The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Fee, The Nature Conservancy in Florida and the Central Florida Zoo’s Orianne Middle for Indigo Conservation (OCIC) is searching for individuals to volunteer and determine digital pictures of Japanese indigo snakes (Drymarchon couperi) from a database of pictures. These pictures are captured on trails through which the Japanese indigo is understood to inhabit.
Indigo Snake Watch
Named Indigo Snake Watch, the undertaking is aimed to enhance the understanding into how reintroduced snakes within the wild transfer about of their new environment. It additionally will assist scientists perceive the actions that they could partake. This system is model new and is known as a participatory science undertaking. Volunteers are important to make sure its success. It’s based mostly in northwest Florida and is hosted on the Zooinverse platform.
This system is solely volunteer and folk can assist to categorise as many or as few images they’d like. Indigo Snake Watch is at the moment putting path cameras contained in the Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Protect. When the cameras seize the images, the pictures are uploaded to the Indigo Snake Watch Zooniverse undertaking. Volunteers will be capable to login into the undertaking and assist classify images.
Japanese indigo snake launched into gopher tortoise burrow. Picture credit score: FWC
“Everybody can assist within the efforts to re-establish Japanese indigo snake populations,” mentioned Protect Supervisor Catherine Ricketts. “Employees on the Protect, which is a part of TNC’s Middle for Conservation Initiatives, are proud to have performed a component in restoring this land, and now – after eight years of releasing the snakes at ABRP – we welcome the general public to assist monitor and monitor the snakes’ continued restoration.”
41 Japanese Indigo Snakes Launched Into Florida’s Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Protect
Researchers will then use consensus evaluation on the labeled pictures to find out probably the most correct understanding of Japanese indigo snake exercise within the protect. This can give scientists a greater understanding of the reintroduced snakes. As soon as this knowledge is collected, it is going to be despatched to FWC, Nature Conservancy, and OCIC biologists to assist modify conservation and reintroduction efforts if essential. Data and updates to the undertaking can be obtainable on the undertaking’s Zooniverse Outcomes web page.
For extra data, go to Zooniverse.org/Initiatives/FWC/Indigo-Snake-Watch
Japanese Indigo Snake Data
The Japanese indigo snake is the longest native snake in america. It’s identified to generally attain greater than 8 ft in size. The snake is a federally threatened species and sure restrictions are in place with regard to possessing them. A member of the Colubridae household, indigo snakes feed on a wide range of animals. These embrace small mammals, amphibians, birds, lizards, child turtles, and different snakes, together with each species of venomous snake present in Florida.
The snake was traditionally present in southern Georgia, Alabama, japanese Mississippi and all through a lot of Florida, however was largely extirpated from the ABRP on account of habitat loss and fragmentation. The final sighting of an Japanese indigo within the ABRP occurred in 1982. The Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Protect is the one space designated by the state for the introduction of the indigo snake. In 2022, a wild-hatched Japanese indigo snake was present in Georgia’s Conecuh Nationwide Forest. This marks the second time in 60 years {that a} wild specimen was noticed within the wild.
