Amazon Tree Boas like to feel secure and hidden from predators,
particularly during the daytime. They like overhead cover and they
like recessed nooks or hollows for their resting spots. They like
high perches and they like them toward the upper rear corners. In
this situation, they feel like the cage ceiling gives them overhead
cover.If you give them their preferred perching areas, you will
rarely, if ever, see them go to the cage floor. One common mistake I
see all across the hobby is keepers setting up their ATB cages with
straight perches as is commonly seen in Emerald Tree Boa & Green
Tree Python cages. When set up like this, ATBs will seek a
comfortable, secure rear corner of the cage floor to spend most of
it's daytime hours. This leads to the misinformation posted all over
the internet regarding ATBs not being fully arboreal like the ETBs
and GTPs. This is a total myth! ATBs go to the cage floor because
the keeper has them set up improperly.
To further illustrate this point, I asked Dr Henderson if he had
ever, if at all, encountered any tree boas on the ground during his
extensive Hortulanus Complex field work. If I remember correctly,
his answer was "1 or 2".
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