Boulengerula taitana

The amphibian

As stated above, B. Taitana are caecilians, that are amphibians who are limbless and long in length. This amphibians' skin is divided into ring shapes, that gives the animal a similar appearance to that of an earthworm. Hatchling B. Taitana are about 28 mm in length and have an inadequately ossified axial and skull skeleton in contrast to other direct-developing species.

Range and habitat

B. Taitana are found to occupy forest environments more often than agricultural environments in east Africa. B. Taitana has also been found to be longer in length when found in forest settings compared to agricultural settings – with forest-inhabiting B. Taitana averaging 285.9 mm and agriculture-inhabiting B. Taitana averaging 219.3 mm. B. Taitana are typically found only a couple centimeters under the soil beneath rotting logs and in soil that gradually builds up around static rocks.

Pins are Wikidata “endemic to” fields. Orange dots, when present, are GBIF occurrence tiles — survey bias included.

Diet and breeding

The dentition of offspring includes 'fetal-like' teeth, that they use to peel and eat the modified skin of their mothers after birth.

In crisis

As of 2020, B. Taitana is classified as endangered according to the IUCN Red List. It tolerates low-intensity agricultural practices, but is threatened by intensification of agriculture and deforestation. The overall population is believed to be declining.

Boulengerula taitana is Endangered on this catalog because that is the IUCN category stored on Wikidata. Confirm the official criteria and any later count on iucnredlist.org.

Sources

Written for this catalog from the English Wikipedia article on Boulengerula taitana, Wikidata item Q677689. Family and order context is original field-guide writing about the group, not a copied assessment of this one species. Wikipedia text is CC BY-SA. Not an IUCN assessment. Counts, when quoted, can change — confirm them on the recovery programme and on iucnredlist.org.