How do you preserve an endangered species when people instinctively kill the animal on sight? The town of Glastonbury, Conn., offers a potential model for helping people overcome deeply rooted fears.
When it comes to snakes, Doug Fraser has always been, well, different.
In the 1940’s and 50’s when others entered the woods of Glastonbury, Conn., to bag up timber rattlesnakes for disposal, the East Hartford teenager went there looking for a pet.
Mr. Fraser has since redirected his passion into protection of a once-plentiful species now absent from Maine and Rhode Island and endangered in the rest of New England. Over the years, the biologist has become rattlesnake champion, working to dislodge deeply rooted public fears that have persisted for generations. And his efforts appear to be paying off. The species has yet to progress beyond its endangered status in Connecticut, but the Glastonbury population has stopped shrinking and now holds at “steady,” according to Fraser.
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6 comments:
If I see this or a Copperhead, it's dead!
From the title along, I expected this to be about Jake Day and his cohort....LOL!!!
Let the snakes live in his backyard. My backyard, where my grand kids play, there will be a snake free policy.
They are tasty.
Public opinion will change as soon as a kid gets killed by a rattle snake and rightly so it's only a matter to time. If I see one you can believe that gonna be a dead rattle snake endangered or no endangered.
These people are NUTS!a rattlesnake, copperhead, and any other snake is grave yard dead they cross my path
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