Eastern Indigo Initiatives
Land Programs
Land Management
The Land Management and Restoration Program focuses on managing and restoring habitats on the Orianne Indigo Snake Preserve, the Altamaha River Corridor and in areas of Florida and Alabama where eastern indigo snake reintroduction efforts are focused, such as Conecuh National Forest in Alabama, the Apalachicola National Forest in Florida and The Nature Conservancy’s Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve in Florida. The Land Management and Restoration Team also works with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and many private landowners...
Land Protection
Our flagship property, the Orianne Indigo Snake Preserve, is a stretch of land located along the Ocmulgee River which provides habitat to a healthy population of Eastern Indigo Snakes and Gopher Tortoises. This preserve was purchased through our Land Protection program, which focuses on acquiring and/or protecting a contiguous corridor of eastern indigo snake habitat within the Altamaha River Corridor in southeast Georgia...
Captive Propagation
Captive Propagation
The objective of The Orianne Society’s Captive Breeding Program is to produce Eastern Indigo Snakes for our Reintroduction Program and to maintain a second colony of Eastern Indigo Snakes for education outreach programs. The Orianne Society recognizes and promotes the importance of these programs to teach species conservation, ecology of southeastern habitats, and environmental ethics...
Orianne Center for Indigo Conservation
The Orianne Center for Indigo Conservation (OCIC), located in central Florida, is currently in the design and construction phase. The OCIC will be the primary facility for the breeding and propagation of Eastern Indigo Snakes for The Orianne Society’s reintroduction projects. Here, Eastern Indigos will be managed using industry best practices in animal husbandry, combined with new and innovative techniques for breeding and propagation. The foremost design theme centers on a preventative health care program that integrates optimal animal environments with recent advances in reptile medicine.
Conservation Science
Research
In order to effectively restore and conserve Eastern Indigo Snakes, we need to understand the factors that caused their initial decline. By using a strong, science based approach to our research projects, our science staff is able to inform our on the ground conservation and education outreach programs of the direction they must take in order to conserve this species long-term...
Reintroduction
The goal of our Reintroduction Program is to use Eastern Indigo Snakes raised at the Orianne Center for Indigo Conservation to reestablish extirpated populations or existing populations in the wild. Establishing viable populations through repatriation is challenging because repatriations are faced with all the limitations that small populations experience. In order to mitigate these limitations, we have focused on three areas of consideration when designing the reintroduction program; release site selection, release strategy, and release site monitoring...
Inventory and Monitoring
In order to effectively conserve Eastern Indigo Snakes, we need to know where they still occur. The primary focus of our Inventory Program is to determine the status and distribution of Eastern Indigo Snake populations across their range, particularly within the Altamaha River Basin. Our emphasis here is with good reason; this region has been identified as a current stronghold for the species, and we are interested to learn how habitat management and other land use practices affects these snake populations in the future...
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