Researchers in California are using tracking devices and GPS units to learn about snakes' habits.
A red diamond rattlesnake lies motionless on the operating table at the San Diego Zoo hospital. With a quick slit of the skin, a veterinarian opens up the snake and inserts a radio transmitter the size of a double-A battery, then sews up the incision.
A week or so later, the snake slithers back into the wild—broadcasting a signal to researchers about where and how it lives.
That's from a National Geographic article, Radio Transmitter-Fitted Snakes Share Habitat Secrets.
This tracking project helps researchers figure out exactly what kind of land the snakes need, so that some snake habitat can be protected. The article quotes project zoologist Robert Fisher: "We want to protect land that works for the animals."
Posted on October 31, 2002 07:01 PM. Filed under: environment.