Put it down to natural antipathy or an ancient prejudice that has lodged in our amygdala. Or maybe it’s simply because snakes have been vilified throughout time and art from the Book of Genesis to Harry Potter (millennia of negative publicity can have that effect). For whatever reason, most people just don’t like them.
So why are so many government agencies and conservation groups, starting with The Nature Conservancy in Florida, so ecstatic about the recent release of 12 little snakes in a north Florida preserve?
For starters, the eastern indigo is not so little. The longest snake native to the U.S., it grows up to nine feet long, as sleek as a stair bannister, with conspicuous scales as black/blue and lustrous as the sky at the end of sunset. From a public relations standpoint, it doesn’t hurt that it’s non-venomous, docile (not aggressive even when cornered) and, at least as far as its diet goes, fond of its fellow snakes, particularly the venomous kind. A daytime hunter, it was once a common sight throughout Florida, right up into Georgia, southern Alabama and southeastern Mississippi. By 1978, however, its numbers had so declined it was one of the earliest entries on the list of protected wildlife under the Federal Endangered Species Act, victim to that natural antipathy, cars and the steady degradation of its habitat.
But the eastern indigo is more than beautiful, benign and beleaguered. Like every great symbol, it’s important, not just for what it is, but for what it represents. The reason it has cut to the front of the reintroduction lineup is because it’s a vital piece in a vast and intricate conservation puzzle that has occupied the Conservancy and its partners for the last 35 years.
As an apex predator, the species plays a vital role as a counterweight in the natural balance, a consumer of otherwise unchecked species, especially snakes. Eastern indigos had been noticeably absent from the party since the last ones were spotted at the ABRP in 1982, by coincidence the very year that the Conservancy began to acquire the land. Many endemic species, particularly songbirds, have likely suffered from the imbalance. While conservationists are not given to displays of unalloyed optimism, it’s cautiously whispered that the reintroduction of the eastern indigo could be as significant in its own way as the reintroduction of wolves in Yellowstone.
Urocyon's Jaunts 2.0 