It earned this name for its impressive size and appearance. The first part of the eastern indigo snake’s scientific name - Drymarchon couperi - roughly means “lord of the forest” in Greek. “We have been going through the data to verify that - in this area that we know there are Louisiana pinesnakes - can we capture Louisiana pinesnakes on camera? And yes, we can,” Walkup said. Forest Service in Louisiana, camera traps have been set up in areas where Louisiana pinesnakes have been relocated. This technique has proven successful with Louisiana pinesnakes. They were additionally more cost-effective for long-term surveying because they only had to be checked once every three weeks. Researchers found camera traps had three times the snake sightings of box traps. “That was mostly putting out cameras in areas where they have box traps to make sure it is a viable process and determine the cost per effort.” “Some of our early testing was done in the Sabine National Forest,” Walkup said. In this image, you can see the departing tail of a Louisiana pinesnake. One of the tens of thousands of images captured by camera traps. Forest Service and other institutions are working to see if camera traps work as well as box traps to find and track Louisiana pinesnakes and eastern indigos for research. This makes checking traps even more difficult. Additionally, many shy snakes like those NRI works with live in places that are hard for researchers to access. This is labor-intensive and time-consuming. While straightforward, box traps must be checked daily or every other day to record and release trapped snakes. These work like wasp traps a funnel allows snakes to get into the box, an attractive hiding spot, but they cannot easily get back out. Herpetologists - scientists who study reptiles and amphibians - rely on box traps to survey snake populations. This is a problem for those trying to studying them. Testing new ways to find and track shy snakesĭespite popular opinion, snakes are shy, reclusive and good at keeping out of sight. The territory needs to have good understory cover for their preferred prey of Baird’s pocket gopher, and sandy well-drained soil. One habitat modeling project led by NRI researchers found that individual Louisiana pinesnakes need roughly 82 square acres of mature longleaf pine stand. Forest Service in preparation for Louisiana pine snake reintroduction and translocation. NRI has been working with partners in the U.S. That loss of habitat is one of the major reasons for the loss of the Louisiana pinesnake.” “In Texas, we’ve lost a lot of that longleaf pine habitat, and a lot of it gets overgrown,” Walkup said. NRI has several projects focused on restoring this once widespread landscape. Today, there are only an estimated 3 million acres. southeast and stretched for over 90 million acres. These forests used to be the dominant type in the U.S. They are one of the most ecodiverse habitats in the world after the rainforests, supporting thousands of different species, many of which are not found anywhere else. This unusual snake depends on the uniquely American ecosystem of the longleaf pine forests. The species is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act wherever found. They are part of the same family that includes other harmless Texas snakes like corn snakes, rat snakes, gopher or bull snakes, kingsnakes and milk snakes.ĭespite their name, Louisiana pinesnakes’ historic range includes Texas, where a few small populations still exist. The Louisiana pinesnake is a non-venomous burrowing snake that eats small rodents, especially the Baird’s pocket gopher. (NRI photo by Toby Hibbitts, Ph.D.) A unique snake and its unique home “Our job is to go in and figure out things like how widespread they are, their habitat, genetics, how to catch them, and so on.”Ī Louisiana pinesnake. “For a lot of these species of conservation concern, there’s not a lot of information known about them,” Walkup said. Most of NRI’s work with the trio of threatened snakes deals with habitat restoration and assessment, partnering on early-stage reintroduction efforts, and pursuing general knowledge about the species. “They eat smaller things like rodents, so they can help with rodent control and can also be food for bigger things, so they are an important part of the food web. “Snakes tend to be in the middle of a food web,” she continued. “Snakes are vilified, but they are an important part of the ecosystem,” explained Danielle Walkup, NRI research scientist. The Texas A&M University Natural Resources Institute, NRI, a unit of Texas A&M AgriLife, has been doing a lot of work researching three unique snakes the Louisiana pinesnake, the eastern indigo and the massasauga rattlesnake.
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