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SCIENCEMonday 10 August 2015
Mysterious fungus killing snakes in at least 9 states
BY WILSON RING mont Department of Fish estimated total population United States. Not every massasauga is expected
ASSOCIATED PRESS and Wildlife who has been of several hundred. location is reporting that to play a part in the U.S.
NEW HAVEN, Vt. (AP) -- Hid- studying the state’s rattle- An Associated Press re- the disease is threatening Fish and Wildlife Service’s
den on hillsides in a remote snake population for 15 porter was allowed to ac- snake populations. determination on whether
part of western Vermont, years. “We don’t have company wildlife officials “It does seem to be a dis- to list the snake as endan-
a small number of ven- any control over it. It’s just to a rattlesnake habitat on ease that has different ef- gered, officials said.
omous timber rattlesnakes completely out there in the condition the exact loca- fects in different areas,” “I think that in populations
slither among the rocks, wild.” tion not be revealed out Lorch said. that have been shrunk
but their isolation can’t Rattlesnakes were once of concern that too much The fungus poses a greater due to other mechanisms,
protect them from a mys- found across much of the attention could further risk to snakes that repro- such as habitat loss, other
terious fungus spreading country, but habitat loss threaten them. Blodgett duce slowly, such as rattle- environmental changes,
across the eastern half of and efforts by fearful hu- led an hours-long search snakes, which can live up those types of things, are
the country that threatens mans to wipe them out for some of the elusive to 30 years, experts say. more at risk of going ex-
to wipe them out. reduced their numbers, creatures until he found a In Illinois every year the dis- tinct from snake fungal dis-
In less than a decade, the ease mainly because it’s a
fungus has been identi- In this July 31, 2015 photo, two rattlesnakes hide in a crack in a rock at an undisclosed location smaller population,” Allen-
fied in at least nine Eastern der said. “They have less of
states, and although it af- in western Rutland County, Vt. Associated Press a buffer to withstand these
fects a number of species, diseases.”
it’s especially threatening especially at the northern pair hiding in a rocky crev- ease infects about 15 per- Part of the challenge in
to rattlesnakes that live in edges of their range. ice, though it wasn’t clear cent of the population of studying the disease is
small, isolated populations In New Hampshire, the if they were infected. Lat- about 300 of massasauga that snakes, especially
with little genetic diversi- disease helped halve the er, a healthy single snake rattlesnakes, most of which venomous varieties, don’t
ty, such as those found in population of rattlesnakes was found on the forest are in Clinton County, with get much sympathy from
Vermont, New Hampshire, - now estimated at sever- floor. a mortality rate of 80 to 90 the public, which makes
Massachusetts and New al dozen - after it was first The disease can cause percent, said Matt Allen- funding studies harder.
York. spotted in 2006, although crusty scabs and lesions, der, a wildlife veterinarian Snakes are also harder to
In Illinois the malady threat- it was only afterward that sometimes on the head. and epidemiologist at the find than, say, white-nose-
ens the eastern massasau- scientists linked the fun- Jeffrey Lorch, a microbi- University of Illinois who infected bats where sci-
ga rattlesnake, which was gus to the decline, officials ologist with the U.S. Geo- started noticing the fungus entists can go into a cave
a candidate for the fed- said. logical Survey’s National in 2011. The mortality rate and see tens of thousands
eral endangered species Vermont’s population of Wildlife Health Center in in infected timber rattle- of carcasses, Lorch said.
list even before the fungus timber rattlesnakes is down Madison, Wisconsin, said snakes is estimated be- The fungus has been found
appeared. to two locations near Lake he’s been getting reports tween 30 and 70 percent, in all five rattlesnake popu-
Biologists have compared Champlain in the western of snake fungal disease he said. lations in Massachusetts,
its appearance to the fun- part of the state with an from all over the eastern The fungus’ impact on the but it doesn’t appear to
gus that causes white nose have had the high mortali-
syndrome in bats, which ty rate reported elsewhere,
since 2006 has killed mil- said Anne Stengle, a Ph.D.
lions of the creatures and candidate at the University
continues to spread across of Massachusetts who is
North America. overseeing a federal grant
It’s unclear, though, if snake in nine states to study the
fungal disease, “ophid- fungus.
iomyces ophiodiicola” Since the initial hit, the de-
was brought to the United cline in the Granite State’s
States from elsewhere, as timber rattlesnakes ap-
was white nose fungus, or if pears to have stabilized
it has always been present and some are reproduc-
in the environment and for ing, said New Hampshire
some unknown reason is Fish and Game Biologist
now infecting snakes, bi- Mike Marchand.
ologists say. “I’m at least optimistic
“I think potentially this that there are animals
could overwhelm any con- that are successfully sur-
servation effort we could viving from year to year
employ to try to protect as well as reproducing,”
this last remaining popula- Marchand said. “We had
tion,” said Doug Blodgett, a pretty strong dip in the
a biologist with the Ver- population.”q
