Giant Garter Snake Recovery Plan

The Giant Garter Snake Recovery Plan

By Nick Bultman

http://www.californiaherps.com/snakes/images/tgigasrp6134.jpg

The giant garter snake is the largest of the garter snakes, which is the common name given to harmless, small to medium-sized snakes belonging to the genus, Thamnophis (Wikipedia, Garter Snakes). Giant garter snakes are endemic to the Central Valley wetlands of California, which stretches from the Northern Sacramento Valley to the Southern San Joaquin Valley. They thrive in small ponds, lakes and streams and feed primarily on small fish and amphibians such as bullfrogs by ambush. They are most active between April and November, where they typically bask, hunt, and perform mating rituals most frequently. By November, most giant garter snakes have found their way underground to escape the cold winters. Giant Garter Snakes exhibit wary behavior and are always on high alert. This is most likely due to the fact that the Central Valley doesn’t provide an abundance of cover such as trees, rocks, logs and bushes, which makes them very accessible for predators such as raccoons, skunks, possums and birds. It was also observed that all Giants observed in the wild possessed scars from a predatory encounter. When the Giant garter snake feels threatened, it will dive into water or slither into nearby bushes.

TOP PICTURE - a rice field that are providing better biological resources for the snake.  

BOTTOM PICTURE - the ideal habitat for the snake, which has become fragmented throughout the Central Valley over the past decades. 

Destruction of habitat and wetlands in their habitat has been so frequent that the giant garter snakes have naturally sought out land that meet its biological needs. Snake populations show to thrive in the northern part of California’s Central Valley because man made rice fields have provided a better habitat. These rice fields have created canals, water marshes, and cover from predators which are all ideal characteristics for allowing giant garter snakes to prosper. Other essential geographic features for the snake include flat, grassy basking areas and highly elevated upland habitats for flood protection during the snake’s inactive winter season. Many populations have been documented throughout the Central Valley, however recent trends continue to show that the ecosystem available by man-made rice fields provide the ideal habitat for populations to grow.

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The giant garter snake was listed as threatened twice: first in 1971 by the state of California and next in 1993 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It’s currently listed as priority number 2C, meaning the snake has a   high degree of threat, full species in danger, and high potential for recovery.

The abundance of the giant garter snake has significantly reduced in the past two decades. Several factors threaten the giant garter snake’s continued existence. Habitat loss and fragmentation, flood control activities, changes in agricultural and land management practices, predation from introduced species, parasites and water pollution are the main causes for the decline of the species. Habitat loss and fragmentation itself has completely removed the snake from the majority of its original historic range which used to cover all of California’s Central Valley. In fact, according to population results, 98% of giant garter snakes previously living in the Southern San Joaquin Valley are now absent from the habitat.

The goal of this recovery plan is to delist garter snake from the endangered list by stabilizing the population. Though it will cost over 62 billion dollars to prevent the snake from going extinct or continuing to rapidly decline, the activities benefit both the giant garter snake and surrounding organisms such as tri-colored blackbird and white-nose ibis. Specific recovery strategies include updating management strategies for habitats on public and private lands, conducting continuous population update surveys and Researching more thoroughly on the giant garter snake itself.  The Loss of habitat remains the greatest risk to the species’ survival and can be corrected using the stated practices than do not interfere with the ecosystem; rather they benefit the ecosystem and all organisms living within it. Perhaps, if the recovery plan is successful, the giant garter snake may begin to establish populations in the Southern San Joaquin Valley where an abundance of these snakes roamed happily decades ago. 

Fun Fact: A unique characteristic of the aquatic snake is the secretion of fluids when alarmed. When picked up, they attempted to smear ‘musk’ on themselves and the captor in order to make the snake seem distasteful. If you try to catch these snakes, you might want to bring gloves :) 

Resources used: 

http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfilespcode=C057

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giant_garter_snake

http://www.examiner.com/slideshow/california-bounty-of-pears-and-rice-the-california-pear-and-rice-industries-have-long-been-a-part-of-a-farm-to-table-history-the-golden-state

http://ecos.fws.gov/speciesProfile/profile/speciesProfile.action?spcode=C057