Snake Days 2019 Bio-blitz Winners!
The Snake Days 2019 Bio-blitz was another rousing success. At total of 780 observations representing 313 species were made by 50 observers over the three-day weekend. These stats are a notable improvement over the 2018 Bio-blitz which saw 626 observations representing 212 species made by 39 observers.
The breakdown included:
Herps
- 57 species (54 during 2018)
- 356 observations (274)
Non-Herps
- 256 species (158 during 2018)
- 424 observations (352)
Species of Greatest Conservation Need (herps only)
- 8 species (7 during 2018)
- 71 observations (56)
So, without further ado - the winners of this year's Snake Days Bio-blitz are:
Herps Category - (prize winners denoted by ***)
- Romey Swanson – 29 sp. (37 observations)
- Greg Hall @greghall – 26 sp. (34 observations)
- John Lassiter @jlassiter – 15 sp. (23 observations)
- Beth Duncan @bethd – 13 sp. (21 observations)
- Erin Swanson – 13 sp. (16 observations)
- Reed McClure – 13 sp. (16 observations)
Non-herps Category
- Michael Price @wild-about-texas – 56 sp. (86 observations)***
- Beth Duncan – 45 sp. (58 observations)
- Reed McClure – 36 sp. (39 observations)
Species of Greatest Conservation Need Drawing (awarded at Snake Days)
- Blaine Eaton
More about the Bio-blitz and Herps of Texas Project:
The Snake Days Bioblitz is a competitive multi-category event that promotes the accumulation of plant and wildlife observations through the www.iNaturalist.org platform. Reptile and Amphibian observations are automatically contributed to the Texas Nature Trackers – Herps of Texas project (curated by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department). Originally, the bio-blitz sought to maximize herp observations with a prize offered to the individual that contributed the greatest number of verifiable species observations (validated by photo, recording, and locality details). Today, the bio-blitz offers prizes for the top three contributors of herp biodiversity, a prize to the top contributor of non-herp biodiversity, and a randomly drawn prize from the pool of participants that has observed a listed Species of Greatest Conservation Need for the Trans-Pecos Eco-region. Prizes have been continuously sponsored by corporate partner Animal Equipment by Stoney (www.aestoney.com).