Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The theory as to what happened in St. Vincent (which by the way was an island they DID NOT historically exist on)

Is that a hurricane caused most of the island's fresh water to be infiltrated with salt water.

When this happens, all the critters go to the few remaining areas of fresh water, where here, many of the snakes were easy pikin's for all the feral hogs.

As for MS, I was in the region where the indigos were introduced in MS a few years ago (in Desoto Natl foest). The habitat is PERFECT. There are healthy populations of eastern diamondbacks, gopher tortoises ABOUND (there are burrows everywhere), and there are at least a few black pines still there.

The indigos didn't make it there.
It was a military testing zone (it was fun poking around and hearing machine gun shot and bombs in the distance)

So...there were no all-terrain vehicles here (which, as someone pointed out do a number on tortoise burrows) I suppose the military machinery / jeeps etc may kill a few, but they are limited to a small area. The protected habitat is vast.

Last year, Joe Collins wanted to try this again. They were going to have open season on hoggies first to try to wipe them out, and introduce more indigos.

He actually contacted me to ask for snakes.

I believe the project was turned down by the USFWS

I believe your are correct Dean. When I last spoke to Joe, he said he ran into a few logistical problems (ie RED TAPE) that my prevent this from happening...but, from my understanding, he was going to pursue a few other alternatives. He had asked for some start up hatchlings and I would be more than happy to donate entire clutches for a project like this....but right now, I am not as optimistic as I was a year ago when it sounded like this project had some real potential. If you hear of anything keep up updated.