Reptile & Amphibian Forums

The Atlanta Journal Constitution has an article today about the Atlanta Zoo and their artificial insemination on their Indigos. You can go to AJC.com and sign up to see article. Just thought you indigo keepers would like to know. HDEAN

np

if someone could copy & paste the article to this page. That way everybody doesn't have to sign up with the paper.
If no one else does, I'll do it later, when I have time.
Max
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"I got out of the business because it's almost impossible to do business without breaking a law some place, whether you knowingly do it or not."
Tom Crutchfield

Hello all,

I've been lurking for at least six months, gathering info in preparation for a spring purchase of an eastern. Haven't really had anything of value to say, so I've been silent. However, I have been monitoring the news, and this article is the first to really discuss any aspect of Eastern Indigos (in the last couple months), with the exception of Florida land development blurbs.

Read on and enjoy; I will post any other news articles that come along. Thank you to all the members of the online community that have shared on this board - you're the best!

Patrick in Orange County, California

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The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

December 17, 2005 Saturday

HEADLINE: Old reptile's reproduction takes a twist;
Team: Snake breeding procedure may be first ever

BYLINE: STACY SHELTON

BODY:

   Blu, a snake born at Zoo Atlanta in 1988, has been having some trouble in the romance department.

   It seems every time the elderly eastern indigo snake sidles up to his would-be paramour and tries to mate in his own crotchety, slow way, she grows impatient and moves away.

   "There's just some behavior that they have to perform, and he's not able to," said Brad Lock, a veterinarian and assistant curator of herpetology at Zoo Atlanta. "He tries, but he just can't get it done."

   The poor guy also has a low sperm count, and the swimmers he does have wouldn't make the local club team.

   For those counting, Blu's stuff contains about 650,000 sperm per milliliter,with a motility --- or movement --- rate of 60 percent. Healthy counts --- for both snakes and humans --- are between 1 million and 3 million sperm per milliliter and 90 percent motility.

   But at Zoo Atlanta, where animal mating is watched as carefully as a NASA space operation, the veterinarians decided an intervention was in order.

   Friday morning, Mark Mitchell, a Louisiana State University assistant professor of zoological medicine who has been studying snakes and their reproduction and was brought in especially for the procedure, captured three vials of Blu's sperm, such as it is.

   Within two hours, a team of Mitchell, Lock, Zoo Atlanta veterinarian Sam Rivera and other staffers were working on the 13-year-old female, performing what they believe to be the first-ever artificial insemination of a snake using
an endoscope. The device has a camera and a light to enhance precision in procedures.

   An eastern indigo like Blu is a special snake. They are the longest snake in North America, and are only found in South Georgia and Florida. They like sandy soils, wiregrass and longleaf pine forests, but development and the snake's own
docile, slow movements have dwindled their numbers to the point of being listed as threatened by state and federal governments.

   Thomas Floyd, a wildlife biologist with the state Wildlife Resources Division, said the well-mannered, nonvenomous snake was the most popular reptile at carnivals and fairs in the early 1900s.

   The unnamed female, who is on loan to the zoo from the Georgia Department of Natural Resources, was put to sleep on a gurney for the operation. She remained fully stretched out to her 6-foot-2-inch length, except for a few minutes before
the sperm was injected when she seemed to wake up and started to wiggle and curl her body before more anesthesia was pumped into her.

   Rivera, who operated the endoscope, applied lubricant and inserted the device into the snake's cloacal opening, which contains the reproductive tract. He checked his progress on a television monitor and quickly found the two ovaducts,
the sperm's destination behind a fold in the snake's otherwise long body.

   Mitchell planned to go check out the whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium after his work was done. The female planned to sleep it off. It'll be at least two months before the veterinarians will know if she's impregnated, and even
longer before she could lay six to 10 eggs.

GRAPHIC: Photo: JOEY IVANSCO / StaffZoo Atlanta assistant veterinarian Samuel Rivera works on getting an endoscope ready Friday before the device is used to artificially inseminate the 13-year-old, 6-foot-2-inch eastern indigo snake under anesthesia at the facility's M.S. Silberman Diagnostic Center.
Photo: JOEY IVANSCO / StaffThe snake gets intubated, which allows it to breathe during the procedure. It'll be at least two months before veterinarians know whether or not she is impregnated.

Photo: JOEY IVANSCO / StaffDr. Mark Mitchell puts a Zoo Atlanta snake's sperm into the female, which is on loan to the zoo.
Graphic: EASTERN INDIGO SNAKES* Federal status: Threatened* Other names: Blue bull snake, gopher snake, indigo* Total maximum length: 8.6 feet* Coloration: Blue-black, no pattern* Diet: Animals they can overpower, including birds, fish,
frogs, turtles, lizards and other snakesSource: Georgia Department of Natural Resources

LOAD-DATE: December 17, 2005

For fun I went through and listed the five longest snakes in the States according to Bartlett. Seems to me there was an Eastern Diamondback that was close to nine feet but I could not find verification of that.

Indigo Snake 103.5 inches 8.625 Feet
Bullsnake 102.5 inches 8.540 Feet
Coachwhip 102.0 inches 8.500 Feet
Black Rat 100.0 inches 8.330 Feet
Eastern 99.0 inches 8.250 Feet
Diamondback

Yes, D. couperi currently hold the record of greatest length among U.S. serpents, though C. adamanteus maintains the greatest weight of not only any U.S. serpent, but of any venomous species in the world.
While I have only heard rumors of C. adamanteus reaching lengths of eight to nine feet, I have seen some very impressive Pituophis which could give the Eastern Indigo a run for its money...

Best regards,

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

Max and I were given the world record holder Pitoophis on breeding loan from the Whites. The animal was pushing nine feet The whites Pituophis was never submited for a record. I would question the weight of adamanteus against that of a King Cobra as far as venomous. I would say yes as far as Pit Vipers.

Bill,

Having worked with a number of Ophiophagus hannah and Crotalus adamanteus, it has been my experience O. hannah simply does not harbor the body mass of C. adamanteus. Of course, I have not had the privilege of working with any record setting specimens either...

Best regards,

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

It seems that you are right. Thank you.

Jeff, what snake in your opinion holds the length record within the New World Colubrids? My guess would either be Spilotes Pullatus or Pseustes Sulphureus.

Yes, I believe Spilotes pullatus and Pseustes Sulphureus would rank at the top of the list of longest New World snakes, as I have personal knowledge of a Spilotes pullatus just over 11', while Ptyas carinatus would be my pick for worlds longest colubrid...

Best regards,

Jeff
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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

Do you know what the Ptyas tops out at?

P. carinatus top out at just over four meters, incredible snakes they are. It's simply too bad they are not available within the U.S.
Another large colubrid, which has made an appearance on the U.S. market recently, is Zaocys dhummade, or wasu snake, from China. They are known to easily obtain lengths of over 3m and there has been some discussion among taxonomists as to whether the species should be emended from the genus Zaocys and amended to the genus Ptyas. I was surprised to see a small group enter the U.S. earlier this year, as the snake is highly prized in China, for traditional pharmaceutical purposes…

Best regards,

Jeff

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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

I'll dig up some of my old lit, but the record for the largest snake in US is actually a bull snake caught in texas, it beat the record indigo of 103.5". Don't remember the actual number. It was published in a journal from the Chicago Herpetological Soc.
about 5- 8 years ago.

I know the one that the Whites had was caught in Texas and it was suposed to have been the longest ever caught maby the same snake. I may know of a living coachwhip that could take the record. I will have it checked out.

This photo was sent to me a couple of months ago. It is supposedly a 9' 1" Diamondback that weighed in at 97 lbs and was killed (ignorant fools) somewhere in East Texas.

9.7 lbs most likley. a 97 lb snake would break the tongs. Snake looks like it is over six feet, maby.
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"Life without risk is to merely exist."