Snake Study Update-a collaboration with McHenry County College Biology Students

Artificial cover objects or cover boards like those used in the study can often take some time before snakes find them or before the conditions develop under and around them that attract snakes. The cover boards used in our study are beginning to yield results.

Late summer is baby snake season and the team from MCC has begun to find young common garter and DeKay’s brownsnakes in Veteran Acres Park/Wingate Prairie Nature Preserve. The brown snake pictured is considered a neonate or newborn of the year. Young snakes are also sometimes called snakelets. Both common garter snakes and DeKay’s brownsnakes are viviparous (livebearers).