Overview

• Field officers Connor Blades and Justin Springer uncovered the snake under rocks near a jack-in-the-box tree in central Barbados before verifying its identity under a microscope at the University of the West Indies.
• Described in 2008 by Temple University’s S. Blair Hedges as Tetracheilostoma carlae, the blind, burrowing snake measures just 7.5 to 10 centimeters long and feeds on termites and ants.
• The threadsnake had evaded detection for nearly 20 years and was listed by Re:wild among 4,800 species lost to science.
• With 98 percent of the island’s primary forests cleared, conservationists are now leveraging the rediscovery to press for stronger protection of Barbados’s remaining native woodlands.
• Researchers plan further surveys to map the threadsnake’s range and inform habitat preservation strategies for this critically endangered endemic.