It’s end up being a yearly preservation occasion in main Louisiana: Young Louisiana pine snakes that were reproduced in captivity are launched in Kisatchie National Forest in main Louisiana
By
STEPHEN SMITH and KEVIN McGILL Associated Press
BENTLEY, La. — They were born and raised in captivity, however as they gradually crawled far from their handlers and vanished into gopher holes in the Kisatchie National Forest, the group of Louisiana pine snakes seemed ideal at home.
The 5 pine snakes reproduced at the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee were launched into the Kisatchie in early May as part of a continuous preservation effort including zoos in Memphis, New Orleans and 2 Texas cities, Fort Worth and Lufkin. This year, more than 100 pine snakes — a types the federal government lists as threatened — will be launched into the main Louisiana forest.
“We provide the snakes in our snake factories, which are funded by the U.S. Forest Service, into habitat that the Fish and Wildlife Service and Forest Service have developed,” said Steve Reichling, the Memphis Zoo’s Director of Conservation and Research. “It’s simply a best marital relationship, actually.”
Reichling said the attributes of the location where the snakes were launched — a high tree canopy controlled by longleaf pine, little mid-level plants, grassy ground and sandy soil — are all important to the snakes’ survival. The forest is likewise home to gophers that are both a food source for the snakes and the developers of the burrow system where the snakes live and hibernate.
“Unlike some of the other snakes that are here that can survive in different habitats, Louisiana pines, they cannot,” Reichling said as the snakes were being released.
Although they bear a resemblance to rattlesnakes, pine snakes are non-venomous constrictors and aren’t considered dangerous to humans.
“There is no other snake in the world like it,” Reichling said. “And to me, that’s the definition of precious, right?”
The release into the Kisatchie of juvenile pine snakes raised at the Memphis Zoo has actually ended up being a yearly occasion, one that Emlyn Smith, a biologist with the forest service, anticipates.
“I love this,” she said. “This is why I haven’t retired yet, because I love this project and it’s just so exciting. Every time I come out here, there’s the potential to see a pine snake that we released and to see that it’s surviving and it’s thriving and it’s making babies and it’s getting bigger.”
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McGill reported from New Orleans.
