The project defined below is a study on the threatened black pine snake, but also on longleaf pine habitats in general, which is extremely important to indigo snake populations:
As most of you know the black pine snake is one of the most rare of US snakes.
As with any conservation efforts, learning and understanding of the habitat usage and demands is critical.
Please see the information below sent to me by a S MS biologist who is trying to attain just such data. If you wish to help,
please contact me at herpconservation@hotmail.com and I will put you in direct contact with the individual doing the work for more details.
"I'm currently a graduate student at the University of Southern
> Mississippi working on temperature-sensitive radio-telemetry and
> spatial ecology of black pine snakes (and piggy-backing upland
> longleaf pine herpetofaunal surveys as well).
> Unexpectedly and unfortunately, the black pine snake funding got
> pulled out from under us this year. We really want to keep the pine
> snake work going if at all possible (especially since we already have
> transmittered snakes and were expecting funding for
> 3
> straight years)"
Objectives of this project are defined as:
For 2006, we hope to continue monitoring all black pine snakes implanted with radio-transmitters (six originally, currently four remain), and acquire new individuals through standard herpetological survey techniques (drift fence arrays with funnel traps, manual searching, road cruising). Furthermore, there have been very few extensive surveys of the upland herpetofauna in south Mississippi, and the continuation of this project provides the opportunity to survey several upland longleaf pine areas for the third consecutive year, providing important community assemblage information for these poorly understood communities.
