Free Republic

Despite its distinctive and bright markings, the rainbow snake has been spotted only once in Florida in the last 56 years. Any information regarding rainbow snake populations are vital for conservation efforts. Image credit: Marioxramos / Wikimedia Commons CC BY-SA 4.0 Florida wildlife officials are turning to the public to help locate one of the state’s most elusive reptiles, the rainbow snake (Farancia erytrogramma). This distinctive, nonvenomous species has seen its population steadily decline, with only one sighting recorded since 1969, which has left biologists scrambling to piece together clues about its current whereabouts. Last seen in February 2020 by...

A 40-pound boa constrictor was captured in the middle of a road in Florida last week after firefighters got a call about the invasive snake threatening a group of peafowl, officials said. A distress call had alerted fire officials about a "sizable python" that was "menacing" the peafowl around noon Wednesday in Palmetto, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue said. Officials said when Lt. Christopher Pecori from the department’s Venom One Response team arrived at the scene, he identified the snake as a red tail boa constrictor, which is a species non-native to Florida. "The Venom One Response officer promptly headed to the...

MARTIN COUNTY, Fla. — Police in Martin County, Florida arrested a woman who they said threw a rubber snake at deputies following a chase and crash in which she intentionally tried to hit a department vehicle. The sheriff’s office says a driver was pulled over just outside of Indiantown on May 18, but the driver ended up taking off and trying to run down a deputy on their department-issued motorcycle. “The MCSO deputy on the motorcycle was able to jump off of the bike before being struck,” the department wrote in a Facebook post. Investigators say the driver, identified...