Wildfire threatens endangered snakes

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - There have been a lot of rescue efforts recently when it comes to wildfires around the state, efforts to save homes and land but there is another rescue often not talked about that scientists say is very important to the state.

The narrow headed garter snakes roamed when dinosaurs did but most of the populations are wiped out and only a few populations are left now.

The snake is endangered and protected in New Mexico and one of the last places they are found is in the Gila where the largest fire in state history, the Whitewater-Baldy Complex fire is consuming more than forest. Now scientists from the BioPark in Albuquerque are down in the Gila Wilderness catching and relocating the snakes.

“It is a race against time because the rains are coming,” says Albuquerque BioPark scientist Doug Hotle. “While we want rain we are kind of hoping it holds off a little bit so we can collect as many of these as we can.”

So far, they have only pulled 8 of the snakes out of the area. They are hoping to get 50 so they can bring them back to the BioPark and start a whole new population just in case they do go extinct in the wild.

“We are going to be seeing a lot of this ash that goes down into the river system and chokes out all the aquatic life in there, which makes it hard for these guys to find food,” said Hotle.

The narrow headed garter snakes will also be relocated to other areas that haven't been charred by fire, and where they used to live naturally. Each be micro-chipped so they can be tracked, “We will follow these around all next summer and see if these are actually surviving,” said Hotle.

So why do all this work for these small snakes? “We don't know what the impact will be if they disappear from the eco-system,” said Hotle, and scientists do not know how many are left in the wild. More than 500 of narrow headed garter snakes were wiped out in a much smaller fire a few years back.