Earlier this month the giant garter snake joined an illustrious group including Dungeness crab, grizzly bears and redwood trees when it became an official symbol of the state of California.
The governor signed legislation championed by advocates to bring attention to the snake’s fragile population and designate it as the state snake.
The Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA, working with state and federal wildlife officials, began a new captive breeding and rearing program last year for the giant garter snake and other local imperiled species. The program, the only one of its kind for the threatened giant garter snake, is housed at the state-of-the-art Wildlife Care Center in Saratoga. The goal of the imperiled species program is to develop self-sustaining wild populations for small, endangered/imperiled native species, according to PHS.
PHS/SPCA staff raise infant giant garter snakes until they are healthy and large enough to survive on their own in the wild. The first juvenile snake ‘graduates’ were released in June at a Sacramento area wetland where their mothers were originally caught. The snakes are tagged, allowing U.S. Geological Survey biologists to track their progress, according to PHS.
PHS/SPCA is the only animal shelter with an imperiled species program. To learn more about this and other PHS/SPCA wildlife programs visit phs-spca.org/wildlife or call (650) 340-7022.
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