Research

Population ecology of the Eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon couperi)  

    The Eastern Indigo Snake… “is perfectly harmless, frequenting the neighborhood of     settlements, where it is usually unmolested, from its inoffensive character, and the     prevalent belief that it destroys the Rattlesnake, which it attacks with courage…          Although a harmless snake, it is a bold one, and when provoked, it faces its enemy     with courage, vibrating its tail rapidly” (J. Hamilton Couper as quoted in Holbrook         1842).

     
Project at the University of Florida under the direction of Dr. Madan Oli and funded by Project Orianne. Collaborative work with Project Orianne (including Dirk Stevenson), Fort Stewart, independent biologists, and the University of Florida.

Drymarchon couperi. N.L. Hyslop

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Big Cypress National Preserve:  Amphibian Community Ecology in a Natural Patchy Landscape     

The landscape throughout much of the Big Cypress National Preserve (BCNP),  a  >700,000 acre multi-use natural area north and adjacent to Everglades National Park, contains roundish wetlands referred to as "cypress domes".  These cypress domes are embedded in matrix habitat types, ranging from slash-pine rocklands to cypress prairie, present a unique opportunity to ask questions regarding drivers of community ecology in a naturally patchy landscape.

Herps of BICY.  Photos by N.L. Hyslop.

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Ecology and Conservation of the Eastern Indigo Snake

For my doctoral research, I conducted a two-year radiotelemetry study on D. couperi in southeastern Georgia.

·         Fort Stewart Studies Garbage Can Snake

·         Fort Stewart Studies the Threatened Eastern Indigo Snake

  Drymarchon couperi.  N.L. Hyslop.

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Movements and Home Range of the Copperbelly Watersnake (Nerodia erythrogaster neglecta) in a Fragmented Landscape             

I completed this project for my master's research, which I conducted in northwestern Kentucky in fragmented wetlands along streams near the Ohio River.

Purdue Biology Research

Copperbelly watersnake.  R. Rold.