‘They aren’t mean and they aren’t trying to get you’: saving the copperbelly water snake

Only a few of the rare US snakes survive in the remnants of wetlands in Ohio, Michigan and Indiana. Captive breeding may just be the thing that saves them from disappearing

Words and photographs by Ryan Wagner

At the intersection of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, the corn monoculture melts away to reveal green rolling hills and deep gorges. The lush forest is pockmarked by steep-banked ponds, carved out by retreating glaciers 10,000 years ago. Standing waist-deep in a forest pool, Megan Seymour scans the shrubby banks with binoculars.

A slight change in colour and texture spotted in the tangled buttonbush swamp reveals her quarry: a thick, glossy, copperbelly water snake (Nerodia erythrogaster neglecta). Seymour hoists up her waders and ties back her hair as she prepares to grab the water snake before it can disappear into the murky water, taking with it one of the last chances to save the species.

Biologists Megan Seymour, right, and Lindsey Korfel scan the banks of a pool for copperbelly water snakes