The East Indigo Snake
Hey viewers! My name is Meredith and this here (holds up a snake) is Big Bertha!
Bertha is an East Indigo snake. Her scientific name is Drymarchon couperi, and she belongs to the Domain Eukaryota and the Kingdom Animalia, and because she has a spine she is also a vertebrate like you and me. East Indigos can be identified by their beautiful iridescent blue/back bodies and red-face.
What you can see immediately is that she is quite a long snake. The East Indigo snake is known for its length. This characteristic is important because it makes it the longest nonvenomous snake in North America. This breed typically grows to be 6-9 feet, but Bertha is an unusual 10 feet long! She is currently the largest of her kind in captivity.
(camera shows Betha is her habitat laying in the sun half in and out of her pool)
Have you ever seen a snake at a pet store basking under a heat lamp or lying in pool of water? They do this to regulate their internal temperature. Bertha is a reptile, and all reptiles are ectotherms. This means that her body temperature is affected by outside sources. Reptiles always run the risk of getting to hot or cold. So you can see that global warming is potentially disastrous to all reptiles.
(Camera: shot of different east indigo slithering through the brush in the wild)
Snakes typically eat anything smaller than themselves. This means mammals, reptiles, and amphibians are all on the menu. East Indigos are immune to venom which enables them to eat rattlesnakes. Yum!
(Camera: back to Meredith holding Bertha)
East Indigos can be found in found in dry, upland scrub areas of the southeastern United States such as Mississippi, Florida, Georgia and Alabama. Unfortunately, their number have dropped severely due to growing urberzation, gassing of burrows (rattle snake hunting), and the over collection by the pet trade. The East Indigo was put on the threatened list in 1978. It is illegal in several states to own one as a pet without a license. Hopefully with renewed interest in this species we can help this breed once again thrive.
Works Cited
Photograph
Florida Collier County Environmental Services
Savannah Ecology Laboratory Herpetology Program
The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin
Reptilechannel.com
Florida’s Species Recovery Program
factzoo.com
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