I have been to the area on both the Illinois and Indiana sides a bunch of times during which I have walked for hours in search of snakes.

I have yet to find a bullsnake, I have found perfect areas with tin and boards but nothing seems to ever be under them except tons of mice. I would really like to photograph a bullsnake but frankly I'm starting to doubt their existence there.

My concerns are as follows:

People are negatively impacting wild populations due to collection and illegall collection in the areas conservation areas.

The local people (who I feel sorry for) are most likely not educated and kill snakes and other reptiles on sight.

The area no longer supports them or people are displacing these animals.



I really hope I'm wrong. Each time I drove down that way, I got there around 8 am and searched until 5pm in many areas to no avail. I contacted a man who did a study on the large bodied snakes from there. He only found 3 bullsnakes in hundreds of hours of looking and shares my concerns. I also contacted the IDNR but have yet to hear back from them.

I really do hope that I was just looking in the wrong places or during the wrong part of the day. I flipped some really good pieces of tin, I'm hoping that they are utilizing burrows instead. For all the hours I've been there the only snakes I found were a small fox snake under a soggy box and a racer under an old carpet but nothing else. It is such a beautiful place and the bullsnakes from that area are one of my favorite locals and I would hate to see that population wiped out. The box turtles there are a perfect example, with Chicago so close collection is a problem.

So my question is what due you all think about this???

Is collection having a detrimental effect???

Are the bullsnakes stable in that region???

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