Category Archives: snakes

Scale-destroying Fungus Found in Wild Snakes

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In 2008 three eastern massasauga rattlesnakes were discovered in an Illinois park with deformed heads. Another was found in the same park in 2010. Tests revealed that the snakes were suffering from a fungal infection — a fungus in the genus Chrysosporium to be exact.

The news is breaking now because the comments a veterinarian involved was covered in an Associated Press article. You can read the article in the Boston Globe, here. The article says that the fungus has been found in rattlesnakes in New Hampshire and Massachusetts, too.

The rattlesnake species is a candidate for federal Endangered Species listing, the article says.

As it turns out, the researchers involved published a letter in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases in December 2011. The researchers describe the fungus as being similar to another fungus found in bearded dragons, a non-native pet lizard. That fungus is in another genus, though. A very similar fungus was also been reported in a captive black rat snake.

The fungus is described as being able to break down keratin, which is what snake scales are made out of.

Read an html version of the Emerging Infectious Diseases article, here.
Find the PDF version here.

Photo: Pretty poison, a healthy eastern massasauga rattlesnake, courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service

USFWS: No More Snakes on Planes

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“The US Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized a rule that would ban the importation and interstate transportation of four nonnative constrictor snake species,” a press release from the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced today. The four snake species are: the Burmese python, the yellow anaconda, and the northern and southern African pythons.

The four species of snakes are listed as “injurious species” under the Lacey Act.

The press release notes: “The Burmese python has established breeding populations in South Florida, including the Everglades, that have caused significant damage to wildlife and that continue to pose a great risk to many native species, including threatened and endangered species. Burmese pythons on North Key Largo have killed and eaten highly endangered Key Largo wood rats, and other pythons preyed on endangered wood storks.”

Burmese pythons eat alligators. ‘Nuff said?

Florida’s congressional representatives have wanted the ban for years, says an article from the McClatchy news syndicate. A powerful pet snake lobby has stood in the way, the article says. Who would have thought that a story about nonnative snakes would require “following the money”?

Read the entire article — which includes a lovely graphic — here.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service release says that the ban of five more big, nonnative snake species is on the horizon. Read the entire press release here.

The service also gets in on “following the money.” Its handout on the cost of large constrictor snakes is here.

Photo: A Burmese python and an American alligator duke it out in the Everglades. Photo by Lori Oberhofer, courtesy National Park Service

USFWS: No More Snakes on Planes

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“The US Fish and Wildlife Service has finalized a rule that would ban the importation and interstate transportation of four nonnative constrictor snake species,” a press release from the US Fish and Wildlife Service announced today. The four snake species are: the Burmese python, the yellow anaconda, and the northern and southern African pythons.

The four species of snakes are listed as “injurious species” under the Lacey Act.

The press release notes: “The Burmese python has established breeding populations in South Florida, including the Everglades, that have caused significant damage to wildlife and that continue to pose a great risk to many native species, including threatened and endangered species. Burmese pythons on North Key Largo have killed and eaten highly endangered Key Largo wood rats, and other pythons preyed on endangered wood storks.”

Burmese pythons eat alligators. ‘Nuff said?

Florida’s congressional representatives have wanted the ban for years, says an article from the McClatchy news syndicate. A powerful pet snake lobby has stood in the way, the article says. Who would have thought that a story about nonnative snakes would require “following the money”?

Read the entire article — which includes a lovely graphic — here.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service release says that the ban of five more big, nonnative snake species is on the horizon. Read the entire press release here.

The service also gets in on “following the money.” Its handout on the cost of large constrictor snakes is here.

Photo: A Burmese python and an American alligator duke it out in the Everglades. Photo by Lori Oberhofer, courtesy National Park Service

Lake Erie Watersnake Declared Recovered

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The Lake Erie watersnake is the 23rd species to be delisted from the Endangered Species Act due to its recovery. Not as glamorous as the bald eagle or American alligator, the Lake Erie watersnake is a harmless snake species found on offshore islands in western Lake Erie.

An article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer says the round goby, an invasive fish, and a public education campaign were keys to the species’ recovery:

The arrival of round gobies in Lake Erie – a bottom dwelling fish that came from the Black and Caspian seas via ballast water from ships – crowded out native fish like madtom, stonecat, and longperch, but helped Lake Erie watersnakes rebound.

 Read the US Fish and Wildlife press release here. (Most media coverage is a rehash of the release.) The release has links to a fact sheet on the snake, and the final rule. The Cleveland Plain Dealer story goes beyond the release.

The state of Ohio will retain the snake on its list of endangered species.

Photo: A very cooperative Lake Erie watersnake (bottom of photo), photo courtesy of the US Fish and Wildlife Service

Wildlife Flees Floods

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Today’s NOAA flood warnings

Wildlife is fleeing the major flooding along the Mississippi River. (There is also major flooding today on the James River in South Dakota and Lake Champlain in Vermont.)

–ABC News focuses on the danger of snake bites to residents in the flood zone.

-Articles in the The Desoto Times Tribune (Miss.) and the Natchez Democrat focus on deer fleeing the floodwaters, and quote state wildlife officials saying that all hunting regs still apply.

-One Louisiana parish is asking the state Department of Fisheries and Wildlife to double hunting fines during the flood emergency.

-A Vermont story focuses on flooding’s impacts on plant habitat, the threat to a rare tern, and the bumper crop of mosquitoes to come.

Map: NOAA. Purple means major flooding.

Wildlife Flees Floods

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Today’s NOAA flood warnings

Wildlife is fleeing the major flooding along the Mississippi River. (There is also major flooding today on the James River in South Dakota and Lake Champlain in Vermont.)

–ABC News focuses on the danger of snake bites to residents in the flood zone.

-Articles in the The Desoto Times Tribune (Miss.) and the Natchez Democrat focus on deer fleeing the floodwaters, and quote state wildlife officials saying that all hunting regs still apply.

-One Louisiana parish is asking the state Department of Fisheries and Wildlife to double hunting fines during the flood emergency.

-A Vermont story focuses on flooding’s impacts on plant habitat, the threat to a rare tern, and the bumper crop of mosquitoes to come.

Map: NOAA. Purple means major flooding.