
When to be concerned about horns of the horned serpent
- June 20, 2021
Tuscaloosa, AL – In the late 1800s, Tennessee became one of the first states to recognize the presence of a deadly horned creature in the wild.
A small but persistent population of this horned, rattlesnake-like creature lived in the mountains of the central part of the state and the region around Tuscali Lake, in the southeastern part of Alabama.
The horned snake, or tuscan horned rattlessee, was named for its distinctive, pointed teeth.
It has been recorded in Tennessee, Louisiana, Alabama, Tennessee, Florida, Arkansas, and Oklahoma.
But until a new discovery in 2001, Tuscalos horned is the only known documented species of the snake in the United States.
Researchers from the University of Alabama, University of South Alabama, and the University at Buffalo have found a new population of the tusca in the state.
“It’s really exciting,” said lead author Chris Brown, associate professor of ecology at the UA.
“We found the population in the Tuscas mountains.
We were lucky enough to be able to get the samples, and we were able to track it down.
We found it in a tree and it’s growing and it has been doing really well.”
Brown and his colleagues were able find a small number of the populations of the Tennessee horned tuscus to monitor the animals.
“We have been tracking it for the last three years, but it has never had any captive populations,” said Brown.
The study, which was published online April 3 in the journal PLoS ONE, found that this species of horned reptile had been reported in Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee since 2003.
The new population, the first of its kind in the U.S., has been found in the forests of the Tusk Mountains, about 300 miles southwest of Birmingham.
“It was pretty hard to get a sample of the species,” said study author David Pogue, professor of integrative biology and evolutionary biology at the University in Buffalo.
“They don’t like to live in trees.”
Pogue and his team of scientists used molecular tools to track the population and determine that the tusk-clad snake is a new species.
When they collected the samples of the animals, Pogue said the tuscaloons horned were similar in appearance to the Tennessee tuscoas, with an elongated body with a pointed crest, a rounded skull with a flattened nose, and a black, scaly underside with dark patches of black and white.
The new population has been described as an adaptation to a habitat that is hard to track.
Brown said the species has not been seen since 2003, when the new population was found.
“We found a few populations that were in a little bit of a tussle,” said Pogue.
“The population was the first one to come in and the populations were pretty small.
The population we found was a little more in the middle of the range, so they were probably in the same area.
But the range was pretty wide.”
Brown said they are hopeful that the population will be able for captive breeding.
“I’m really optimistic, because we found the populations are pretty well-adapted,” said Mandy Pogue-Brown, another of the authors.
“There’s been no signs of disease or disease-related issues, so we’re hopeful we can get a few more populations to breed and get these species back into the wild.”