To keep track of the park’s reptile populations, cover boards are laid out at different locations throughout the park, various species of reptiles utilize these boards as a place to thermoregulate. Once a month, the boards are checked, the reptiles that are found are captured and the sex and size is documented along with the relative humidity and temperature at the time. After the data is gathered the reptile is released back in the place it was found.
Below are some pictures of our previous cover-board checks.
Volunteers of the park sizing a Patchnose snake.
The Patchnose is often confused with the ribbon snake, one distinguishing difference is the triangular scale on the end of its nose, hence, the name.
A male Ruthvens Coachwhip was found under coverboard J6.
...He almost measured 4 ft.
We did not find any reptiles under this coverboard, but, there was a Black Widow nest.
Hopefully it will rain before the next cover board check, this would help draw out reptiles hiding out from the heat.