Corallus caninus Nederland - website dedicated to the Emerald Tree Boa of South America

Much of the information available originates from private collectors and zoos who have successfully propagated the species under captive conditions. The species is not easy to keep in captivity and losses [read: mortality rates] are still tremendously high due to stress. Stress causes a diminished biologic resistance and many wild-caught specimens kept in captivity eventually die from secondary infections [most commonly RI] as a result of this.

Till that date, 140 years had passed since GRAY first described the species Chrysensis batesii based upon a juvenile specimen collected by pioneer Amazon naturalist, Henry Walter Bates in the “Upper Amazon.” Until just recently, the species we know as Corallus remained untouched by taxonomists until the publication of Henderson's extensive work on the Corallus complex of new subspecies in Corallus hortulanus, formerly known as Corallus enydris. This has resulted in the new classification of the Corallus species, but is perhaps far from complete as more focus is now being laid upon new findings relating to variations in Corallus caninus.

Although the species occurs over a wide geographic area, it is nowhere
common, and occurs mostly in primary rainforest, which is disappearing at an alarming rate. It is also a CITES II animal, meaning that it is a species which may be threatened with extinction or which may be affected by international trade and commerical logging practices etc. During the 1990s, the species was collected in large numbers for the pet trade, but this has since diminished. Although the numbers of animals currently being exported are still alarming, they a nowhere near the numbers that were collected during the 1990s. Trappers need to search for them, sometimes for weeks on end.

They are no longer common within their known range of geographic distribution. In the 1990s, they could be found very near roads or urban areas. This is no longer the case. In fact, they are now rarely encountered in those areas where they were, at one time, most abundant. The clearance of forest areas for commercial use as well as logging is clearly having an effect on their numbers, so the species warrants new closer scrutiny by biologists in those regions where it is known to occur. To date, little is actually 'known about the species, its natural habitats and behaviour, let alone reproduction in the wild and feeding regimes.