Fox Snake Tracking
Posted in General By rob_carmichael on May 16th 2007
We recently began a radio telemetry project (Western Fox Snake, Elaphe vulpina) in collaboration with Dr. Michael Corn from the College of Lake Countyand Gary Glowacki, Wildlife Biologist with the Lake County Forest Preserve District. We are trying to better understand where these snakes go after emerging from hibernation. Though not listed as a threatened or endangered species, they face many challenges including habitat destruction, fragmentation and over collecting.
For the past month I’ve been radio tracking four fox snakes and so far, I have been amazed by how far these animals are moving. Dr. Corn has PIT tagged (a small ID chip that’s inserted just under the snake’s skin) over 290 snakes over the past 10 years at this site so he is really the catalyst for this study. The habitat in this area (Lake County, IL) is primarily cattain marsh, upland woods and agricultural fields. Unfortunately, much of it is privately owned and could face large scale development which will spell the end for these beautiful creatures. The initial data has shown that these snakes range far wider than we ever imagined. When we are tracking them we oftentimes need to hike through waste deep marsh followed by long walks through prickly and thorny brush and dense woods. Studying animals is not as glamorous as you think but I can’t imagine a more rewarding endeavor.
I brought two of my staff along: Edward Gudas (Program Supervisor of outdoor recreation and adventure programs) and Bryan Suson (Head Animal Keeper at the WDC). They proved to be very valuabe in the field as Edward helped to use triangulation methods to help us zero in on where the snakes were hiding while Bryan was able to recapture our second raio tagged animal. Once we recapture one of the radio tagged snakes we complete a detailed data form that allows us to accumulate all kinds of information including: GPS coordinates, snake behavior, ground temps, canopy density, weather conditions, weight, and much more. In a 3-hour outing we were able to recapture two out of the three snakes so it’s not easy and requires a lot of patience and persistence.
We added some pics here of our outing. We are looking forward to getting some great information and hopefully, find a way to save these beautiful snakes.
