Resources
There is a lot of information available about Indigo Snakes.
Some of it is good.
Much of it is bad.
Some of it is just plain wrong.
On this page, I will only post content I think is of valid and valuable use. Check back for updates and additions, as this is an ongoing project of curation. And if you come across a particular article or resource that you think is absent but belongs on this page, please hit the email or contact button and send me a note about with the appropriate link or attachment.
Resources
[Links open in new browser windows]
This page consists of 11 sections including more than 100 articles, scientific papers, and resource links:
Folklore Husbandry and Enclosure Size
Heating
Lighting
Enrichment and Training
More about Indigos
Rescuing and Restoring the Eastern Indigo
Longleaf Pine Forest and Gopher Tortoises
Natural History of Snakes: Classification and Evolution
Scientific Papers and References
Genetics
Podcasts, YouTube, Social Media
Folklore Husbandry & Enclosure Size
Please note that a number of Indigo Snake Care Sheets can be found linked in Chapter 6 on the Husbandry page.
Folklore Husbandry and Enclosure Size
The term “Folklore Husbandry” has recently come into use as a descriptor for an accumulated body of common knowledge within herpetoculture that is sometimes useful, sometimes correct, but often uninformed and counter-productive despite stubborn repetition. One obvious example is the now thoroughly discredited notion that Ball Pythons not only thrive in but require small dark enclosures, i.e. tubs and rack systems. This is, quite simply, toxic nonsense perpetuated by breeders and the industry at larger, because the goal of both is to get people to keep more animals. As discussed on the HUSBANDRY page, the fact that snakes can survive and breed while being kept in sensory deprivation conditions is an unacceptably low threshold and certainly does not constitute the modern definition and expectations of “thriving.” Today, the herpetoculture hobby and discipline needs to alter its assumptions, striving to keep fewer animals in the best possible conditions. In support of this thesis, several of many useful (and ever-increasing) references are provided here.
Spatial Considerations for Captive Snakes
Folklore Husbandry and a Philosophical Model for the Design of Captive Management Regimes
Here are several videos about how to convert plastic tubs into quality husbandry enclosures:
The following article, written by Paul Barclay (founder and CEO of Custom Reptile Habitats), offers a middle ground position on the issue of racks, distinguishing between breeders and home collectors. Although I am opposed to rack keeping for home hobbyists, if we focus our attacks on breeders we will consume and distract our community with unproductive conflict and divisiveness that gives the hobby and discipline a bad look in the public eye. Rather, I agree with Barclay: We should focus our efforts in changing the values of herpetoculture on hobbyists and collectors. As those efforts become increasingly successful, breeders will in turn eventually feel the pressures to distinguish themselves in the marketplace by promoting their own improved standards of care. Read the piece:
Do You Use Reptile Racks? If You’re Not a Breeder, Read This
2. Heating
Snakes, like all reptiles, are ectothermic—or in common parlance, cold-blooded. Ectothermic organisms rely on their environment in order to regulate their body temperature as, unlike mammals, they are unable to produce heat. The body temperature of ectotherms tends to be similar to that of their immediate environment. They rely on external sources of heat energy, such as natural sunlight or warmed surface materials, to provide heat for thermal regulation.
Decades ago, snake keepers would generally rely on incandescent lamps to provide heat, typically placed above a screen enclosure cover, and using an aquarium thermometer within the enclosure to measure the ambient temperature. It was a primitive system that worked remarkably well for many species, but certainly not for all, or for species with narrow and critically specific requirements. Long before we had UVB lighting readily available—a recent development—these incandescent lamps did typically produce some low levels of UVB. The provision of UV or IR was far from deliberate or controlled, as it was in essence inadvertent. More often than not we were just lucky when snakes did well, but there was much we did not know and much that was lacking in even the best efforts at quality husbandry.
Today, matters have changed dramatically. We know much more, we have much more rigorous, science-based evidence to serve as guidance, and we have a wealth of new and better technology readily commercially available.
Heating and Lighting with specific guidance and recommendations for Eastern Indigo Snakes are provided on the Husbandry page. However, here are more detailed resources for further reading and study. Rather than amassing a potentially overwhelming wealth of such resources here, these are select materials that I recommend and encourage you examine.
The subjects of heating and lighting are interconnected and inseparable; while we may address them separately they are essentially parts of the same subject. The first two papers below, while focused on lighting, are invaluable resources for both topics:
The New Age of Lighting and Heating — “To mimic sunlight, the keeper must provide a source of ultraviolet light, a source of visible light and a source of infrared light in the right doses.”
Next Level Heating: Why IR Matters
Power Density Iso-irradiance Charts (Excellent article about basking lamps)
The first issue of this journal includes two useful articles: “Temperature and Heat for Reptiles” and “Tungsten Halogen Lighting,” both by Roman Muryn:
Of Twigs and Termite Mounds - Advancing Herpetological Husbandry, January 2018 Issue 1
3. Lighting
The subject of lighting for reptile enclosures has exploded in recent years. It’s a vast subject that is complex and has yet to boiled down into simple form for the average hobbyist who is wading through the literature and the available technology, trying to figure out the best solutions.
A STARTING POINT: With these truths in mind, here are several useful starter overviews that I recommend. Take your time and be willing to watch and read more than once until some of the ideas start to become clearer. See:
Guide to UVB Lighting (Video)
An In-Depth Look at UV Light and its Proper Use with Reptiles (20017 article by Baines in Reptiles Magazine)
LET’S DIVE A LITTLE DEEPER: In 2010, Gary Ferguson (et al) published a landmark paper describing “Studies of voluntary exposure to ultraviolet-B (UVB) radiation from the sun in the field … conducted in the southern US and Jamaica for 15 species of lizards and snakes occupying various habitats. Species were sorted into four zones of UVB exposure ranging from a median UV index of 0.35 for zone 1 to 3.1 for zone 4.”
As a result of that paper, the four zones f UVB exposure became known as Ferguson Zones. You can read the original paper HERE:
In 2016, Francis Baines (et al), a collaborator on the original Ferguson paper, published “How much UV-B does my reptile need? The UV-Tool, a guide to the selection of UV lighting for reptiles and amphibians in captivity,” which elaborated significantly on the foundation of Ferguson’s 15 species, expanding the list to include UVB guidelines (using Ferguson Zones) for 254 species, accompanied by “… test reports and UV-index gradient maps for commercially available UV-B lighting products, and a guide to selection of appropriate lamps for use in vivaria and in larger zoo enclosures.” SEE:
This is a lengthy (almost two hours) podcast interview with none other than the above-mentioned Dr. Francis Baines discussing her research and offering lighting expertise:
While this article specifically addresses chameleons, the explanations and accompanying charts are excellent, and can be usefully applied to all captive herps. I believe that Eastern Indigos should be maintained at a basking UVB level between Ferguson Zones 1 and 2. SEE:
Achieving the proper amount of UVB is a combined function of bulb intensity and distance from the animal, among other factors. Despite published recommendations, it is far more advisable to measure and maintain your particular setup with the use of a meter that measure UVI. Also, UVB bulbs (at least currently) vary widely not only between manufacturers, but even in some instances from bulb to bulb of the same manufacturer and model. They also age at varying pace, and while they will remain bright to the naked eye—that is, within the visible spectrum—the UVB spectrum can actually fall to zero in less time than the typical expectation or even a manufacturer’s warranty of a year’s time. The only way to avoid guesswork and approach your lighting setup with complete precision, control, and safety is with the use of a meter. The Solarmeter Model 6.5R was used and recommended in the ground-breaking papers referenced above and is available from various sources. (Note that while the Solarmeter 6.2R so-called “Lamp Meter” is often touted as a necessary companion device in order to monitor the aging of bulbs, this is in fact more a function of marketing than of reality—the 6.5R is sufficient for most purposes.) SEE:
Some of the articles posted above along with many more are gathered in this excellent resource page provided by Solarmeter. SEE:
While there has been an explosion of interest, research, data, and new products concerning lighting (UVB, heat, synthetic daylight) for reptile husbandry, there is little if any information about the use of UVB lighting with plastic tubs. There is also a widely held assumption that because glass and plexiglass filter out 100% of UVB, the same is true of the plastic materials from which tubs are typically manufactured. While this assumption is widespread and often insistently adhered to in the online reptile worlds, it is mistaken. With the purchase of a UVB meter [Solarmeter 6.5R], I set out to investigate the matter firsthand. Here is a brief report of my very basic and beginning research, which demonstrates that in fact, while polypropylene does reduce intensity of UVI by a range between 33% and 50%, depending on the distance of the light source, penetration is sufficient to provide useful UVB to animals in tubs, when the strength of the bulb and distance are taken into account and the reduced irradiation is compensated for accordingly. SEE:
UVB Lighting and Polypropylene Tubs by Jamy Ian Swiss
Arcadia PRO-T5 Test Report (October 2022)
A thorough testing of performance of the Arcadia 14%, 12%, and 6% UVB bulbs, measuring UV output and effectiveness of the reflectors included in the lighting kits for these 24W bulbs. While there are many variant factors, by and large the bulbs compare favorably with the manufacturer’s stated ratings. (I strictly use Arcadia when it comes to UVB fluorescent bulbs.)
4. Enrichment and Training
Enrichment and Target Training
A seemingly steady flow of new scientific research and evidence-based information is presenting reptile keepers with more and more data about the intelligence and learning abilities of snakes; and about how snakes benefit from enrichment—stimulus in various forms including environment, feeding, and mental stimulation. The AZA defines enrichment as “A process to ensure that the behavioral and physical needs of an animal are being met by providing opportunities for species-appropriate behaviors and choices.” Here are two valuable introductions to the subject of enrichment:
AAZ Suggested Guidelines for Reptile Enrichment
Environmental Enrichment Alters the Behavioral Profile of Ratsnakes
The Effect of Varied Enrichment Types on Snake Behavior
Using Classical and Operant Conditioning to Train a Shifting Behavior in Juvenile False Water Cobra
A particular expansion on the subject of enrichment is that of how to train snakes for both stimulation and for enhancing the relationship between keeper and kept.
A good place to start in this ever-growing field is with the work of Lori Torrini. An experienced animal trainer and researcher, Ms. Torrini has published a substantial volume of work in these areas, including in journals, podcasts, and on her YouTube channel. She is an advocate for quality husbandry, enrichment, training, and “choice-based handling,” which enables your animals to choose when they wish to exit their enclosures or be handled. Her videos include detailed guidance in this and other forms of training snakes. This page on her website includes links to articles, interviews, instructional videos and more:
We learn more and more seemingly by the day about animal cognition and sentience. Humans stubbornly try to hold to the idea that non-human animals are robots programmed by evolution to be unthinking, unfeeling beings, yet the science that overwhelmingly proves the contrary has been substantially accumulating for at least half a century or more. When considering in general the conditions in which we choose to keep reptiles, and in particular the subject of enrichment, consider these resources that extend above and beyond the narrow scope of reptiles:
Here is a thoughtful review concerning “A trio of books [that] argue that we should spend more time understanding the creatures around us.” See:
Inside the Enigmatic Minds of Animals (MIT Technology Review)
And one more worthy book in this category is:
The LIves of Animals by J.M. Coetzee
5. More About Indigos
There are many pages like these out there with information about Indigo Snakes, but I’ve read most of it and here are my choices for learning a bit more about Drymarchon couperi without diving too terribly deep.
Eastern Indigo Snake — Florida Museum
Wildlife of Florida Factsheet: Eastern Indigo Snake
Eastern Indigo Snake — Smithsonian National Zoo
Eastern Indigo Snake — the Orianne Society
Eastern Indigo Snake — Encyclopedia of Alabama
Eastern Indigo Snake — Outdoor Alabama
Eastern Indigo Snake Eastern Indigo Snake — Savannah River Ecology Laboratory
I encourage you to enjoy this marvelous interview with Dirk Stevenson, Director of the Fire Forest Initiative for The Orianne Society. Says Stevenson: “Indigos fell from the tree of beauty didn’t they?” (Find more about The Orianne Society’s work further down on this web page.)
Readers will enjoy this unusual and lovely essay about a writer’s lifelong dream of encountering an Indigo Snake:
6. Rescuing and Restoring the Eastern Indigo
The Eastern Indigo Snake has been Federally protected as a Threatened Species since 1978, due to dramatic reduction of its wild population and range, the result of then over-collection for the pet trade, and and the damaging impact of development on the longleaf pine forest habitat critical to the health of Gopher Tortoise populations and Indigo Snakes, whose survival partly depends on the use of Gopher Tortoise burrows.
The Orianne Society was founded in 2008 with the intention of creating a captive breeding and reintroduction program in order to attempt to contribute to the survival of the species in the wild and to attempt to restore the Indigo Snake to portions of its original range in the Southeastern United States. Within a decade actual reintroduction efforts began in Alabama and Florida. This is an extraordinary effort, and while success is far from assured as yet, two individuals have been identified as having hatched in the wild, produced from captive bred-and-released parents. The future is exciting and anyone who appreciates Indigo Snakes should thoroughly investigate and, more importantly, support these efforts by joining the Orianne Society or supporting other collaborating organizations such as the Central Florida Zoo. Read more about it:
Eastern Indigo Release Adds 40 to Conecuh National Forest (2024)
Eastern Indigo Snake SAFE Program Plan 2022-2024
Eastern Indigo Snake — Nature Conservancy
A History of Efforts to Reintroduce Eastern Indigo Snakes
Eastern Indigo Snake Conservation Program — Central Florida Zoo
The Eastern Indigo Snake Returns
Breeding Indigo Snakes — North Carolina Zoo
19 Eastern Indigo Snakes Find a New Home in Their Natural Habitat (2023)
The Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan (CERP) was enacted in 2000 for the restoration of the Everglades ecosystem. The following two references [with thanks to Drymarchon enthusiast Tek Watts] address potential impacts of CERP on Eastern Indigo populations:
Tracking the Elusive Eastern Indigo Snake
Effectiveness of Surveying for Eastern Indigo Snakes using Artificial Covers (USFWS)
7. Longleaf Pine Forest and Gopher Tortoises
The Longleaf Pine Forest
The natural history and ecology of the Eastern Indigo Snake has been historically intertwined with the ecosystem of the Longleaf Pine Forest. As the forest has gone, so have gone hundreds of species that depend on this richly biodiverse environment, along with keystone species like the Gopher Tortoise. The Longleaf Pine Forest is a critically endangered environment. Here are some pertinent resources to learn more about these critical interrelationships.
Longleaf Pine: A Tree for Our Time
Pine Country (Nature Conservancy)
Longleaf Pine (Wikipedia)
Gopher Tortoise (Nature Conservancy)
Gopher Tortoise (Gopher Tortoise Council)
Gopher Tortoise (FWS)
8. Natural History of Snakes: Classification and Evolution
The Colubridae family, sometimes referred to as “typical” snakes, is the largest family of snakes, including approximately 2000 species. They are a more modern family than the ancient Boidae, which includes boas and pythons, while Viperidae are considered the most advanced, possessing the most sophisticated venom system, beyond that of the small group of colubrids that are venomous, but possess primitive rear fangs or rigid frontal fangs. Other differences include the vestigial pelvic girdles and spurs of the Boidae, and ovoviviparity (producing young by means of eggs which are hatched within the body of the parent), versus colubrids being egg-laying.
There is no shortage of information about the natural history and biology of snakes, but here are a few convenient links to general overviews about the evolution, classification and biology of snakes, to better understand where Indigo snakes fall on the evolutionary tree.
Classification since Lannaeus (Britannica, general entry about classification)
The Biogeography and Natural History of Snakes
Why use Scientific Names (for snakes)
These items are specifically regarding the taxonomy of Eastern Indigo Snakes:
ITIS taxonomy page of Drymarchon couperi
Drymarchon couperi (Reptile Database — species description and classification)
Patterns of head shape and scutellation in Drymarchon couperi
Snakes are not deaf! Here’s an article summarizing a fascinating recent study examining the hearing ability of snakes:
9. Scientific Papers and References
A selection of scientific and technical reference articles, including some historical publications.
Movement of the Eastern Indigo Snake in Southern Florida (2021)
Novel refuge type used by Indigo Snakes (2021)
Serum-based inhibition of pit viper venom by Eastern Indigo Snakes (2019)
A Late Pleistocene Record of Drymarchon Sp. from South Carolina, USA (2019)
[NOTE: “Along with evidence of extensive population genetic admixture and gene flow between the Atlantic and Gulf Coast lineages (see Folt et al. 2019b), our evaluation of morphological features finds further support for not recognizing D. kolpobasileus as a distinct species. Therefore, we formally propose here Drymarchon kolpobasileus to be placed in the synonymy of Drymarchon couperi.”]
[NOTE: “The two-species hypothesis for D. couperi [16,26] was formed on the basis of evidence describing lineage separation between populations of D. couperi; however, our separate analy- ses of mitochondrial and nuclear gene sequence data failed to support this hypothesis. Our phylogenetic analysis of the nuclear locus NT3 recovered no support for the two-species hypothesis because this marker was identical for all individuals; instead, all phylogenetic struc- ture of D. couperi inferred from sequence data was associated with the mitochondrial genome. Phylogenetic structure inferred from mtDNA recovered a monophyletic Gulf lineage that was nested within a paraphyletic Atlantic lineage, a result inconsistent with previously reported phylogenetic structure for D. couperi [16,26]. Because the two-species hypothesis requires strong lineage separation between populations and we were unable to recover phylogenetic structure consistent with that hypothesis using both nuclear and mitochondrial markers, we consider these results along with our population genetic results as sufficient to reject the two- species hypothesis. We therefore place Drymarchon kolpobasileus into synonomy with D. couperi.”]
[NOTE: “For these reasons, we suggest that the gene sequence data do not provide compelling evidence in support 443 of two distinct species of D. couperi. …. Thus, we urge authors and reviewers to be particularly critical of species descriptions without careful analysis of contemporary gene flow, because these papers can incorrectly delimit species, contribute to erroneous hyperdiversity, and confuse efforts to understand and conserve imperiled biodiversity.”]
D. couperi Diet (2018)
Species Status Assessment (SSA) Report for the Eastern Indigo Snake (2018)
Drymarchon corais (Yellow-tailed Cribo) [Animals of Trinidad and Tobago] (2017)
Pliocene-Pleistocene lineage diversifications in the Eastern Indigo Snake in the Southeastern U.S. (2016)
Seasonal Variation in Eastern Indigo Snake Movement Patterns and Space Use in Peninsular Florida (2016)
Optimal husbandry of hatchling Eastern Indigo Snakes during a captive head-start program (2015)
Factors influencing the display of multiple defensive behaviors in Eastern Indigo Snakes (2015)
Nutrient composition of prey items by free-ranging Drymarchon couperi (2015)
Diet and reproduction of the Western Indigo Snake (Drymarchon corais) from the Brazilian Amazon (2014)
Bold Colors in Cryptic Lineage: Do Eastern Indigo Snakes Exhibit Color Dimorphism? (2013)
The Historical and Current Distribution of the Eastern Indigo Snake (2013)
Reintroduction of the Eastern Indigo Snake into Conecuh National Forest (2011)
Factors Influencing Home-Range Sizes of Eastern Indigo Snakes in Central Florida (2011)
Prey Records for the Eastern Indigo Snake (2010)
An Eastern Indigo Snake Mark-Recapture Study in Georgia (2009)
Indigo Snake Capture Methods: Effectiveness of Two Survey Techniques for D. couperi in Georgia (2009)
Survival of Radio-Implanted Drymarchon couperi in Relation to Body Size and Sex (2009)
Seasonal Shifts in Shelter and Microhabitat Use of Drymarchon couperi in Georgia (2009)
Sexual Dimorphism in Occurence of Keeled Dorsal Scales in the Eastern Indigo Snake (2008)
Movements of Large Snakes (Drymarchon, Masticophis) in North-Central Florida (2007)
Survey and Monitoring of the Eastern Indigo Snake in Georgia (2003)
A New Species of “Indigo Snake” from North-Western Venezuela (2001) (A 2001 paper claiming the identification of a new species of Cribo.)
Eastern Indigo Snake on Military Installations in the Southeastern United States (1998)
Distribution of the Eastern Indigo Snake in Georgia (1983)
Genus Drymarchon Descriptions — Catalogue of American Amphibians and Reptiles (1981)
This page includes links to Federal Register Documents including various species assessment papers, range, and proposed recovery plans and implementations since 1977:
Eastern Indigo Snake — ECOS Environmental Conservation Online System
10. Genetics
If you hope to someday breed Indigo Snakes, you will eventually need to gain a working grasp of genetics. For Eastern Indigos in particular and Drymarchon species in general, we do not as yet need to delve into the subject of selective breeding of morphs that differ significantly and deliberately from the wild phenotype. This, to me, is a fine thing; I dearly hope we never see the day when breeders offer Pied Amelanistic Caramel Cream Phantom Lucifer Ghost Tiger Pastel Cinnamon Indigo Snakes, and keepers become collectors with more interest in a stamp collection of colors and patterns than the nature and natural beauty of the fundamentally original wild phenotype.
That is not to say that selective breeding is not already occurring with captive Eastern Indigo Snakes and Cribos, with breeders ever on the lookout for preferred traits that range from bright red chins, black phase, large specimens, tractability, rapid starting eaters, and snakes that readily accept rodents over other fare — and we do not know as yet which of these behavioral traits are genetically driven to significant degree.
But there are other genetic issues of concern when it comes to Indigos, notably inbreeding and its implications for the propagation of deleterious genetic traits. Since Eastern Indigo Snakes have been federally protected since 1978, other than the occasional illegally collected specimen (perhaps not so occasionally in the early decades of protection), there has been little introduction of genetic diversity in the captive bred population; and since more Indigos are being bred than ever before, the relatedness of the captive population continues to increase at a significant pace. Responsible breeders make every attempt to trace and track the genealogy of their breeding animals, aiming to breed animals with minimal relatedness. It may be that at one time, “line breeding” (breeding animals back to their own parents or grandparents in order to emphasize select genetic traits) was particularly common and may have further contributed to the interrelatedness of the current captive gene pull, but today the practice is increasingly frowned upon and discouraged (which is not to say that some breeders aren’t still engaged in the practice). along with the willingness to breed imperfect animals possessing genetic flaws including stuntedness or dwarfism, split scales, and spinal kinks. However it must be pointed out that there is much hysteria in the hobbyist community, often based more on dogma than objectively researched data; this is pertinent because at least some of these flaws that are quickly blamed on inbreeding are likely more often the result of variation in incubation conditions. These are subjects in which we are still just beginning to gather scientific data over hobbyist folklore husbandry.
Having provided this overly brief summary of the issues, what follows below are a group of articles and resources I have gathered that I find to be useful in educating oneself about snake genetics. The first five links are to works that are primarily about the snake genome and general snake genetics, and not particularly focused of morph breeding. The additional links beyond those are geared more toward morph breeding but still in a somewhat general and perhaps usefully instructive manner. If you have other such resources you particularly recommend, concerning genetics or any other category of snake husbandry in general and Indigo Snakes in particular, I’d love to learn about them — please hit the CONTACT button and send me links!
Life is Short, but Snakes are Long
The Secrets of the Snake Genome
Snake Genome Sequencing: Results & Future Prospects
Gene vs Allele: Definition, Difference and Comparison
A Crash Course in Reptile Genetics
11. Podcasts, YouTube, Social Media
“In an Age of Information what is needed are skills of selection.” — Jamy Ian Swiss
Every conceivable field of interest and endeavor has been transformed by the Internet, self-publishing, and social media. And as a result, every one of those fields, from the mainstream to the most obscure and narrow interest, is flooded with a tsunami of information, both good and bad. Within every arena of my own professional and personal interests and passions — from magic and conjuring, music and cinema, herpetoculture and aquology, to Italian cooking, craft pizza and home espresso — one can can invariably find experts bemoaning the negative impacts of these cultural and technological sea changes, be it old school magicians bemoaning the loss of respect for magic’s tradition of secrecy, to Italian chefs reviewing popular YouTube cooks with invariably hilarious and entertaining results (in which case I invariably side with the critics).
We cannot stem the flow of bad information, and so we must become more skilled at selecting good information: choosing scientific sources in our everyday lives over pseudoscience and personal anecdote (I recommend sites like Science-Based Medicine and The Skeptic’s Dictionary) ; or choosing professional journalism over biased mis- and dis-information (I recommend checking your journalism sources regularly via sites like Media Bias/Fact Check). And there’s always the ever useful Snopes just a click away.
The realm of the herp hobby is no exception, having of course experienced the same explosion of media. After spending about a year watching herp YouTubers and Instagrammers, I eventually narrowed my time down to just a very select handful. These sources are not perfect by any measure, but they are very good by many measures — a far cry from those who post live feedings, venomous free handling, faked wild captures, and endless acts of stupidity leading to handlers getting bitten on camera by defensive animals. I have no patience for any of that.
So for what it’s worth, here are a few sources I enjoy from time to time, albeit that by no means do I religiously tune in to every video or broadcast. Please note that I am not in any manner whatsoever connected to or affiliated with any of these sites!
YouTube Channels
Colubrids & Colubroids - Some of the YouTube channels here are both audio podcasts and video channels. I am putting the C&C podcast here at the top, despite the fact that it is actually purely an audio podcast without video, because it is currently my favorite podcast. I love that it is focused entirely on colubrids, and that the hosts are both scientists who are also enthusiastic keepers and hobbyists. The link I have provided is to a particular episode featuring a two-hour interview with John MIchels of Black Pearl Reptiles. It may well qualify as the single most substantial resource currently available about keeping and breeding Drymarchon species in general and Indigos in particular. I cannot recommend this interview highly enough!
Snake Talk (podcast)
NERD — New England Reptile Distributors
Please keep in mind that I am not unequivocally endorsing any of these sources, nor do I entirely agree with the perspectives or opinions any one of these outlets present.
What you will not find on this list:
venomous free-handling
live feeding videos
faked wild captures
“watch me almost get bitten” videos.
I urge you not to support that kind of content, which I consider harmful to the hobby and anti-educational about reptiles. I do not follow any of those Instagram or YouTube channels. And please remember that even if you give a thumbs down, those producers make money on every click and comment, be it yay or nay.
Among the channels I’ve listed above, I like that Clint Laidlaw of Clint’s Reptiles and Emily Roberts of Snake Discovery clearly care about reptiles and promote reptile education and appreciation to the public. Laidlaw is a herpetologist and educator (who acted like having an Indigo Snake pooping on him is as bad as getting bitten by a cobra, but I forgive him, mostly I like his work and at least he still refers to Indigos as a “dream snake”!). Then again, in the search for clicks and subs, Laidlaw has also associated himself and promoted several of the most popular free-handling venomous keepers on the web, which is disappointing to say the least.
Emily runs a reptile experience facility and reptile breeding business, and in mid-2022 obtained a colony of Eastern Indigos from biologist Matt Rand is currently hoping to breed four adult pairs. She is sincere, charming, and informative, and while she may lack the experience of longtime veterans, she appears to be a willing and constant student, which we should all be. She also now houses and hopes to breed a collection of Eastern Indigos which she obtained from herpetologist Matt Rand in late 2021.
Kevin McCurley of NERD represents a commercial breeder’s perspective and sometime bias. I respect McCurley as someone who has been breeding snakes since the 1980s and possesses an impressive depth of firsthand experience and expertise, and I have learned much from watching his husbandry-focused work. Also, he is a remarkably skilled snake handler and his videos about winning over defensive snakes are insightful, unmatched, and impressive. I’d love to share a beer sometime and have a friendly conversation about what are admittedly distinct and multiple differences of opinion.
Dan Mulleary of DMExotics is an importer of wild snakes from Southeast Asia who appears to do so responsibly, deals in interesting species including Old World rat snakes, Boiga and more, and promotes responsible husbandry in his videos. I always enjoy seeing his snakes at the reptile expos.
Snake Talk is a podcast hosted by Chris Jenkins, herpetologist and CEO of the Orianne Society; the podcast features a lot of excellent scientist guests, albeit that the host is a professional herpetologist but an amateur interviewer, who is apparently unable to formulate a question without first explaining each time what question he’s not asking yet but maybe will later.
Additional sites with smaller followings often provide a mix of content, some of it rabidly doctrinaire, or based insistently more on speculation than actual data, but the times they are a changin’ when it comes to standards of herpetoculture and we are wise to seek information from all sources, not just the ones that confirm our own existing biases.
I think it’s foolish to reject all content from those we might not agree with. Not unlike reading book or film criticism, I seek illumination and sometimes provocation, not uniformity of perspective or opinion. The important thing is to be aware of the biases that might be at work. A professional breeder is going to have certain biases that are different from those of hobbyists. A commercial operator may not see the slightest thing wrong in breeding Spider Ball Pythons and other neurologically compromised lines, or may not believe there’s such a thing as a harmful invasive reptile species. A YouTube might gladly embrace any “content producer” who gets 10,000 clicks on a single post, no matter what kind of content they are promoting. I try to extract the useful content while being wary of the potential biases at work.
Podcasts
As a general comment on the world of reptile “content” and what passes it for it, be it on YouTube, Instagram, or in podcasts, they appear to fall into several categories that admittedly are far from being drawn with hard and fast lines. The flashy clickbait crap is obvious, it’s very visible, and after initially taking in a dose of it to see what was out there, I deleted it all entirely from my subscriptions and follows. Those people are bad for the image, future, and education of herpetoculture hobbyists, and I wouldn’t mind if they die off from snake bites they entirely invited upon themselves. (Note to the mystical: my thoughts have no impact on reality.) Worse still, many of these channels routinely engage in animal cruelty for clicks.
At the other end of the spectrum are the relatively un-entertaining and frequently downright boring content that focuses entirely on husbandry or science — in other words, my favorites. Frankly these are the sources I mostly pay attention to, because podcasts and YouTube are incredible time suck andI have a life. I scan the subject matter of Reptiles and Research and Animals at Home, I turn up the playback speed to 1.25 or 1.5, and then I skim to see if there is substantive content being presented, which is more often the case with these particular channels than with many others — with the caveat that for all their claims of being science-based, these channels are also capable of drifting carelessly into speculation and opinion — which is a fine thing, frankly, when recognized and identified as such, but it is often mistaken for fact (because “I have a definitive opinion so it must be true.”). Just because you have a basic degree in animal husbandry doesn’t make you an expert on every and all aspect of reptile science. Real scientists try hard to avoid crossing the line from science to speculation without at least identifying and cautioning about it. The non-scientist YouTubers and Podcasters are constantly crossing that line about tangential subjects that they know nothing about but don’t mind pretending otherwise. Again because none of these people are professional journalists or broadcasters, speeding up the playback is the listener’s only defense when in search of actual content, but I dream of the day that YouTube or my podcast app provides a button that reads “Content Only,” at which point every one of these broadcasts will instantly be reduced in time by at least 50 to 75%.
And then there is the whole bro-culture element of younger (and often no so young) YouTubers and especially podcasters who think the bubbles they inhabit are akin to entire universes. These minnows-in-puddles spend a great deal of their time either spitting at one another or French kissing one another, with grown men behaving like middle school children, expecting listeners to tune in and listen to who’s in and who’s out this week, and did you hear what little Johnny said about little Davey? Other than their fellow gossip girls I imagine most of the listeners are teenagers still living at home, because since I am adult with a family, a career, and a seriously demanding hobby, I simply haven’t got the time. Not to mention that these people are so utterly unable to edit themselves, sometimes these podcasts run two hours or more — I came upon one a while back with a single episode that ran four hours, devoted entirely to who doesn’t like so-and-so and why.
Anyway, for what it may be worth I offer the above as perhaps of assistance to newcomers, or to raise questions to viewers and listeners of how they make their choices in consuming content and investing their valuable time.
Facebook Groups
Finally, I would be remiss if I failed to mention Facebook user groups (which have pretty much replaced the old clunky forum sites). For Indigo fanciers, I recommend joining the following two groups:
Advanced Herpetological Husbandry
Those groups are largely science based and constructively contribute to the hobby. Reptile Lighting is really the best place to get a helpful education about the latest in lighting and heating. Pay particularly close attention (and also search on) posts by administrators and/or moderators Francis Baines, Roman Muryn, and Thomas Griffiths. These people are genuine experts who have done groundbreaking and state-of-the-art research on lighting and heating technology, and there is a wealth of files available to all who join these groups.
The Advanced Herpetological Husbandry group also tries to dispense best practices for husbandry, albeit conversations can sometimes get distracted with the many beginners who show up and ask the same questions or debate new practices. But again, as with Reptile Lighting, these are places to listen and learn — to ask good questions and pay attention to smart answers. But please, out of consideration — search on your question topics first before repeating a question that has been asked and answered dozens if not hundreds of times before. If, after researching your topic or question within the search function and the files, you remain in need of further detail, having taken those steps first will mean that you can better focus your questions, and the resident experts will likely be generous with their time and knowledge.
Beyond these two groups, there can be some value to joining two specialty Facebook groups, The Indigo Snake and Cribo Group (Drymarchon), and Drymarchon Enthusiasts. However, I caution you as to what you can glean from these groups and what you cannot. These two groups are useful primarily for the ability to search on particular terms and gain access to information that comes from a handful of experienced veteran breeders and longtime keepers. So you can search on terms like “breeding” “incubating” “feeding” “hatchlings” and the like, and you can definitely learn something from people who know more than most zookeepers about the specifics of breeding and raising Drymarchon species.
But be advised that these are small groups that are dominated by old school hobbyists who simply cannot tolerate any piece of information that differs from their ancient habits because it immediately threatens their egos if any new information is presented that clashes with the way they’ve been doing things for the past forty years. They are thus blindly and rigidly opposed to considering anything outside of their traditional experience. These groups are absolutely not the place to look for, nor even discuss or raise, issues about cutting-edge husbandry when it comes to heating, UVB and other lighting, and especially the subject of “enrichment.” These guys are rooted in the past and literally will not permit those conversations to occur, quickly falling into flame wars and argument-by-emoji rather than rational discussion. In one of many attempted exchanges on my part — when I still optimistically hoped that these groups were places for open-minded discussion and mutual education — when I presented current scientific papers about enrichment I was accused explicitly of being part of the “enrichment bandwagon.” Meanwhile, this “bandwagon” is being standardized throughout the entire professional zoo industry — but not in old white guy Facebook groups. Forewarned is forearmed: Keep your head down, learn what you can, and don’t waste your time and energy trying to move immoveable forces. Some people simply refuse to be dragged into the future, deluding themselves in the belief they can ignore the one constant and inescapable truth, namely: The world moves on, like it or not, with you or without you. And it will gladly leave you behind, thoroughly forgotten, screaming into the abyss that is the past.
Indeed, any Facebook group should come with the standard warning: beware flame wars, zealots, prozelytizers, and warrior evangelists for the absolutely pure one and only One True Way of doing things. The Facebook groups are also routinely filled with innuendo or worse against the unpopular (who typically either left the group long ago, or in some cases may quietly lurk), along with dogma and folklore husbandry presented as unarguable writ-in-stone fact.
And it is true that sometimes you will find the voice of actual experience online, especially when it comes to subjects like feeding and breeding for example, about which we can always stand to learn some new detail or tidbit. And of course, some of these people represent multiple elements; you can find very experienced keepers who may share some deep expertise in one post, and then some unsubstantiated folklore in their very next post or comment. And you can always find those shouting-from-the-mountaintop types who turn out to have just gotten into the hobby six months ago and still can’t figure out how to program their Spyder digital thermostat. The point is that it pays to hang in there, remain polite, cull the best information, ask an occasional question, and be skeptical of everyone and everything until you begin to formulate a sense of who the players are. Sift through the ignorance and seek knowledge. But never mistake a Facebook “friend” for real world friends who are willing, capable, and interested in carrying on rational conversations that might engage with differing viewpoints.