Photo by Sanket Rajurkar on Unsplash (illustrative)
On 20 March 2025, researchers from the Barbados Ministry of Environment and the conservation group Re:wild found a Barbados threadsnake under a rock in the island's Scotland District. The find, announced on 23 July 2025, was the first confirmed record of the tiny species in nearly 20 years.
Key facts
Fully grown, the threadsnake is only 9 to 10 centimeters (about 4 inches) long, small enough to sit on a coin.
It had been documented only a handful of times since 1889 and was on Re:wild's list of species lost to science.
The searchers, Connor Blades and Justin Springer, turned over hundreds of rocks during about a year of searching.
The blind, burrowing snake eats ants and termites, and females lay a single egg at a time.
Why it matters
Barbados has lost about 98% of its original forest, and many of its native species have already disappeared. Finding the threadsnake still alive shows that small forest patches can shelter rare animals, and gives conservationists a reason and a starting point to protect them.
Worth noting
Scientists do not know how many threadsnakes are left. The species faces habitat loss and possible competition from the invasive Brahminy blind snake, and its slow breeding makes recovery harder.