Snake Fungal Disease

We like to periodically swab the snakes in the animal room at Elachee Nature Center to ensure they are at optimal health, and monitor any cases of O.o (snake fungal disease) that might arise in captive snake populations.

We love visiting the Elachee animal room and probably have a little too much fun giving the snakes extra attention. :)

We spent the summer working alongside Bryan Hudson, a PhD Candidate at Clemson University who leads the charge for Project Pine Snake. SCALE Lab students were responsible for helping set up the funnel box traps, check them several times per week, and report data back to Bryan.

While checking the traps, we were swabbing captured snakes for O.o (Snake Fungal Disease) until July, when we needed to close the traps due to heat.

It was an excellent collaboration and we enjoyed working with Byran's team!

We were contacted by the Orianne Society about a potential SFD infection in Chatsworth, GA (Murray County) in a Gray Rat Snake. We were able to meet up with Jeremy Southers, a fellow herp lover, who was holding on to the snake for us prior to relocating him to a safer site. We were able to weigh, measure, and sample the snakes jaw/eye area, as well as a few suspect lesions on his body. Otherwise, he was seemingly healthy and active which is a great sign!

Thank you to Jeremy for his continued support for overall snake health and research. You can follow his Facebook page for a lot of snake information and ID help by clicking here.