They’re called “hognose” because of their upturned snout and broadhead. The gopher snake has smooth scales.Įastern hognose snakes are sometimes called as “puff adders”. The gopher snake may be a stout, slow-moving snake.Ī definite difference between the gopher snake and, therefore, the blacksnake is that the anal plate is entire on the indigo and divided on the blacksnake.Īnother snake that’s sometimes mistaken for the gopher snake is that the black bull snake.īlack pine snakes inhabit a number of equivalent geographic locations because of the indigo but are easily differentiated.īlack pine snakes have keeled scales. The common black snake may be a slender, fast-paced snake. Smaller indigo snakes are easily mistaken for the common black snake and a close examination is required to inform them apart. This coloration varies with some individuals having distinct coloration and others with no coloration. The gopher snake is smooth-scaled and uniform glossy blue-black throughout its body, apart from some orange or cream color suffusion on its throat, cheeks, and chin. The most important individual recorded was eight-and-a-half feet. All rights reserved.The Eastern gopher snake is a large nonpoisonous, stout-bodied snake averaging six to seven feet long. The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2023 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. The reintroduction project has been an ongoing collaboration between Auburn University, the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, the US Forest Service, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, and other partners, Godwin said. Both snakes were actually found by accident, according to Godwin, who explained “it’s difficult to just go out and do a search for them, because they’re small, and they can hide very easily.” During the winter, the project team monitors the burrows of gopher tortoises, where the adult Eastern indigo snakes breed in the colder months, in hopes of identifying the animals. The first wild-born Eastern indigo snake was discovered in Alabama in 2020, according to the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources. And the released snakes are tagged with PIT tags, which have small microchips allowing researchers to identify each animal by its unique code. The hatchling was clearly smaller than those released from captivity, which were usually at least two feet long the snakes can grow up to eight feet long in adulthood. The snake discovered was clearly wild-born due to two factors, according to Godwin: its small size and its lack of a PIT (or passive integrated transponder) tag. “It is an excellent indicator that the snakes that we have released, which were born into captivity, have been able to adapt to the wild, are functioning as wild snakes, and are reproducing,” said Godwin. The discovery of wild-born Eastern indigo snakes means the released snakes survived and had offspring, providing a glimpse of hope for the species’ success in Alabama. The goal is to eventually introduce a total of 300 snakes to create a healthy and viable population in Alabama. In 2010, the first snakes from the captive population were released into Conecuh National Forest. Starting with wild-captured individuals from Georgia, where the snakes are also found, they began to breed a captive population. So in 2006, a team of Alabama conservationists launched a project to reintroduce the Eastern indigo snake to the state. A decline in the snake’s population, therefore, has a “domino effect” on other species in the ecosystem. Jim Godwin, an animal biologist with the Alabama Natural Heritage Program administered by the Auburn University Museum of Natural History, told CNN that Eastern indigo snakes were historically the “apex predator” in the longleaf pine forests where they live. The snakes, however, are a crucial element of the ecosystem.
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