Posted by:
W von Papineäu
at Fri Oct 7 10:19:39 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by W von Papineäu ]
BURLINGTON FREE PRESS (Vermont) 06 October 06 Rare snake saved, returned to wild (Candace Page)
Huntington: An injured black snake known as Eastern racer No. 039 went home Wednesday, after three months' cosseting by a bevy of humans who saved him from certain death. It took X-rays, stitches, antibiotics, daily baths and frequent doses of cod liver oil.
If you think that makes No. 039 sound like royalty, or the last of his species, you'd be almost right.
The muscular, 5 feet 8 inches of reptile coiled that was around herpetologist Erin Talmage's shoulders at a pre-release showing belongs to the rarest snake species in Vermont. Despite a careful hunt, experts have found only eight Eastern racers since the species was rediscovered in 2003.
So, when No. 039 was found July 14 with a broken jaw and injured eye, a group of snake biologists, state officials, veterinarians and volunteers jumped in to save him. They spoke of the snake with unscientific affection and worry Wednesday.
"Usually, this snake has a lot of attitude. It's a feisty, strong snake and it bites," said Talmage, who has cared for No. 039 for nearly two months. The injury sapped the snake's vigor, she said. "It hasn't had any attitude since I've had it. When I'd give it a bath, I had to hold its head up out of the water."
"We can't wait until he bites someone again," she joked.
The people focused on No. 039 are also out to save his species. Two state agencies are collaborating to create new, pasture-like habitat for the Eastern racer in the Brattleboro area to replace habitat that will be destroyed by a state highway project.
It's part of Vermont's larger effort to save threatened and endangered species -- now-rare animals and plants with roles to play in the web of life in the state's natural areas.
Eastern racers look like black garden hose and feel like silk over a flexed biceps, powerful and smooth. They depend on open fields to hunt frogs and voles. While they are found in other states along the East Coast, much of their habitat in Vermont has disappeared as hillside pastures have gone back to forest.
They had not been found in Vermont for nearly 20 years when Middlebury College biologist Jim Andrews and a group of students rediscovered a tiny population in Windham County in 2003.
In 2004, Talmage was working with Andrews when she caught the snake they gave the number 039. They implanted a radio transmitter in his belly -- luckily for the snake.
The transmitter told researchers in July this year that the snake had crossed a highway and wasn't moving. They found him badly hurt, perhaps by an automobile.
Dummerston veterinarian Dr. Ronald Svec took the case.
"I could see the jaw was fractured and the right eye was badly injured. He had a bad cut inside his mouth," Svec said Wednesday. He used a magnifying glass and sutures as fine as hairs to sew the damaged interior of No. 039's mouth.
"With the jaw, the only thing we could do was suture the lower jaw to the upper jaw to stabilize it," he said. But the snake couldn't drink, so Svec first injected liquid and later soaked the snake daily to hydrate his body. He prescribed a course of antibiotics to prevent infection.
When No. 039 was out of immediate danger, Talmage and her partner, Steve Smith, took over the care in their Huntington home.
The snake lived in a cage heated to between 70 and 90 degrees. Even when the stitches came out of his jaw, the snake would not eat. Talmage and Smith fed No. 039 through a tube every four to five days: pureed chicken, calcium tablets and cod liver oil.
By Wednesday, No. 039's jaw appeared to have healed, although he is likely blind in the injured eye. Still, he has not eaten on his own.
"These snakes are notoriously hard to keep in captivity. We hope the stimulation of being in his home environment will encourage him to eat. That's the best chance he has," Andrews said.
Meanwhile, the Vermont Agency of Transportation is planning a highway project that will pave over one of the fields where No. 039 and his relatives forage for food. (Biologists don't want to identify the site precisely for fear that collectors might hunt the snake there).
Even before the project reached the permit process, the agency approached the Department of Fish and Wildlife to explore ways to compensate for the habitat loss.
"The agency recognizes that environmental quality is what Vermonters desire," Transportation Secretary Dawn Terrill said.
Fortunately, Fish and Wildlife owns a swath of land bordering the highway project. The department will clear trees to create new grassy fields intended to attract the kinds of animals Eastern racers feed on.
"We're trying to solve the problem before it becomes a problem," said Steve Parren of the wildlife department's Nongame and Natural Heritage Program.
After No. 039 posed for dozens of pictures Wednesday, the herpetologists headed for southeastern Vermont to take him home.
"I am really happy," Talmage said. "It is such a great feeling when you release an animal back out where it belongs."
Rare snake saved, returned to wild
[ Hide Replies ]
 VT Press: Rare snake saved, returned to wild - W von Papineäu, Fri Oct 7 10:19:39 2005
|
