boas show the typical pitch black headmarkings of Boa c. longicauda including the thick spearmarking

no Longicauda - like headmarking - no Tarahumara Boa!

Alleged Tarahumara dwarf boa

photo: MWY

No black head-marking to be seen!