Combining Powers to Conserve Snakes

This blog was written by the zoo’s Senior Director of Learning and Guest Engagement Allison Price, who accompanied zoo scientists on a recent trip to Michigan to contribute to the conservation of eastern massasauga rattlesnakes.

As a child of the ‘80s, the cartoon Captain Planet and the Planeteers lives rent-free in my head. For those not familiar, Captain Planet is an environmentally-savvy superhero who is summoned when the five Planeteers—teenagers who each wear a magical ring embodying one of the elements—come together. “By your powers combined,” the hero proclaims, “I am Captain Planet!” Like most shows of its era, Captain Planet had a cheesy, moralistic tone that would turn off most modern viewers. But if you can get past the schmaltz, there is something oddly inspirational about the notion that several disparate talents can be combined to create a champion for nature.

I was reflecting on this spirit of partnership driving home from the 18th year of fieldwork for eastern massasauga rattlesnakes in Cassopolis, Michigan. Each year, zookeepers, biologists, and ecologists come together on the grounds of the Edward Lowe Foundation to go out looking for snakes that reside on the foundation’s land. This year, participants hailed from a variety of zoos (Lincoln Park, Indianapolis, Columbus, Milwaukee, to name a few), universities (West Virginia, Illinois), government organizations (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Michigan Department of Natural Resources) and more.

At the Edward Lowe Foundation’s grounds in Michigan, conservationists meet annually to do fieldwork that helps increase our knowledge of eastern massasauga rattlesnakes.

As the zoo’s senior director of Learning and Guest Engagement, my job is to help tell the stories of the animals in our care and the ones we champion in the wild. That means I need to know a lot about the zoo’s scientific work so that I can translate it to the public. I also serve as an education advisor to the eastern massasauga rattlesnake project, which means I need to know a lot about the public so that I can translate it to the scientists! I joined the fieldwork excursion for the first time this year in order to gain first-hand experience that would help me in both those roles. I wanted to learn more about what made this project successful.

Biologists will tell you that the value of the project is the longevity of the research. Many field studies of animals last a season or two, giving researchers a snapshot view of what is happening with the species. By observing this stable population over and over again, we have built a much more complete picture of this rattlesnakes’s natural history, behavior, lifespan, and ecology. My take, however, was a little different. Though I learned a lot about snakes on this trip, what inspired me the most was seeing how much collaboration goes into the project and how many disparate talents and skill sets can be combined into a cohesive team.

Teamwork in the Field

The goal for this fieldwork is simple: Find snakes, safely capture them, transport them back to the lab to assess age, health and other vital statistics, tag them with an ID chip (if they don’t already have one) and re-release them back to the exact spot where they were found.  The execution is a lot more complicated. It takes a lot of coordination and safety protocols, not just for the human participants but for the snakes’ sake as well; any injury could effectively end the entire study. Thus, it’s critical that all team members communicate clearly, move carefully, and work together effectively. As a fieldwork novice, I was impressed with the respect my colleagues showed to each other and the environment and how well they activated their particular skillsets.

Fieldwork involves safely catching rattlesnakes, transporting them to a lab to assess their health and get other information, and re-releasing them.

Some folks have been reptile keepers for their entire careers and were adept at handling venomous animals safely. Others were very experienced at fieldwork and could help us navigate the boggy terrain and avoid poison sumac. One member of my group was responsible for half of our snake sightings that day, either through great observational skills or luck (or a bit of both). As a fieldwork novice, I didn’t think I would have much to contribute, until I learned we needed a notetaker with clear handwriting, and that many field biologists found that a tedious job—I signed right up! it was clear that the fieldwork would only be as successful as the team dynamics.

We were trained to step with precision, in case a rattlesnake is underfoot. If we dropped a tool on the ground, we were told to never reach down, in case a rattlesnake was nearby—instead, we used our 4-foot-long tongs to pick it up. When we found a snake, two team members worked together to safely secure the snake inside a pillowcase-lined bucket, while the rest of the team worked to collect needed data: air and soil temperatures, windspeeds, humidity readings, and GPS locations. And once both the snake and data were obtained, we continued traipsing through the cattails to find the next one.

It was a carefully orchestrated dance, peppered by calls on the radio alerting each other (aka bragging) each time a snake had been secured—because we knew each snake provided another piece of the puzzle we are putting together to save the species. All told, we found an astonishing 76 snakes, including 26 that were recaptures from previous years—making it the fourth most successful fieldwork cycle since the study began.

This eastern massasauga rattlesnake was temporarily held at a lab to be processed and microchipped before being released back into the wild.

Unique Talents Around the Meeting Table

Not every moment of the trip was spent in the cattails. Because this annual fieldwork brings so many conservation professionals together, it’s critical that we carve some time out to share the latest research and plans about the species.

This year, a few key themes emerged. Researchers from West Virginia University and the University of Illinois have been studying eastern massasauga rattlesnake genetics and have found a certain amount of inbreeding present in the species. To some extent, this is expected and sustainable, but if it worsens—due to diminishing population counts and fragmented habitats—the species might face some serious genetic risk.

We also heard from folks at both Wildlife Preservation Canada and Michigan Department of Natural Resources, who are honing techniques for surveying and translocating (i.e., moving individuals from one place to another). These practices could inform future conservation activities for eastern massasauga rattlesnakes. We also discussed changes to how zoos manage and breed these snakes; if the changes are successful, zoo populations could thrive in a way they haven’t done for several years.

Cracking the Code of Human-wildlife Coexistence

We also spent some time thinking about our public engagement efforts—how do we get more folks to be good neighbors to these little spotted snakes? Charismatic animals like lions and rhinos get a lot of love, but it is much harder to get members of the public to care about American toads or even migratory birds, despite the efforts of Lincoln Park Zoo’s Urban Wildlife Institute or the Learning department’s Chicago Bird Champions program.

If it’s difficult to get folks to care about a squirrel or sparrow, imagine the uphill battle working on behalf of an animal like a rattlesnake—which both triggers fear and is dangerous to humans. Yet these animals provide critical support to our prairie ecosystem. They are natural pest controllers, eating small rodents and keeping their populations in check. In turn, eastern massasauga rattlesnakes are prey for charismatic Midwestern species like hawks, herons, and foxes. So protecting a rattlesnake can have positive impacts for all kinds of species—and for humans, too!

Lincoln Park Zoo is currently home to nine young rattlesnakes like this one from a previous litter. Image by Todd Rosenberg.

Harnessing the power of the public is going to be one of the main goals for future eastern massasauga rattlesnake conservation work. It’s one of the reasons I joined the project. One of the challenges facing snakes is the fact that many people are afraid of them, which can lead to snake mortality when they’re encountered in a backyard, toolshed, or trailhead. Helping folks coexist with snakes (and other underappreciated but ecologically valuable) species will be a key objective of the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake Saving Animals From Extinction (EMR SAFE) initiative.

With Our Powers Combined

All of this work is possible because of the collective power of accredited zoos and aquariums, federal agencies and other conservation organizations across North America. Decades of work saving species reinforces this fact. It’s also the reason that the Association of Zoos and Aquariums launched its SAFE program in 2015. SAFE is a framework that helps organizations implement strategic conservation activities to save species across the globe. Not only does SAFE prioritize collaboration among AZA institutions, like Lincoln Park Zoo, but it also encourages participation from many different professionals—from zookeepers and veterinarians to communicators and educators, like me. The eastern massasauga rattlesnake is the 52nd AZA SAFE species; Lincoln Park Zoo is involved in 12 SAFES total.

This is the heart of what species conservation looks like: scientists, keepers, educators, and advocates creating environments where both humans and wildlife thrive together. It’s what makes a snake trek into rural Michigan successful, and it’s what our work at Lincoln Park Zoo is all about.

This eastern massasauga rattlesnake lives at the zoo’s Regenstein Small Mammal-Reptile House. Image courtesy of Animal Keeper Bryan Summerford.

Later on, around the campfire, we celebrated our collective wins. More than 202 people have participated as snake surveyors in the 18 years this project has been going on, and while some have only been there for a year or two, others—like Lincoln Park Zoo’s Faust and Boehm—have been there from the beginning. As the veteran fieldwork participants shared stories from their years on the project and invited us newbies into the fold, I was struck by the sense of community within this project. This wasn’t just a bunch of scientists saving snakes because it benefited their professional portfolios to do so. This was a group of people who truly loved the species and who built a true community to fight for its survival, using everyone’s unique talents to make it happen. Just like on Captain Planet.