The Los Angeles Zoo is working with the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and San Antonio Zoo in an effort called the Project Obscurus that aims to help recover the New Mexico ridge-nosed rattlesnake — a species that is federally threatened.
Formally known as the Crotalus willardi obscurus, the snakes are critically endangered, so in August a group of 40 conservation experts met in Mexico to launch breeding efforts at the Los Angeles Zoo, San Antonio Zoo and Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
Byron Wusstig, L.A. Zoo Acting Curator of Reptiles, weighing a zoo-born NM Ridge-nosed rattlesnake offspring. (Photo by Jamie Pham, Courtesy of the Los Angeles Zoo)
Acting Curator of Reptiles, Byron Wusstig, weighing Ridgenose Rattlesnakes Quarantine. (Photo by Jamie Pham, Courtesy of the Los Angeles Zoo)
New Mexico Ridge-nose rattlesnake. (Photo by Jamie Pham, Courtesy of the Los Angeles Zoo)
An adult NM Ridge-nosed rattlesnake being transferred into a freshly cleaned habitat. (Photo by Jamie Pham, Courtesy of the Los Angeles Zoo)
New Mexico Ridge-nose rattlesnake. (Photo by Jamie Pham, Courtesy of the Los Angeles Zoo)
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Byron Wusstig, L.A. Zoo Acting Curator of Reptiles, weighing a zoo-born NM Ridge-nosed rattlesnake offspring. (Photo by Jamie Pham, Courtesy of the Los Angeles Zoo)
Each of the three zoos collected 10 specimens during the first phase of a breeding program that Rattlesnake Conservancy says will “be aimed at bolstering and diversifying the genetics of the U.S. populations of this rattlesnake through selective managed breeding and eventual release of offspring into their native habitat.”
“I am incredibly proud of the collective commitment to this project,” said Tony Daly-Crews, Project Obscurus director at the Rattlesnake Conservancy based in Florida in a prepared statement. “This is the largest assisted migration effort ever undertaken for a rattlesnake species, and I believe it will be pivotal in recovering the U.S. population.” Florida has a native population of rattlesnakes include the Eastern Diamondbacks.
A documentary short filmed on location about Project Obscurus is on YouTube and available for viewing here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9QanbNhpiQ.
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