Student honour bound to save snakes

Jason Tozer

Ben Corey and friend

26 September 2006: The University's very own snake handler is putting snakes on the conservation radar with his honours project.

Environmental science graduate Ben Corey is trying to change the 'only good snake, is a dead snake' attitude and get the attention for their conservation that there is for more popular animals.

"Many people see the conservation of reptiles as a less significant environmental issue than the conservation of mammals or even birds," Mr Corey said.

"Snakes are not likely to raise the same warm sympathy that animals like koalas and bandicoots do."

His honours project involves studying the rapidly declining numbers of carpet pythons west of the Great Dividing Range.

Mr Corey is comparing the snakes' habitats and behaviour in heavily modified landscapes on farms near the rural community of Leeton, to those in relatively untouched areas in Wilandra National Park.

Surgically implanted radio transmitters are used to study their behaviour, because of the difficulty in tracking snakes, Mr Corey explained.

"Snakes are very cryptic and hard to find at the best of times so the radio transmitters allow us to follow them all the time," he said.

"The method of attaching the transmitters is not that common, because snakes have no limbs we have to anesthetise the snake and surgically implant it inside them."

According to Mr Corey the conservation of snakes has more benefits than one might immediately think.

"It's important to conserve and retain pythons in these areas out west because they are important predators in the woodland ecosystems out there," he said.

"They may provide a potential economic benefit to farmers in the control of mice and rats."

The most amazing part of his honours project is discovering the wonders of our sunburnt country.

"Out west it's very different, it's flat, red and very beautiful," Mr Corey said.

"I like spending time out there, so the fact that these snakes live there is great."