About this series

• This month’s Wildlife Watch installment spotlights the protected Eastern indigo snake and why the species matters.
• As residential and commercial development expands across Florida, wildlife is adapting to live closer to people and in some cases, faces increased threats.
• The University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) shares tips through Ask IFAS Extension publications, available in English and Spanish, to help residents and visitors understand, learn to coexist with and protect themselves and our wildlife.

As the spring brings warmer temperatures and longer daylight hours, wildlife across Florida becomes more active. That includes the Eastern indigo snake, a protected, nonvenomous species that’s also North America’s longest black snake.

Though large-bodied and often misunderstood, this native snake — also known as the blue indigo snake, gopher snake and blue bull snake — is harmless to people and plays an important role in Florida’s ecosystems.

“The genus name Drymarchon means ‘forest ruler,’ and these snakes really do reign over a remarkable range of Florida habitats,” said Hance Ellington, assistant professor of wildlife ecology and conservation at the UF/IFAS Range Cattle Research and Education Center in Ona. “Protecting them also protects the longleaf pine, scrub and gopher tortoise burrows that many other species depend on. The best thing the public can do is replace fear with understanding.”

To help residents recognize them from afar, understand what makes them beneficial and where they are most often found, UF/IFAS experts are spotlighting the ASK IFAS Extension Wildlife of Florida Factsheet: Eastern Indigo Snake, also now in Spanish.

With its glossy, blue-black coloring and reddish chin and throat, it spends most of its time moving quietly through natural habitats and sheltering underground. In Florida, the Eastern indigo snake lives in habitats including sandhills, hammocks, scrub areas and longleaf pine flatwoods, which contain burrows created by gopher tortoises where they hide for protection from weather and during nesting. They also rely on hollow logs for nesting.

In northern Florida, these snakes spend most of their time underground, but in South and Central Florida, they remain active year-round, shifting to wetlands during the hottest times of summer.

Eastern indigo snakes mature slowly and move across landscapes, sometimes traveling hundreds of acres to find food, shelter and mates. They breed mainly during cooler months, with eggs laid during spring, often underground.

Their diet includes a variety of rodents, frogs, birds and other reptiles including snakes, and yet scientists describe their behavior as generally calm. Because of its diet, the species plays an important role in helping to keep wildlife populations in balance.

Once common across the Southeastern United States, the Eastern indigo snake population has declined because development has displaced many natural areas, and people often kill the species out of fear or misunderstanding. Today, federal laws protect the snake and prohibit people from harm or disturbance. Conservation efforts focus on protecting its habitat and helping people recognize the Eastern indigo snake as a helpful, native species.

Want to help protect them? Ellington gives three tips for the public:

• Give them space. Eastern indigo snakes are federally protected under the Endangered Species Act. Observe from a distance and never handle, harass or kill one.
• Protect their habitats — and the gopher tortoise burrowed within them. These snakes travel across large areas and depend on a mosaic of longleaf pine, scrub, flatwoods, wetlands and tortoise burrows that serve as critical refuges. Supporting conservation of these connected landscapes directly benefits the species.
• Report sightings to the FWC Florida Rare Snake Registry, ideally with a photo taken from a safe distance.

Para accesar a este contenido en español, por favor utilice este enlace. 

###

By Lourdes Mederos, rodriguezl@ufl.edu

ABOUT UF/IFAS
The mission of the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (UF/IFAS) is to develop knowledge relevant to agricultural, human and natural resources and to make that knowledge available to sustain and enhance the quality of human life. With more than a dozen research facilities, 67 county Extension offices, and award-winning students and faculty in the UF College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, UF/IFAS brings science-based solutions to the state’s agricultural and natural resources industries, and all Florida residents.  ifas.ufl.edu  |  @UF_IFAS

0