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<\/p>\nGeorge Pisani and Bill Busby are looking for help.\u00a0 You, your students and other interested parties can help expand the knowledge of two Eastern Kansas snakes:\u00a0 Red-bellied and Smooth Earth Snakes.\u00a0 Note that these are some of the earliest snakes to show up in the spring (March).\u00a0 Spread the word to others in your community.\u00a0 If you want to participate you’ll need to get going. Here are the details:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\n<\/strong><\/p>\nSmooth Earth Snake and Redbelly Snake Population Survey<\/strong><\/p>\n
Kansas Biological Survey (KBS) is conducting a survey of these two Kansas snakes recognized as Threatened in the State. We are looking for new populations and ask that students and teachers in the eastern counties of Kansas be on the lookout for these species in your area, and report sightings to us using the report form available at http:\/\/people.ku.edu\/~gpisani\/SWGform.html<\/a>. Sightings must be confirmed by us, either by a live specimen (which may be released at capture point after we confirm identification) and\/or high-quality photograph. We also need detailed documentation of habitat in which you may find them! If you find either species, note the area well and contact us ASAP! We especially need people to help us in Linn and Anderson counties; email us as soon as possible if you can help.<\/p>\n
Both species are cool-weather snakes, and are among the very earliest to emerge from hibernation. Look for them under cover objects (tin, rocks, wood) from early March on (depending upon temperature). A great way to locate these snakes is to distribute 2ftx4ft pieces of salvaged barn tin (the corrugated kind) in likely habitat, especially edge zones between woods and unmowed grass areas. Part of this effort is to determine just what sorts of habitat both species prefer, so don\u2019t overlook pastures, woods , or whatever habitat is in your area.. Spread some tin [with landowner permission]; see what comes in! And don\u2019t forget to remove the tin when done sampling an area..
\nFor an overview of current Kansas records of these species, visit the Kansas Herpetofaunal Atlas pages from links on our web site <\/a>(above).<\/p>\nTo add incentive, we will award publications to people with the most confirmed sightings in new localities during 2010 as follows: <\/strong><\/p>\n
Most new localities reported: <\/strong>A copy of 2nd printing (1980) Autecology of the Copperhead 1960 by Henry S. Fitch and also a copy of 2nd printing (1991) Reproductive Cycles in Lizards and Snakes 1970 by Henry S. Fitch.
\nSecond place<\/strong>, most new localities reported: CHOICE OF ONE OF THE FOLLOWING- a copy of 2nd printing (1980) Autecology of the Copperhead 1960 by Henry S. Fitch and also a copy of 2nd printing (1991) Reproductive Cycles in Lizards and Snakes 1970 by Henry S. Fitch.
\nThird place<\/strong>, most new localities reported:\u00a0 A copy of Biology, status and management of the Timber Rattlesnake (Crotalus horridus): A guide for conservation (1993), by William S. Brown.<\/p>\nGeorge Pisani\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Bill Busby
\ngpisani@ku.edu\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 wbusby@ku.edu<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"George Pisani and Bill Busby are looking for help.\u00a0 You, your students and other interested parties can help expand the knowledge of two Eastern Kansas snakes:\u00a0 Red-bellied and Smooth Earth Snakes.\u00a0 Note that these are some of the earliest snakes to show up in the spring (March).\u00a0 Spread the word to others in your community.\u00a0
+ Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[109,1,36,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2172","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-id-challenge","category-kabt-news","category-nature","category-student-research-ideas"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2172"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2178,"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2172\/revisions\/2178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2172"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2172"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kabt.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2172"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}