Micrurus mipartitusRedtail Coral Snake

Ge­o­graphic Range

Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus (red-tailed coral snake) is cur­rently dis­trib­uted from Nicaragua to the north­ern re­gions of South Amer­ica (Rey-Suarez et al., 2012). Red-tailed coral snakes can be found in Panama, Colom­bia, north and north­west­ern Venezuela, and west­ern Ecuador (Roze, 1996). While the pres­ence of M. mi­par­ti­tus in Peru is un­cer­tain, it has been found in Bo­livia (Ibáñez et al., 2017). There is lit­tle to no in­for­ma­tion on the in­tro­duced range of M. mi­par­ti­tus, there­fore M. mi­par­ti­tus has likely not been in­tro­duced into any novel en­vi­ron­ments. Even though red-tailed coral snakes are found in abun­dance in Colom­bia and are es­pe­cially com­mon on agri­cul­tural land (e.g., cof­fee and sug­ar­cane farms), human en­ven­o­ma­tion is con­sid­er­ably rare (Cañas et al., 2017). How­ever, as agri­cul­tural land use and human de­vel­op­ment ex­pands into nat­ural en­vi­ron­ments, de­for­esta­tion and habi­tat loss could in­crease dan­ger­ous hu­man-wildlife in­ter­ac­tions such as en­ven­o­ma­tion. (Cañas, et al., 2017; Ibáñez, et al., 2017; Rey-Suárez, et al., 2012; Roze, 1996)

Habi­tat

Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus is found in a va­ri­ety of habi­tats, in­clud­ing some in warm and cool cli­mates and from el­e­va­tions rang­ing from 0 to 2,410 me­ters above sea level (Cañas et al., 2017; Ibáñez et al., 2017). Red-tailed coral snakes usu­ally in­habit wet, mon­tane forests and cloud forests at low el­e­va­tions (Camp­bell and Lamar, 2004). They typ­i­cally are found in trop­i­cal or sub­trop­i­cal forests and rain­forests, chap­ar­ral forests (coastal shrub areas and forests), cloud forests (trop­i­cal, mon­tane, moist forests), and mon­tane forests (forests in moun­tain­ous ter­ri­to­ries). Forests with a high veg­e­ta­tion den­sity be­neath the main canopy are most fa­vor­able to this species (Ibáñez et al., 2017). They have also been doc­u­mented to in­habit dry, rocky re­gions in Colom­bia, though they are more likely to in­habit the trop­i­cal or sub­trop­i­cal forests and coastal cloud forests in Venezuela (Camp­bell and Lamar, 2004). In­ter­ac­tions be­tween M. mi­par­ti­tus and hu­mans hap­pen fre­quently in cof­fee plan­ta­tions and other agri­cul­tural areas in close prox­im­ity to human set­tle­ments (Camp­bell and Lamar, 2004). Red-tailed coral snakes are ter­res­trial and semi-fos­so­r­ial, mean­ing they spend much of their lives un­der­ground or under the fo­liage of the rain­for­est floor (COTERC, 2015; Ibáñez et al., 2017). (Camp­bell and Lamar, 2004; Cañas, et al., 2017; "COTERC (Cana­dian Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Trop­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion and Rain­for­est Con­ser­va­tion)", 2015; Ibáñez, et al., 2017)

  • Range elevation
    0 to 2410 m
    0.00 to 7906.82 ft

Phys­i­cal De­scrip­tion

Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus is a medium to medium-large (60 to 80 cm in total length), mod­er­ately slen­der species; they be as short as 50 cm at ma­tu­rity or as long as 120 cm at ma­tu­rity (Camp­bell and Lamar, 2004; Roze, 1996). Red-tailed coral snakes usu­ally have bi­lat­er­ally sym­met­ric or cylin­dri­cal bod­ies, with small round or oval-shaped heads, small eyes, and short, thick tails (Cañas et al., 2017). Un­like other coral snake species in Mi­cru­rus, which are usu­ally brightly col­ored with al­ter­nat­ing rings of black, red, and white or yel­low from head to tail, M. mi­par­ti­tus has a more dis­tinc­tive body color pat­tern (COTERC, 2015; Mat­ti­son, 2007). The red-tailed coral snakes have black and yel­low or white al­ter­nat­ing bands on their bod­ies, one in­tensely red-col­ored band on their heads, and sev­eral black and red al­ter­nat­ing bands on their tails (Roze, 1996). The more in­fa­mous U.S cousin of M. mi­par­ti­tus, M. ful­vius, has a body pat­tern of al­ter­nat­ing rings of black, yel­low, and red, while M. mi­par­ti­tus has a body pat­tern of al­ter­nat­ing rings of black and yel­low or white and a tail with al­ter­nat­ing rings of black and red-or­ange (Camp­bell and Lamar, 2004). They also have black snouts and one bright red band on the back of their heads pos­te­rior to the eyes. There is lit­tle dif­fer­en­ti­a­tion be­tween sub­species. They are usu­ally of sim­i­lar size (length) and shape, though there is a slight dif­fer­ence be­tween body col­ors. For ex­am­ple, an in­di­vid­ual that once be­longed to the sub­species Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus semi­par­ti­tus (clas­si­fi­ca­tion now in­val­i­dated) found in Venezuela had a body pat­tern of al­ter­nat­ing black and white rings while an­other in­di­vid­ual be­long­ing to the sub­species Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus de­cus­sa­tus found in Colom­bia had a body pat­tern of al­ter­nat­ing black and yel­low rings (Roze, 1996). Gen­er­ally, fe­males and males look very sim­i­lar, with minute dif­fer­ences such as the un­der­side of the head of M. m. semi­par­ti­tus, which is al­most white in males but has some small black dots in fe­males (Roze, 1996). Usu­ally, the fe­males of Mi­cru­rus tend to be longer than the males, but it is un­clear whether the adults of M. mi­par­ti­tus fol­low the same pat­tern (COTERC, 2015). How­ever, it has been noted that fe­males of M. mi­par­ti­tus have more sec­tions of scales on av­er­age than males (Camp­bell and Lamar, 2004). (Camp­bell and Lamar, 2004; Cañas, et al., 2017; "COTERC (Cana­dian Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Trop­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion and Rain­for­est Con­ser­va­tion)", 2015; Mat­ti­son, 2007; Roze, 1996)

  • Sexual Dimorphism
  • sexes alike
  • female larger
  • Range length
    50 to 120 cm
    19.69 to 47.24 in
  • Average length
    60-80 cm
    in

De­vel­op­ment

The de­vel­op­ment of Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus in the wild and cap­tiv­ity is un­known, so de­vel­op­men­tal in­for­ma­tion pre­sented here is hy­poth­e­sized. Like all snakes that hatch from un­su­per­vised eggs and other species in Mi­cru­rus, red-tailed coral snakes are likely in­de­pen­dent from birth (COTERC, 2015). Young red-tailed coral snakes pre­sum­ably hatch from their eggs with full adult col­or­ing and func­tion­ing venom just like other species in Mi­cru­rus (COTERC, 2015). As for sex de­ter­mi­na­tion, in­de­ter­mi­nate growth or in­ter­me­di­ate stages, there is no spe­cific in­for­ma­tion avail­able for M. mi­par­ti­tus. ("COTERC (Cana­dian Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Trop­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion and Rain­for­est Con­ser­va­tion)", 2015)

Re­pro­duc­tion

Be­cause Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus is dif­fi­cult to study in the wild, there is lit­tle in­for­ma­tion on its re­pro­duc­tion strate­gies. The spe­cific mat­ing sys­tem of M. mi­par­ti­tus is un­known, but other species in Mi­cru­rus live rel­a­tively soli­tary lives ex­cept dur­ing mat­ing sea­son when male-male com­bat can occur (COTERC, 2015). Male-male com­bat is usu­ally non-vi­o­lent and is a wide­spread rit­u­al­is­tic be­hav­ior ob­served among many snake species; this be­hav­ior ap­pears as a con­test be­tween male snakes to es­tab­lish dom­i­nance and se­cure breed­ing with an avail­able fe­male (COTERC, 2015; Va­len­cia et al., 2020). In 2020, Va­len­cia et al. ob­served a male-male com­bat in the sub­species M. m. de­cus­sa­tus in south­west­ern Ecuador. The two male snakes en­twined to­gether wrestling, and the com­bat ended when the "loser" quit the fight and the "vic­tor" headed to­wards the for­est (Va­len­cia et al., 2020). Usu­ally, species of Mi­cru­rus are polyg­y­nan­grous, mean­ing that after mat­ing a pair of coral snakes may never meet up again and can have mul­ti­ple mates over a lifes­pan, and it is likely to be the same case with M. mi­par­ti­tus (COTERC, 2015). ("COTERC (Cana­dian Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Trop­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion and Rain­for­est Con­ser­va­tion)", 2015; Va­len­cia, et al., 2020)

The gen­eral re­pro­duc­tion in­for­ma­tion for red-tailed coral snakes is min­i­mal. Red-tailed coral snakes re­pro­duce sex­u­ally, and are oviparous, mean­ing that they lay eggs (Mat­ti­son, 1999; Mat­ti­son, 2007). The breed­ing sea­son for Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus is un­known, though for the sub­species M. m. de­cus­sa­tus it is hy­poth­e­sized to be from Au­gust to Oc­to­ber (Va­len­cia et al., 2020). After the eggs are laid, the in­cu­ba­tion pe­riod for M. m. de­cus­sa­tus is 84 to 94 days (Va­len­cia et al., 2020). Usu­ally for species in Mi­cru­rus, the fe­male digs a bur­row and lays 5 to 14 eggs, which hatch after an in­cu­ba­tion pe­riod of ap­prox­i­mately 90 days (COTERC, 2015). Any in­for­ma­tion about this species is hy­poth­e­sized to be the same as the re­pro­duc­tion in­for­ma­tion for its genus until fur­ther stud­ies are con­ducted. ("COTERC (Cana­dian Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Trop­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion and Rain­for­est Con­ser­va­tion)", 2015; Mat­ti­son, 1999; Mat­ti­son, 2007; Va­len­cia, et al., 2020)

Be­yond male and fe­male con­tri­bu­tion to the for­ma­tion of the egg, red-tailed coral snakes likely pro­vide noth­ing in the form of parental in­vest­ment (COTERC, 2015). Com­mon in Mi­cru­rus, the fe­male lays her eggs in a bur­row and leaves, pro­vid­ing no care or pro­tec­tion for her eggs (COTERC, 2015). ("COTERC (Cana­dian Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Trop­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion and Rain­for­est Con­ser­va­tion)", 2015)

  • Parental Investment
  • no parental involvement
  • pre-fertilization
    • provisioning

Lifes­pan/Longevity

Very lit­tle is known about the longest or ex­pected lifes­pan of Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus in the wild; due to the elu­sive na­ture of M. mi­par­ti­tus, track­ing and study­ing it in the field is ex­tremely dif­fi­cult. Be­cause sci­en­tists lack basic habi­tat data, lo­cat­ing pop­u­la­tions of Mi­cru­rus in the wild, cap­tur­ing in­di­vid­u­als from those pop­u­la­tions, and main­tain­ing them in cap­tiv­ity is in­cred­i­bly dif­fi­cult (Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016). In cap­tiv­ity, M. mi­par­ti­tus and other species of Mi­cru­rus are ex­tremely hard to main­tain be­cause they refuse to eat and suf­fer from mal­adap­ta­tion syn­drome (Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016). Due to mal­adap­ta­tion syn­drome, M. mi­par­ti­tus in cap­tiv­ity does not vol­un­tar­ily feed, so its av­er­age ex­pected lifes­pan in cap­tiv­ity is around 6 months and rarely ex­ceeds 12 months (Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016). In a study where re­searchers force fed M. mi­par­ti­tus in cap­tiv­ity, there was a sta­tis­ti­cally sig­nif­i­cant in­crease in mean weight and mean ex­pected lifes­pan in cap­tiv­ity; three red-tailed coral snakes from the ex­per­i­ment sur­vived more than a year, and one of them even lived 33 months (Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016). (Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016)

  • Range lifespan
    Status: captivity
    33 (high) months
  • Typical lifespan
    Status: captivity
    12 (high) months
  • Average lifespan
    Status: captivity
    6 months

Be­hav­ior

Sim­i­lar to many species of Mi­cru­rus which are usu­ally soli­tary and noc­tur­nal or cre­pus­cu­lar (ac­tive dur­ing dawn and dust), Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus is a shy, noc­tur­nal, and mostly ter­ri­colous or sub­ter­ranean or­gan­ism (Cañas et al., 2017; COTERC, 2015; Mat­ti­son, 1999; Mat­ti­son, 2007). Rel­a­tively lit­tle is known of M. mi­par­ti­tus be­hav­ior in the wild be­cause of the scarcity and elu­sive na­ture of this species. Red-tailed coral snakes are timid, motile, and tend to hide under weeds, leaves, and grasses, and can be found in the dense veg­e­ta­tion of the for­est floor (Cañas et al., 2017). Not much is known about the ac­tiv­ity pat­terns of red-tailed coral snakes and whether they are no­madic, mi­gra­tory, or seden­tary. They can be highly ag­gres­sive or de­fen­sive when re­strained, but usu­ally do not seek out con­fronta­tion (Camp­bell and Lamar, 2004). Dan­ger­ous hu­man-snake in­ter­ac­tions that re­sult in en­ven­o­ma­tion can occur when red-tailed coral snakes are sur­prised (ac­ci­den­tal en­coun­ters), feel cor­nered or threat­ened, or are pro­voked with­out any op­por­tu­nity for es­cape (Cañas et al., 2017). (Camp­bell and Lamar, 2004; Cañas, et al., 2017; "COTERC (Cana­dian Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Trop­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion and Rain­for­est Con­ser­va­tion)", 2015; Mat­ti­son, 1999; Mat­ti­son, 2007)

Home Range

Very lit­tle to no re­search has been done on red-tailed coral snakes' home range or ter­ri­tory size. It can be hy­poth­e­sized that this species' home range is not very large since M. mi­par­ti­tus is not a smaller and rel­a­tively slow species.

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and Per­cep­tion

Com­mu­ni­ca­tion and per­cep­tion in­for­ma­tion for red-tailed coral snakes is min­i­mal and some in­for­ma­tion is hy­poth­e­sized from other mem­bers of Mi­cru­rus. If Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus is in­deed a soli­tary species, it needs to com­mu­ni­cate with po­ten­tial mates or po­ten­tial con­spe­cific ri­vals (COTERC, 2015). With po­ten­tial ri­vals, es­pe­cially for males dur­ing mat­ing sea­son, it is known that the sub­species M. m. de­cus­sa­tus will en­gage in male-male com­bat to es­tab­lish dom­i­nance, thus tac­tile com­mu­ni­ca­tion is em­ployed through wrestling (Va­len­cia et al., 2020). How mates com­mu­ni­cate is un­known, but it is likely ei­ther through the use of touch or through the use of chem­i­cal com­pounds such as pheromones. Even though snakes are not strictly deaf (they are very sen­si­tive to vi­bra­tions), they still do not use vocal com­mu­ni­ca­tion be­tween in­di­vid­u­als; sounds such as hisses pro­duced by snakes are usu­ally for other an­i­mals as a warn­ing sign, and the same could be true for M. mi­par­ti­tus if it pro­duces sounds (Mat­ti­son, 2007).

In­for­ma­tion about the per­cep­tion of M. mi­par­ti­tus is largely un­known, there­fore most of what we know is in­ferred from traits shared by most snake species. Since red-tailed coral snakes live on the for­est floor and are mostly ter­ri­colous snakes, they likely have the abil­ity to per­ceive their en­vi­ron­ment through touch (Cañas et al., 2017; Mat­ti­son, 2007). Other species of snakes can de­tect heat sig­na­tures or feel vi­bra­tions, but it is un­clear if this ap­plies to M. mi­par­ti­tus (Mat­ti­son, 2007). Usu­ally noc­tur­nal species of snakes have hor­i­zon­tally el­lip­ti­cal pupils, though it is un­cer­tain if this is the case with M. mi­par­ti­tus (Mat­ti­son, 2007). Noc­tur­nal snakes have a high de­gree of binoc­u­lar vi­sion, and are in­cred­i­bly good at gaug­ing dis­tance (Mat­ti­son, 2007). Since all snakes have forked tongues, red-tailed coral snakes must per­ceive or re­ceive in­for­ma­tion of their sur­round­ings by tak­ing in scents in the form of air-borne mol­e­cules (Mat­ti­son, 2007). Since most snakes have poor vi­sion and hear­ing, they usu­ally have a more sen­si­tive sense of smell or taste, and this may be true for M. mi­par­ti­tus as well (Mat­ti­son, 2007). (Cañas, et al., 2017; "COTERC (Cana­dian Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Trop­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion and Rain­for­est Con­ser­va­tion)", 2015; Mat­ti­son, 2007; Va­len­cia, et al., 2020)

Food Habits

Many species of Mi­cru­rus feed largely on other rep­tiles or am­phib­ians, and show pref­er­ence to­wards small, limb­less species with a length­ened ap­pear­ance (Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016; Mat­ti­son, 1999; Mat­ti­son, 2007). Be­cause most coral snakes in Mi­cru­rus have short fangs, they must hold onto their prey after bit­ing it to make sure enough venom is in­jected, though it is un­cer­tain if this ap­plies to Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus (COTERC, 2015). As all snakes do not have "teeth" to chew their food, species of Mi­cru­rus swal­low their food whole (COTERC, 2015). Red-tailed coral snakes are car­ni­vores that hunt other ter­res­trial ver­te­brates in­clud­ing snakes and lizards such as Atrac­tus werneri and Lep­i­doble­pharis sanc­tae­mar­tae (Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016). Red-tailed coral snakes have rel­a­tively small mouths, which makes it hard for them to swal­low large prey, there­fore most of their food con­sist of small lizards, snakes, cae­cil­ians, and am­phis­bae­ni­ans (COTERC, 2015; Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016). Red-tailed coral snakes' prey con­sists of limb­less am­phis­baenid lizards of Am­phis­baena, lit­ter-dwelling col­u­brid snakes of Atrac­tus (e.g., Atrac­tus sanc­tae­mar­tae), and slen­der blind snakes of Lep­to­ty­phlops (Roze, 1996). ("COTERC (Cana­dian Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Trop­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion and Rain­for­est Con­ser­va­tion)", 2015; Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016; Mat­ti­son, 1999; Mat­ti­son, 2007; Roze, 1996)

  • Primary Diet
  • carnivore
    • eats terrestrial vertebrates
  • Animal Foods
  • amphibians
  • reptiles

Pre­da­tion

The preda­tors of Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus are cur­rently un­known. Since red-tailed coral snakes are ven­omous and are preda­tors them­selves, they prob­a­bly have very few preda­tors that tar­get them specif­i­cally. Hu­mans are not known preda­tors of red-tailed coral snakes; how­ever, as dan­ger­ous in­ter­ac­tions con­tinue to occur near human set­tle­ments, peo­ple may start to con­sider them as dan­ger­ous pests and tar­get them. Since ven­omous snakes are gen­er­ally the apex preda­tor in an ecosys­tem, the usual preda­tor for most snakes are other snakes (Mat­ti­son, 2007). Since M. mi­par­ti­tus is a preda­tor for other snakes such as the col­u­brid snakes of Atrac­tus and the slen­der blind snakes of Lep­to­ty­phlops, there could be other species of snakes that tar­get M. mi­par­ti­tus as their food source (Roze, 1996). There­fore, some anti-preda­tor adap­tions found in M. mi­par­ti­tus in­clude apose­matic col­oration, and pos­si­bly in­clude their venom de­vel­op­ment and be­hav­ioral trends. Some of the most fa­mous ex­am­ples of warn­ing col­oration among all snake species are found in Mi­cru­rus, whose bright body col­ors con­vey warn­ing or dan­ger to other an­i­mals (COTERC, 2015; Mat­ti­son, 2007). Red-tailed coral snakes use their bright red, black, and yel­low or white rings of color to send a warn­ing to other an­i­mals, ex­press­ing dan­ger and in­di­cat­ing that they are ven­omous (Mat­ti­son, 2007). While it is known that M. mi­par­ti­tus uses its venom to hunt, it can be as­sumed that it also uses venom for de­fense and self-pro­tec­tion be­cause of the re­ported in­ci­dents of human en­ven­o­ma­tion (COTERC, 2015). It is likely that when M. mi­par­ti­tus is threat­ened by an­other an­i­mal (hu­mans in­cluded), it will bite and use its venom for self-de­fense, though there are cur­rently no stud­ies to sup­port this claim. Sci­en­tists do not yet know why red-tailed coral snakes hide un­der­neath the for­est floor un­der­growth, but one rea­son may be that they are try­ing to stay hid­den from po­ten­tial preda­tors. ("COTERC (Cana­dian Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Trop­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion and Rain­for­est Con­ser­va­tion)", 2015; Mat­ti­son, 2007; Roze, 1996)

Ecosys­tem Roles

There is lit­tle in­for­ma­tion about the ecosys­tem role of Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus out­side of its role as a preda­tor. Red-tailed coral snakes are known preda­tors to an­i­mals in the classes Rep­tilia and Am­phibia such as small lizards, snakes, cae­cil­ians, and am­phis­bae­ni­ans (Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016). They are pos­si­bly prey to other species of snakes, but be­yond these re­la­tion­ships, lit­tle is known of the role of red-tailed coral snakes in their ecosys­tem. As a preda­tor, M. mi­par­ti­tus may play a role in pop­u­la­tion con­trol of other rep­tiles. There is no in­for­ma­tion on whether red-tailed coral snakes have any mu­tu­al­is­tic part­ner­ships or if they are a host to an­other species. (Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Pos­i­tive

The main pos­i­tive eco­nomic im­por­tance Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus can pro­vide for hu­mans is its venom, and con­se­quently the pro­duc­tion of anti-venom. Many coun­tries in South Amer­ica but es­pe­cially Venezuela and Colom­bia use M. mi­par­ti­tus held in cap­tiv­ity to har­vest its venom and man­u­fac­ture anti-venom to be used in the event of an en­ven­o­ma­tion (Ibáñez et al., 2017; Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016). In Colom­bia, the widely dis­trib­uted red-tailed coral snakes are re­spon­si­ble for the ma­jor­ity of snake-re­lated ac­ci­dents in the An­dean re­gion, there­fore a top pri­or­ity has al­ways been anti-venom pro­duc­tion and med­ical re­search on the tox­ins in their venom (Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016). Bites from coral snakes re­quire ad­min­is­tra­tion of a spe­cific anti-venom to be ef­fec­tive, that is why it is not only im­por­tant to have spe­cific anti-venom in con­stant pro­duc­tion, but it is also im­por­tant to keep study­ing the neu­ro­tox­ins to even­tu­ally de­velop a ther­a­peu­tic, broad-spec­trum anti-venom (Rey-Suárez et al., 2012). Since M. mi­par­ti­tus does not sur­vive long in cap­tiv­ity, pro­duc­ing anti-venom is a chal­lenge (Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016). There­fore, it is im­por­tant to find a so­lu­tion in­volv­ing bio­engi­neer­ing to over­come the prob­lem of lim­ited venom avail­abil­ity (Rey-Suárez et al., 2012). Re­search­ing the venom of M. mi­par­ti­tus can also be ben­e­fi­cial to hu­mans since un­der­stand­ing more about how neu­ro­tox­ins ef­fect the human body can lead to the even­tual cre­ation of new ther­a­peu­tic drugs or treat­ment plans for dif­fer­ent ill­nesses or dis­eases.

Since red-tailed coral snakes are known to in­habit cof­fee plan­ta­tions and other agri­cul­tural areas, there is a pos­si­bil­ity that they might adapt to con­trol pest pop­u­la­tions (Camp­bell and Lamar, 2004). Usu­ally near human set­tle­ments, pests like ro­dents pose a prob­lem for crops, and a grow­ing ro­dent pop­u­la­tion usu­ally at­tracts their nat­ural preda­tors (e.g., wild cats and snakes). While M. mi­par­ti­tus is not known to hunt ro­dents in the wild, it may adapt its diet if ro­dents are par­tic­u­larly abun­dant. Red-tailed coral snakes could po­ten­tially offer some form of pest con­trol and ben­e­fit hu­mans by hunt­ing crop-de­stroy­ing ro­dents, al­though there have been no stud­ies to sup­port this claim. It is un­known how ex­actly hu­mans ben­e­fit from the ecosys­tem func­tions of M. mi­par­ti­tus. Red-tailed coral snakes may eat other snakes and as a re­sult could ben­e­fit human health by re­duc­ing ven­omous snake pop­u­la­tions that pose ad­di­tional threat to hu­mans. (Camp­bell and Lamar, 2004; Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016; Ibáñez, et al., 2017; Rey-Suárez, et al., 2012)

Eco­nomic Im­por­tance for Hu­mans: Neg­a­tive

The main neg­a­tive im­pact Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus can have on hu­mans is phys­i­cal in­jury through en­ven­o­ma­tion. Red-tailed coral snakes pos­sess highly toxic venom mostly com­posed of a novel three-fin­ger toxin that is the major neu­ro­toxic com­po­nent in the venom cock­tail (Rey-Suárez et al., 2012). Com­pared to other snake species, en­ven­o­ma­tion by M. mi­par­ti­tus is rel­a­tively rare, but its venom can be po­ten­tially life-threat­en­ing (Cañas et al., 2017). If a bite that in­jected venom into the vic­tim (there are dry bites where no venom is ac­tu­ally in­jected) is left un­treated, it can cause se­ri­ous dam­age to the body in­clud­ing flac­cid paral­y­sis, and even­tu­ally cause res­pi­ra­tory ar­rest and death (Cañas et al., 2017; Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016). If bit­ten, vic­tims should be treated with the anti-venom; how­ever, the avail­abil­ity of the anti-venom is low or even un­avail­able in the areas where M. mi­par­ti­tus is found (Rey-Suárez et al., 2012). For now, en­ven­o­ma­tion may be rel­a­tively rare, but ex­pan­sion of human set­tle­ment into wild habi­tats may in­crease these dan­ger­ous hu­man-wildlife in­ter­ac­tions. Be­sides in­jur­ing hu­mans via en­ven­o­ma­tion, M. mi­par­ti­tus does not cause any sig­nif­i­cant eco­nomic costs (other than the med­ical bills). (Cañas, et al., 2017; Henao Duque and Núñez Rangel, 2016; Rey-Suárez, et al., 2012)

  • Negative Impacts
  • injures humans

Con­ser­va­tion Sta­tus

Over­all, Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus has not been neg­a­tively im­pacted by human ac­tiv­ity to the de­gree of re­quir­ing any in­ter­ven­tion. Not much is known of its sub­species, but the species as a whole is listed as least con­cern by the IUCN (Ibáñez et al., 2017). Cur­rently, M. mi­par­ti­tus does not re­quire any sig­nif­i­cant or ad­di­tional pro­tec­tion be­cause sev­eral pop­u­la­tions can be found in a few pro­tected areas (Ibáñez et al., 2017). Red-tailed coral snakes are found in pro­tected na­tional parks and areas, such as in the Barro Col­orado Nat­ural Mon­u­ment in Panama, the Darien Na­tional Park, the Altos de Cam­pana Na­tional Park, and the Sobera­nia Na­tional Park (Ibáñez et al., 2017). Since M. mi­par­ti­tus has a wide habi­tat range in north­ern South Amer­ica, it is pos­si­ble that it may oc­cupy places in other pro­tected parks. It is also pos­si­ble that as agri­cul­tural land use ex­pands into nat­ural habi­tats, habi­tat loss could in­crease. While red-tailed coral snakes are only per­se­cuted by local peo­ple in small com­mu­ni­ties, habi­tat loss cou­pled with human ex­pan­sion may lead to more en­ven­o­ma­tion and may change the gen­eral pub­lic per­cep­tion of the en­tire species (Ibáñez et al., 2017). (Ibáñez, et al., 2017)

Other Com­ments

There have been some changes to the clas­si­fi­ca­tions of some of the sub­species of Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus. Cur­rently on the ITIS (In­te­grated Tax­o­nomic In­for­ma­tion Sys­tem) web­page, there are 5 val­i­dated sub­species listed: M. m. anom­alus, M. m. de­cus­sa­tus, M. m. mi­par­ti­tus, M. m. popayen­sis, and M. m. rozei. The species M. m. semi­par­i­ti­tus was once an ac­cepted sub­species clas­si­fi­ca­tion. How­ever, it has since been in­val­i­dated.

Con­trib­u­tors

Luna Li (au­thor), Col­orado State Uni­ver­sity, Nathan Dorff (ed­i­tor), Col­orado State Uni­ver­sity, Tanya Dewey (ed­i­tor), Uni­ver­sity of Michi­gan-Ann Arbor.

Glossary

Neotropical

living in the southern part of the New World. In other words, Central and South America.

World Map

agricultural

living in landscapes dominated by human agriculture.

aposematic

having coloration that serves a protective function for the animal, usually used to refer to animals with colors that warn predators of their toxicity. For example: animals with bright red or yellow coloration are often toxic or distasteful.

bilateral symmetry

having body symmetry such that the animal can be divided in one plane into two mirror-image halves. Animals with bilateral symmetry have dorsal and ventral sides, as well as anterior and posterior ends. Synapomorphy of the Bilateria.

carnivore

an animal that mainly eats meat

chaparral

Found in coastal areas between 30 and 40 degrees latitude, in areas with a Mediterranean climate. Vegetation is dominated by stands of dense, spiny shrubs with tough (hard or waxy) evergreen leaves. May be maintained by periodic fire. In South America it includes the scrub ecotone between forest and paramo.

chemical

uses smells or other chemicals to communicate

drug

a substance used for the diagnosis, cure, mitigation, treatment, or prevention of disease

ectothermic

animals which must use heat acquired from the environment and behavioral adaptations to regulate body temperature

fertilization

union of egg and spermatozoan

forest

forest biomes are dominated by trees, otherwise forest biomes can vary widely in amount of precipitation and seasonality.

motile

having the capacity to move from one place to another.

mountains

This terrestrial biome includes summits of high mountains, either without vegetation or covered by low, tundra-like vegetation.

native range

the area in which the animal is naturally found, the region in which it is endemic.

nocturnal

active during the night

oviparous

reproduction in which eggs are released by the female; development of offspring occurs outside the mother's body.

polygynandrous

the kind of polygamy in which a female pairs with several males, each of which also pairs with several different females.

rainforest

rainforests, both temperate and tropical, are dominated by trees often forming a closed canopy with little light reaching the ground. Epiphytes and climbing plants are also abundant. Precipitation is typically not limiting, but may be somewhat seasonal.

seasonal breeding

breeding is confined to a particular season

sexual

reproduction that includes combining the genetic contribution of two individuals, a male and a female

tactile

uses touch to communicate

terrestrial

Living on the ground.

tropical

the region of the earth that surrounds the equator, from 23.5 degrees north to 23.5 degrees south.

venomous

an animal which has an organ capable of injecting a poisonous substance into a wound (for example, scorpions, jellyfish, and rattlesnakes).

Ref­er­ences

2015. "COTERC (Cana­dian Or­ga­ni­za­tion for Trop­i­cal Ed­u­ca­tion and Rain­for­est Con­ser­va­tion)" (On-line). Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 08, 2021 at http://​www.​coterc.​com/​uploads/​1/​6/​1/​8/​16182092/​coral_​snake.​pdf.

Camp­bell, J., W. Lamar. 2004. The Ven­omous Rep­tiles of the West­ern Hemi­sphere. Ithaca, New York: Cor­nell Uni­ver­sity Press.

Cañas, C., F. Cas­tro-Her­rera, S. Castaño-Va­len­cia. 2017. En­ven­o­ma­tion by the red-tailed coral snake (Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus) in Colom­bia. Jour­nal of Ven­omous An­i­mals and Tox­ins in­clud­ing Trop­i­cal Dis­eases, 23: 9. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 08, 2021 at https://​www-proquest-com.​ezproxy2.​library.​colostate.​edu/​docview/​1818043060?​OpenUrlRefId=info:​xri/​sid:​primo&​accountid=10223.

Henao Duque, A., V. Núñez Rangel. 2016. Main­te­nance of Red-Tail Coral Snake (Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus) in Cap­tiv­ity and Eval­u­a­tion of In­di­vid­ual Venom Vari­abil­ity. Acta Bi­o­log­ica Colom­biana, 21: 593-600. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 08, 2021 at https://​www-proquest-com.​ezproxy2.​library.​colostate.​edu/​docview/​1818043060?​OpenUrlRefId=info:​xri/​sid:​primo&​accountid=10223.

Ibáñez, R., A. Ines Hladki, C. Jaramillo, M. Ramírez Pinilla, J. Ren­jifo, N. Urbina, W. Schargel, G. Rivas. 2017. "The IUCN Red List of Threat­ened Species" (On-line). Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 08, 2021 at https://​www.​iucnredlist.​org/​species/​203627/​2769221.

Mat­ti­son, C. 1999. Snake: The Es­sen­tial Vi­sual Guide to the World of Snakes. New York: DK Pub­lish­ing, Inc..

Mat­ti­son, C. 2007. The New En­cy­clo­pe­dia of Snakes. Prince­ton, New Jer­sey: Prince­ton Uni­ver­sity Press.

Rey-Suárez, P., R. Stu­ani Flo­ri­ano, S. Ros­te­lato-Fer­reira, M. Sal­dar­riaga-Córdoba, V. Núñez, L. Ro­drigues-Simioni, B. Lomonte. 2012. Mi­par­toxin-I, a novel three-fin­ger toxin, is the major neu­ro­toxic com­po­nent in the venom of the red­tail coral snake Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus (Elap­i­dae). Tox­i­con, 60: 851-863. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 08, 2021 at https://​www-sciencedirect-com.​ezproxy2.​library.​colostate.​edu/​science/​article/​pii/​S0041010112004990#​bib42.

Roze, J. 1996. Coral Snakes of the Amer­i­cas: Bi­ol­ogy, Iden­ti­fi­ca­tion, and Ven­oms. Mal­abar, Florida: Krieger Pub­lish­ing.

Va­len­cia, J., K. Garzón-Tello, D. Cogălniceanu. 2020. Male-male com­bat in the coral­snake Mi­cru­rus mi­par­ti­tus de­cus­sa­tus (Squa­mata: Elap­i­dae). Her­petol­ogy Notes, 13: 329-332. Ac­cessed Feb­ru­ary 08, 2021 at https://​www.​biotaxa.​org/​hn/​article/​viewFile/​56544/​60794.