Changing how people view and treat snakes
WARNING! Today’s post is not about snakes, but because 1) this is such an awesome story, and 2) Gilas have always been honorary snakes in my mind, I decided to include it here. Our friend Jeff Servoss works for USFWS and in his spare time, does outreach for snakes (how cool is that?). He shared …
Yesterday morning Jeff and I had a prolific little stroll to the old horse barns. First, we spotted a western patch-nosed snake (Salvadora hexalepis) stretched across the road. A few steps later, Jeff saw the first Gila monster (Heloderma suspectum) of the year at the preserve! Gila monsters spend most of their life underground, so …
Ever since we saw Roger Repp’s talk at the Tucson Herpetological Society, Burrow Buddies — or Not?, we’ve been fascinated by different reptile species sharing shelter sites. Multiple species often share the same overwintering site; we shared this fun example here back in April: At another den, we have seen Western Diamond-backed Rattlesnakes, Spiny Lizards, …
In 2011, the Center for Snake Conservation started a twice yearly Snake Count “to map and track snake distributions across North America.” Additionally, the goal of Snake Count is to get everyone (not just scientists) to take an interest in the snakes they see and get involved in conservation. In Arizona, May is typically hot …
We were recently told about a new social rattlesnake den in the Galiuro Mountains. We hiked in to check it out, saw one western diamond-backed rattlesnake (Crotalus atrox), and decided to set up one of our timelapse cameras. The video below is from the first two days of our monitoring, and we were a little …
The week began with a visit from our dear friend Roger Repp, who wanted to check out our new study site and track some of the snakes. We had barely started our hike down Hot Springs Wash when we came across a very healthy looking Sonoran whipsnake (Coluber bilineatus). As is typical with this species, …
We arrived at Muleshoe Ranch at ~13:45 to meet with the manager and finalize plans for our new project. We are hoping to find 10 rattlesnakes in the next couple weeks: two western diamond-backed (Crotalus atrox), two black-tailed (C. molossus), and six Arizona blacks (C. cerberus). We got the grand tour of the ranch, including …