Snakes in Summer School

Today I was in class at UT Austin and participated in a catch/tag/release study for the  Blotched Water Snake (Nerodia erythrogaster transversa)!!  We (the class) caught two (I did not catch any).  It was like the episode from Dirty Jobs when Mike Rowe caught/tagged/released snakes.  It bit one of my classmates when he caught it!!! Although I did not make a catch, I did manage to fall waist deep into Waller Creek (pretty shallow-tough to find the one "hole"--very funny.) While we were measuring/weighing, etc. I actually held one one of these WILD snakes!  It was AWESOME!!!  Thanks to my classmates and Dr Travis LeDuc for a very memorable day.

Holding a Blotched Water Snake!