So, this is kind of an impromptu video
as we are down in Fort Myers, Florida for a friend's wedding.
So, of course we set aside some time to try and go herping and find some reptiles
and we just found this Black Racer!
This is an awesome, AWESOME snake!
We were actually trying to find some other type of reptile which hopefully we'll find and I can tell you about later,
but this is a Black Racer which is native to Florida,
it's a southern Black Racer to be exact.
They are a diurnal species and they don't normally tolerate handling very well, even in captivity,
they're very wild snakes and they kind of flail around in your arms.
This guy though, since I've held him for a few minutes now, has calmed down
although I bet if I were to - uh, yeah- he'd still try to go after me if I, if I intimidated him at all.
He did bit me a little bit so we've got some cute little bite marks on my hand
but they're not venomous, they're very, um, I mean they're harmless to people and they actually only get about 2 to 4 feet long,
which is a decent size but still not overly large.
And because of their very slim body shape, they are a fast species of snake, that's why they're actually called 'Racers'
and this is of course the Black Racer cause it's black and it just has a white chin and white belly.
Beautiful, beautiful snake.. they are most often killed by humans, sadly, because people think they're Cottonmouths
but they are obviously not venomous in any way.
Some of their natural predators include hawks in this area, and they themselves love to eat anything they can find that is of an appropriate size.
They'll eat lizards, they'll eat frogs, they'll eat a lot of rodents too.
The credit to this snake goes to uh, Cindy, my mother-in-law and Ed's mom,
She's the one who found him at first, we found him by this source of water and he's very musky smelling
but what's odd is he smells like fish so I think he's been feeding on a lot of the fish that he finds in the water.
Ed found one scar on him which actually isn't bad for a wild snake
one scar right here, I mean who knows what it was from
but it's really not that bad of a scar, he's also missing the very, very tip of his tail but again that's nothing compared to what some wild snakes endure in the wild.
Hey! What was that for?
*Ed laughing in the background*
Really??
Ed: Now he's like "Nuuh go away!"
*surprised exclamations*
Emily: He got the cameraman!
Ed: Yes he did! He went after ME instead of the camera! You're supposed to strike the camera, haven't you seen any documentaries?
Emily: Now Ed has the bite marks. It's not just me!
Alright buddy, you are an awesome find and unexpected which makes it even more cool but we'll let you go now.
And off he goes!
Hopefully we find something else now too..
Well, here we are, we have just found one of the species we were hoping to find on this trip.
This is the Gopher Tortoise, this is a threatened species of medium sized tortoise that lives in the Southeastern United States.
They get to around 11 inches in diameter so this is an adult Gopher Tortoise here
and their preferred habitat are sandy areas, kind of scrub-land areas, not many trees present,
instead they like a lot of grasses that they can munch on throughout the day.
Gopher Tortoises are herbivorous, meaning they eat plant matter so they like grasses, they'll eat petals of flowers,
they'll eat legumes, they'll eat fruits, including things like prickly pear cactuses, which are actually just over there.
So these guys have a great habitat.
This guy is apparently upset that someone is trying to use his burrow and is clogging it up,
or he might be trying to steal his burrow.. we're not really sure,
but he's doing a lot of head bobbing to try to show off to the other Tortoise that's down in the burrow below.
These are, of course as you can see, a burrowing species of Tortoise.
They dig burrows that are around 15 feet long and about 6 and a half feet deep and of course they are about as big around as the Tortoise is.
So, the burrow kind of grows in width as the Tortoise grows,
however, the Gopher Tortoise again is a threatened species here in Florida
so it is protected, you can't even touch these guys without it being considered harassment
so we are not going to touch them today. The only time it's acceptable to touch one if it's in the middle of the road,
and you need to pick it up in order to help it cross the road so it doesn't get hit by a car.
The reason why Gopher Tortoises are hurting and they're going down in population numbers
is because of fragmented habitats and loss of habitat all together.
Luckily, the area they're living in, these individuals are living in, is a protected area,
so this is a wildlife protected area so they can live out the rest of their life in peace.
However, we can't say the same about many, many other Gopher Tortoises found in Florida,
they get hit by cars way too often.
Not only do they have to find food and avoid cars as babies but they of course have to into adulthood
and it takes these guys about 10 to 20 years to become sexually mature, longer for females, since they have to be a larger size in order to reproduce.
So these have a lot of threats that are not helping them survive in the wild.
Not only is the Gopher Tortoise a cool reptile but these are a keystone species,
meaning that their behavior and how they influence their environment around them, influences the lives of countless other species of animals.
In the Gopher Tortoise's case, it's about 350 other species of animals that rely on their burrows.
Not only do those provide shelter for the Gopher Tortoise, they also provide shelter for other animals
in case of fires or if it's hot, animals can retreat into the burrows to cool off
or on the flip side, if it's cold outside here in Florida, the animals can go in the burrows to stay a little bit warmer since the burrows maintain a more even temperature throughout the day.
These 350+ other species of animals include burrowing owls, rabbits, and even snakes.
Which also take shelter in these burrows during natural disasters like fires.
They retreat into the burrows to survive until the coast is clear and they can come out again.
So these burrows save the lives of other animals.
So we need to work together to save the habitat of the Gopher Tortoise.
Not only are the Gopher Tortoise's themselves protected, but so are their burrows,
so if you're ever in an area where there are known Gopher Tortoises around and you see some section that is roped off,
chances are in the middle of it, or somewhere inside, is a Gopher Tortoise burrow.
We actually saw a burrow in use by another species of animal on this trip so let me show that to you now.
We are here in the beginning of February which is just the beginning of the Burrowing Owl's nesting or breeding season
So, right now they're kind of hunkering down in their burrows that they will return to every year,
some of which are dug by the birds themselves but a lot of the burrows are actually old Gopher Tortoise burrows that the Burrowing Owl then takes over to breed in.
Burrowing Owls spend a lot of their time on or near the ground
and they prefer habitats that are wide open and with not many trees present.
And these areas of land are permanently protected from what we understand,
because they are used every year by the burrowing owls.
Burrowing Owls are one of the smallest species of owls, especially in Florida,
their wingspan only gets to about 21 inches long so these are tiny, cute, little birds.
So again this all comes back to the Gopher Tortoise and how important they are because of the burrows that they create.
So if you see a Tortoise or a Gopher tortoise in Florida, crossing the road, please as long as it's safe for you,
pull over and help it cross the road in the same direction that it was already going.
They are protected in Florida, which means you can not harass them or pick them up for unnecessary reasons,
but you are allowed to pick them up if you are, in fact, helping them cross the road.
Just leave them on the other side and don't do anything further than that but that'll at least get them out of harms way when it comes to cars.
We just came across a second nesting area for the Burrowing Owls,
and you can see each wooden 'T' actually marks each burrow so there are 3 burrows here,
and we think a couple of them may be connected underground. That is so cool!
I was not expecting to see Burrowing Owls on this trip!
But this right here is proof that all of the flora and fauna in the environment is all connected.
We were just walking into this wooded area to try to, you know, flip things, find reptiles,
and Ed walked face first into this Orb Weaver's web but she's fixing it!
I don't know what species of Orb Weaver she is but she's beautiful.
And now she's all angry, probably that half of her web is torn apart. I'm sorry!
Even non-spider people have to admit that that's really pretty.
Ed: Yeah..
Emily: Back to the middle, I guess she fixed it well enough.
Ed: Huh! Interesting..
Emily: Well sadly we had to come home, I wasn't too happy about it because look outside,
it's solid snow out there! We had a huge snow storm while we were gone and now it's -11 degrees outside!
And the lighting's off.. but whatever, we'll make it work.
We also did not find everything we were hoping to find in Florida.
We were trying to find wild Chameleons and invasive species down in the Southwestern portion of Florida and among others,
but that just means we have to go back down there, make another trip and eventually find some wild Chameleons!
It was still pretty sweet that we found the Black Racer and those Gopher Tortoises, that was really cool.
So anyway, I would like to thank the supporters of our Patreon page!
We really appreciate your contributions to supporting this channel! Thank you everyone for watching and we'll see you next time!
Here, do you want to say something?
Oh sure, now you're quiet...
Poke!!
Oh my gosh! Oh my gosh, Ed!
Look at this! We need to film it! Look what I found!
An anole..
Ed: *Sarcastically* Wooooow..
*funky outro music*