Officials released 42 eastern indigo snakes into the wilds of Florida this week in an effort to recover local populations of the species.
Measuring up to 8-feet long, the nonvenomous eastern indigo snakes are the longest snakes native to North America, according to The Nature Conservancy (TNC). The apex predator species serves a critical role in keeping the wildlife community balanced by eating small rodents and even other snakes.
But due to habitat loss and fragmentation, the eastern indigo snake population plummeted and largely disappeared from northern Florida by the early 1980s.
The recent reintroduction of 22 female and 20 male eastern indigo snakes into the northern Florida preserve known as TNC’s Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve (ABRP) is the latest in a nearly decade-long campaign to help the snakes rebound and provide balance to the ecosystem.
This brings the number of eastern indigo snakes released into ABRP to over 200.
The latest snake cohort was bred at the Central Florida Zoo & Botanical Gardens’ Orianne Center for Indigo Conservation (OCIC), The Nature Conservancy said. The animals then spent their first year of life at the OCIC before they spent their second year at Welaka National Fish Hatchery.
"The eastern indigo snake reintroduction program continues to make strides towards success," said Michelle Hoffman, biologist with the OCIC. "With increased monitoring efforts we are able to gather data to better inform the status of the reintroduced animals and how they persist on the landscape."
The snakes’ success also means the success of the landscape where they live. Officials said that the eastern indigo snake population is tied to the restoration of longleaf pine forests in northern Florida.
Once covering more than 90 million acres across the Southeast, they only cover about 5 million acres today. By reintroducing the eastern indigo snakes into longleaf pine forests, such as those in the ABRP, officials say the snakes will play an important part in bringing pine forests back.