The Snake on the Milk Carton

OK, the long-missing Cropan's boa of Brazil , the rarest boa in the world, was not put on milk cartons, but it was put on posters nailed up all over the Atlantic Forest area.  The snake hadn't been seen alive since the 1950s when two farmers practically tripped over one as they walked the dirt road to work.  They had seen the poster, so they grabbed the 1.7-meter snake and contacted scientists via WhatsApp information on the posters!   Herpetologists had searched the area many times without result.

The handsome female snake, basically brown with black and darker brown markings, was released with a radio tag attached.  The boas, closely related to the pythons, currently count 43 species. We are constantly finding new snake species (31 in 2011) but this rediscovery was celebrated just as much.