Tracking the movement of brown snakes in Australia

Hi Everyone!

 

I'm Gavin Smith, an Associate Professor at the Australian National University and a licensed snake catcher based and operating in the bush capital of Australia!

 

I have a weird and wonderful fascination with snakes, perceiving them as vital agents in the ecosystem but also as deeply misunderstood - and highly persecuted - wildlife. As a result of working with venomous snakes for the past five years, and relocating hundreds of these creatures from homes, workplaces and schools, I am now leading a pioneering project in Canberra exploring the movement behaviours and habitat use of Eastern brown snakes, one of the most highly feared species of snake in this country.

 

Every year, large numbers of native snakes are removed from around people’s properties and then relocated to new environments. But little is known about the welfare or ecological impacts of these translocation practices, particularly survivability rates of individual snakes after release, but also how different snakes respond to the experience of being displaced. By fitting a sample of urban-adapted Eastern brown snakes with transmitters and tracking them over time, the project is building an evidence-base that will be disseminated via online and in-person public education activities and open-source publications to improve species conservation outcomes.

 

Although we have been fortunate enough to receive start-up funding from the Ginninderry Conservation Trust and the ACT Herpetological Association, this project is costly to run in the long term, as we require to:

1. purchase state-of-the-art technologies and equipment for conducting the tracking;
2. contract a wildlife veterinarian to surgically implant project snakes with customised transmitters - which have to be replaced each year;
3. remunerate researchers to routinely track the animals in the field so that we can generate a detailed picture of their spatial ecology, but also pay for IT infrastructural costs and the services of GIS experts.

 

For these reasons, we are seeking financial contributions from the community to meet some of these costs and to ensure the long-term viability of the project. Patrons contributing funds will be publicly acknowledged by the project team in their various outputs and, if local to Canberra, they will be given unique and special insights into the research! We are very happy for businesses to become project sponsors, especially given the environmental, conservational and educational focus of the research, and we will acknowledge their financial support in different ways e.g. by featuring brand logos, etc.

 

There is a lot to be gained from this research for the environment and community alike, and we are committed to communicating study results at every possible opportunity. So please support this exciting wildlife ecology and conservation project in whatever way you can!