A fundamental goal in wildlife management and conservation programs is to understand the current distribution of a species and the habitats that it relies on.
One of the more challenging aspects of working with rare and imperiled species is that there is often a fundamental lack of basic biology or natural history data available to use in conservation projects.
I have worked with many fascinating reptile and amphibian species over the years, but few experiences compare to interacting with large rattlesnakes. They are impressive and charismatic animals that have a reputation not at all deserved.
The Orianne Society has now been working on Spotted Turtle research projects since 2014, and they have become one of our primary focal species in recent years.
Truthfully, while my job was to find indigos as part of The Orianne Society’s annual occupancy surveys, I also wanted to find the far more elusive Florida Pine Snake… they’re both striking and cryptic, spending the majority of their lives in rodent burrows underground.