Notes: Distribution: Lower Amazon basin, Brazil, Guyana, Suriname Habitat: Strictly Arboreal. Trees and bushes over bodies of water, swamp and marshes in lowland rain forests.

This beautiful snake is one of the most dramatically colorful snakes in Class Serpentes. It has brilliant leaf green coloration with white markings along its whole body. These white markings against the green body closely emulates the patterns of sun splotches that penetrate the thick rain forest canopy. As this snake grows older the green slowly becomes darker. This pattern varies throughout the habitat and locale where individuals live. The Emerald Tree Boa has an internal egg gestation of five and a half to seven months time. It seemingly bears its offspring live, however this is due to the fact that females will lay their eggs right at hatching time where sometimes the egg hatches before, during or after they are laid. The young snakes initially are born an earthy orange-red with white bars; through time the color eventually changes to green over a few weeks period at 4 to 9 months of age. This snake has a life span of around 15 years.

It prefers to live in trees and bushes that are near water. Its habitat includes being near swamp and marshes in the rain forest. It is a nocturnal snake that coils and drapes itself on the limbs of trees. It can lie there resting motionless for long periods of time in this stance. This distinct characteristic of the Emerald Tree Boa to lie motionless and coiled is unique among snakes. This snakes body is rather stout with a relatively thin neck supporting a large head. There is a pitting that exists in both the lower and upper labials of the mouth. These pits contain heat sensors that are key to this snakes ability to hunt its food. The stout body tapers at the end with a strong prehensile tail that gives them the ability to anchor on twigs and branches where they lie motionless. The Emerald Tree Boa have very long teeth with which it holds its prey (to get through the bird feathers). Its diet consist mostly of rodents and birds. This snake can grow to be up to 2.2 meters.