Professor Richard King

Professor, graduate students help protect snake from extinction

Research conducted by Richard King, an assistant professor of biology, and several Northern Illinois University graduate students will help save the Lake Erie water snake from extinction.

The snake received a threatened designation under the U.S. Endangered Species Act on Sept. 1, 1999. Species are classified as threatened if they are at risk for extinction, but the danger is not imminent.

"Unfortunately, populations of Lake Erie water snakes have been declining throughout this century," King said. "The causes of these declines include intentional destruction by people and loss of habitat as shoreline areas are developed for summer cottages. Although the water snakes are non-venomous, their aggressive nature has done little to endear them to island residents and visitors."

When the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service began evaluating the snake for federal protection in 1992, they contacted King to conduct a census of the snake's population. King became well-acquainted with the three-foot-long serpents 20 years ago while working on his dissertation. He used the species' remarkable variation in pattern, which range from slate gray to regularly banded, to study evolutionary processes of natural selection and gene flow.

The service, along with the Ohio Division of Wildlife, provided funding for King and his team of graduate students to conduct a three-year population count from 1996 to 1998. The researchers found and tagged the water snakes, which occupy a limited region on the islands and mainland of Lake Erie between the Ohio and Ontario (Canada) borders. Their research netted an estimated population of 1,500 to 2,000 adult snakes and documented a decrease in some populations since King's post-graduate research in the 1980s. These finding helped land the Lake Erie water snake on the U.S. Threatened Species list.

"With this designation, any activity in the snake's habitat that requires a federal permit now requires consideration of the impact on the snakes. Also, it is now illegal to kill or harass the animals," King said. "And by protecting the snake, we're doing more to protect the entire biological community of the islands in Lake Erie, which has its own unique characteristics that should also be preserved."

Source - Northern Illinois University website

Last updated on July 31, 2006