The massasauga rattlesnake, designated a federally threatened species last fall, has a tough path to slither, but it seems to be flourishing these days on the 20-acre relic prairie at the Jennings Environmental Education Center.
Public sightings of the stubby snake with black and brown mottled skin increased significantly this summer at Jennings, northeast of Moraine State Park in Butler County. And the center’s snake capture and release study program also had a banner year, according to Will Taylor, park manager of the state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources’ Jennings center.
“I can’t go so far to say the massasauga is thriving, but public sightings of the snake are way up this year. And when I’ve been out I’ve seen a lot more, too,” said Mr. Taylor. “We’ve also had a lot more interaction on the capture and release. The year was exceptional in that regard. We caught significantly higher numbers.”
The massasauga (pronounced massa-sawg-a) is listed as “endangered” by Pennsylvania. It is found at Jennings -- in the only protected prairie in the state -- and at two or three other sites in isolated patches of Butler, Mercer and Venango counties.
Western Pennsylvania is at the eastern edge of the snake’s range, which covers Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin and southern Canada, and extends into a handful of other Midwestern states. The most robust populations are found in Michigan and Ontario, Canada, but it is listed as “endangered,” “threatened,” or a “species of concern” in every state and province in its range.
Mr. Taylor said the snake’s apparent success at Jennings — he estimates there may be as many as 100 massasaugas there and the population is stable — has provided reinforcement for existing management techniques as well as for plans to double the size of its prairie grassland habitat. Because the snake likes open prairie and meadows, such an expansion would require cutting some trees to open up the canopy and create a mosaic of meadows.
“We’ve always thought about expanding the habitat for the snake because that’s the next step and the only way for sustaining the species,” he said. “We’ve started some preliminary work, looking at some trees, studies on soil and plants in the area, and surveying the small mammal populations that are the massasauga’s food.
“We may start cutting trees this winter, but completing the expansion will take a number of years.”
The massasauga, which also goes by a number of less tongue-twisting appellations including “swamp rattler,” “black snapper,” and “pygmy rattler,” may not have a lot of time, especially in Pennsylvania, where its historic locations have dwindled over the years from 19 to less than a handful, and the remaining peripheral populations are fragile.
The eastern massasauga, a timid, stout-bodied snake, only about 2 feet long as an adult, is one of three venomous snakes in Pennsylvania. (The eastern timber rattlesnake and the copperhead are the others.)
Habitat loss is the biggest single factor for the snake’s shrunken range. Illegal poaching for the exotic pet trade is another.
Its prefered habitat is complicated, Mr. Taylor said. The massasauga needs a wetlands where it can hibernate in crayfish burrows — it spends up to 200 days a year underground — and adjacent meadow or prairie grasslands where it can forage on small rodents such as mice and voles, frogs and other snakes.
“The loss of that lineup of dual habitats is the big reason for the snake’s demise in many places. Roads, walls, mowed fields and housing developments all get in the way,” Mr. Taylor said. “At Jennings we have no barriers. We have those habitats side-by-side.”
The remnant prairie, 40 miles north of Pittsburgh, was discovered by noted botanist Otto Jennings in 1905. The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy purchased the tract in 1950 and leased the property to Slippery Rock State College, now Slippery Rock University, in the 1970s. It became a state park in 1981.
Charles Bier, senior director of conservation science with the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy, said the news out of Jennings is good but questioned whether the snake population there and elsewhere in the state is large enough to survive long-term.
“The sites where the massasauga is living are too small and the question is whether we can make new habitat,” Mr. Bier said. “We have three populations that seem to be holding their own, but the habitats are still squeezed and the populations are drastically reduced.
“Overall for the species, I think it’s going to be a while before we can feel good about the eastern massasauga rattlesnake.”
Jennings has a denser population of massasaugas, but two other Pennsylvania sites probably have more of the snakes.
“Jennings is a small place, so any expansion of the habitat would be beneficial. It’s pretty crowded there,” said Chris Urban, chief of the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission’s Natural Diversity Section, which manages endangered species in the state. “We’re not finding it in new places, and it’s important to expand its range into adjacent drainages and areas undisturbed by any land use changes.”
The snakes’ listing as “threatened” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is a good news-bad news designation that speaks to its disconnected and dwindling populations but also requires the agency to put together a species survival plan.
Mike Redmer, senior biologist at the fish and wildlife service’s Chicago office, which is overseeing the development of the plan, said he’s been working with the various state conservation agencies since February and it’s beginning to take shape.
There’s no deadline for producing the final plan, but the service is shooting for Sept. 30, 2018. When it’s done, Mr. Redmer said, the massasauga recovery plan will be eligible for federal Endangered Species Act funding.
“A big reason why the species was finally listed as threatened last year is we did an analysis that compared all the historic areas to where the snake is found now and there’s distinct downward trajectory,” Mr. Redmer said. “There are still individual populations that are strong, but many more at a level approaching ... local extinction. The evidence shows there are a lot of those kinds of populations.”
Don Hopey: dhopey@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1983, or on Twitter @donhopey.
First Published: October 2, 2017, 2:30 p.m.
