Notes from the Wildlife Care Naturalist:
A Goodbye and Two Hellos
by Emily Hutto

We are deeply saddened to announce that another beloved wildlife ambassador, Towodi the Broad-Winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus), unexpectedly passed away of natural causes in June.  

Like Betty and Scops who passed away last year, she inspired a passion for wildlife, especially birds, in all who met her. Towodi can never be replaced, and it was an honor to work with her and be her trainer. She and her impact on those who met her will never be forgotten, and she is and was an invaluable member of our team here at Ruffner.

Over the past few months, we have also brought on two new members of our wildlife ambassador team—Loki the Eastern Milksnake, and Monte the Northern Pinesnake!

Loki and Monte are both extraordinary ambassador species.  Both Milksnakes and Pinesnakes are secretive and uncommonly seen in Alabama, but are incredibly important to our ecosystem and important for citizens to be able to recognize.

In Alabama, there are two subspecies of Milksnakes: Eastern Milksnakes (Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum) and their almost-identical cousins, Red Milksnakes (Lampropeltis triangulum syspila), both of which live in North Alabama.  Milksnakes are actually a type of Kingsnake. They are called Milksnakes because, as rodent-eaters, they are often found in barns, and people used to believe that they would drink the cows’ milk at night when the farmers were asleep!  Their beautiful red/white/black coloring mimics the venomous Eastern Coral Snake, which is only found in far-south Alabama, but Milksnakes are harmless.  Aposematism is when a venomous or poisonous species, such as a Coral Snake, is brightly colored to warn predators away from it. Batesian mimicry is when a harmless species “pretends” to be dangerous by mimicking the coloration of an aposematic species.  Eastern and Red Milksnakes are examples of Batesian mimicry.  We named our Eastern Milksnake “Loki” because Loki is a Norse god known for trickery and shapeshifting and Milksnakes’ coloring is meant to trick predators into thinking Milksnakes are dangerous when they are in fact harmless.

Northern Pinesnakes (Pituophis melanoleucus melanoleucus) are a beautiful, rarely-seen species with a poorly-understood distribution in Alabama.  They are called “Pinesnakes” because they are attracted to dry, open-canopy, pine-dominated forests with occasional fire.  In Central and Northern Alabama, this habitat is called “Montane Longleaf Pine Forest” - “montane” meaning “mountainous” and “longleaf pine” meaning that the forests are dominated by Longleaf Pine (Pinus palustris), our endangered state tree.  Pinesnakes will also live in Virginia-pine and pine-hardwood mixture forests, and not just Longleaf Pine forests.  The Longleaf Pine ecosystem used to be the largest and most biodiverse ecosystem in North America, but due to urbanization and suppression of both natural and prescribed burns, this ecosystem is now only 25% of its historic size.  Due to the destruction of this habitat, many species that once dominated the southeast are now threatened or endangered, including the regal Longleaf Pine Tree itself, along with Gopher Tortoises, Black Pinesnakes, and Red Cockaded Woodpeckers.  Montane and Coastal Longleaf Pine habitats are found in few places in the world, and both are found here in Alabama.

Northern Pinesnakes have been spotted throughout Northern and Central Alabama, but they are very rarely seen.  Monte is named “Monte” after the Montane Longleaf Pine ecosystem.  We are delighted to be able to have a Northern Pinesnake so that we can educate about this very important, but very imperiled, habitat in Alabama, and hopefully inspire more people to form an interest in Longleaf Pine ecosystems and work to protect them.

Both Loki and Monte are young snakes and are currently off-exhibit while they adapt to their new surroundings and grow large enough to be put on display.  Hopefully, within the next year, they will be able to be put on public exhibit so that all of our visitors can learn about these two very beautiful and rare species that call Alabama home.