Indigo snake3/9/2023 ![]() ![]() Mail order specimens can bring as much as US $225. Snake collectors value it for the pet trade because it is nonpoisonous, docile, and attractive. Because it is large, conspicuous, and relatively slow, it often falls prey to people who kill snakes on sight. A steady loss of habitat has made this species more vulnerable to other human threats. Gassing of tortoise burrows to flesh out rattlesnakes has been shown to be lethal to other species as well. Many factors that reduce the suitability of tortoise habitat, such as fire suppression, hurt the indigo snake as well. Where large areas of otherwise suitable habitat remain, the suitability of those areas has often been diminished by declines in gopher tortoise population and their burrows that provide shelter for this snake. Urbanization and agricultural development have destroyed a large percentage of this species' habitat. These "quick" forests do not support the eastern indigo snake. Large chunks of forest have been logged and replanted with fast-growing pines that can be grown and quickly harvested. Surviving stands of forest have also been degraded by suppression of fire or by logging. ![]() In recent decades, agricultural and residential development have deforested millions of acres. The decline of the eastern indigo snake mirrors the loss of mature long-leaf and pine forests in the South of the US. The Indigo may be the longest snake in North America with some being as long as 9.2ft (2.8m) and in Central America they may be as large as 10ft (3m).Įastern Indigo - Endangered Species Status: Threatened The belly can be light brown, salmon, pink or dark. The all have the bright shiny iridescence but the underside, head and tails vary in color as some of their names describe. Among those species are the Yellowtail, Orizaba, Mexican Redtail, Eastern Indigo, Unicolor, Blacktail, and Margarita Island. There are about 7 different known related species/subspecies in the genus of the Indigo - the Drymarchon, all scattered throughout the Americas, from the southern part of the US to South America. The iridescent colors in an undulating pattern are made by the lines of the scales where they meet and create an optical diffraction of the light. What these pictures can't capture is how the snake has an amazing purple red (or indigo) glimmer in the sunlight. That's nice but they probably still prefer not to be bitten if they can avoid it. They are immune to the rattlesnakes venom. This is an indigo snake dragging-off a rattlesnake to eat. ![]()
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