PHOENIX — Over 20 federally-protected snakes have a new, streamside home among the ponderosa pines of the Mogollon Rim after the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD), the Arizona Center for Nature Conservation/Phoenix Zoo and other partner organizations successfully released a group of zoo-born narrow-headed gartersnakes into the wild and deployed equipment to passively monitor the snakes throughout the summer.
This release marks a conservation milestone for the threatened species– the 100th narrow-headed gartersnake released into the wild from the Phoenix Zoo’s managed breeding program.
On May 19, staff from the Arizona Game and Fish Department, Phoenix Zoo, U.S. Forest Service, Amphibian and Reptile Conservancy (ARC), and the University of Arizona trekked into the Tonto National Forest and released 21 narrow-headed gartersnakes into Canyon Creek to bolster the wild population.
The releases are a part of a long-term effort to recover the narrow-headed gartersnake, a native species to Arizona that is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act…