July 1999
El Tamarindo Golf Resort, Jalisco, México
Boa constrictor
We caught this guy in a stream in the forest.
He wasn't a happy camper. He struggled a lot and tried to bite
me!
We were collecting reptiles and arthropods for University of Guadalajara's
taxonomy
collection.
I felt bad that all of the animals that we were collecting were going
to be killed and
perserved.
Rich foreign interests pay for the park's maintenance (i.e. park rangers
and other park staff)
and the Mexican government allows them to use a portion of the park for
the resort and
golf courses. Not ideal but México couldn't afford to protect
this "biological reserve"
without the foreign financial investment. This type of park preservation
is common
throughout latin america.