Jamaican racer

Rare or extinct?

The English naturalist Philip Henry Gosse described the black racer or Jamaican racer in the mid-19th century as one of the most common snakes in Jamaica. It occurred both in the lowlands and in the mountains of the island. By the mid-20th century, the Jamaican racer had become extinct. The ground-dwelling snake is named after its coloration, as the Latin ater (atra) means “dark” or “black.”

In the past century, this otherwise hard-to-miss, diurnal snake species could not be confirmed with absolute certainty. However, there are indications that the species might still exist. For instance, a video recorded in 2010 by villagers in central Jamaica shows a black snake that, at around one meter in length, is larger than other endemic snakes found there. Furthermore, a shed skin was found as early as the early 1970s that could have come from a Jamaican racer.

The IUCN lists the black racer as “critically endangered (possibly extinct).” The international conservation organization assumes that the population of the Jamaican racer, should it still exist today, would number fewer than 50 mature individuals.

Jamaican racer – fact sheet

alternative names	Jamaica racer, Jamaican giant racer, black racer
scientific names	Hypsirhynchus ater, Alsophis ater, Natrix atra, Natrix capistratus, Dromicus ater, Leimadophis ater, Ocyophis ater
original range	Jamaica (Caribbean Islands)
time of extinction	earliest 1940s
causes of extinction	animals introduced to the island, habitat loss
IUCN status	critically endangered (possibly extinct)

Exterminated in the course of pest control

Today it is generally assumed that the black racer was displaced from its habitat in the mid-1940s due to the destruction of Jamaica’s forests and by the introduced Javan mongooses (Herpestes javanicus). It thus suffered the same fate as the Jamaican giant galliwasp that once lived in Jamaica.

The natural range of the small Indian mongoose originally extended from Pakistan across India and southern China to Southeast Asia. Today the small Indian mongoose exists in numerous other regions of the world: for example on the Caribbean Islands, in northern South America, on Hawaii, the Fiji Islands, on several islands of Croatia, and in the Balkans.

These small predators from the mongoose family (Herpestidae) were introduced for pest control into numerous areas of the world where they did not originally occur. Above all, rat plagues were supposed to be contained by the mongooses. However, the mongooses did not only prey on rats but also on other endemic animals. The Global Invasive Species Database lists the small Indian mongoose as one of the 100 most harmful invasive species worldwide.

The very agile mongooses feed on small mammals, birds, scorpions, and other invertebrates as well as on lizards and snakes. They also attack venomous snakes, dodging the repeatedly striking snake until the reptile is exhausted. Then the mongoose can easily kill the snake. Should it actually be bitten by a venomous snake, the relatively short fangs of the snake rarely penetrate its dense fur.

Jamaican racer: Little known about its way of life and behavior

The taxonomic classification of the Jamaican racer is disputed. Since there are only a few individuals in collections and museums from which the morphological characteristics of the reptile species can be analyzed, different herpetologists assign it to different genera. What is certain is that the black racer belongs to the colubrid family (Colubridae) and the subfamily Dipsadinae. This comprises more than 700 species of small to medium-sized snakes found in North, Central, and South America.

Little is known about the way of life and behavior of the black racer. It probably reached an average length of 85 centimeters and was black or dark olive in color with black spots on its back. It also had at least one black stripe on the sides of its head that ran through the eyes. The Jamaican racer fed on smaller reptiles such as galliwasps.