Maine is not a state known for large snakes. The longest snakes seen here are black racers, which can reach six feet. Although they are common further south, they are rare enough in Maine to make the state list of endangered species. The secretive black racer has been hard for researchers to observe in the field, but a recent radio tracking study on southern Maine grasslands is providing new insights into the snakes' habitat and behavior.

Maine is not a state known for large snakes. The longest snakes seen here are black racers, which can reach six feet. Although they are common further south, they are rare enough in Maine to make the state list of endangered species. The secretive black racer has been hard for researchers to observe in the field, but a recent radio tracking study on southern Maine grasslands is providing new insights into the snakes' habitat and behavior. Murray Carpenter reports.

Jonathan Mays, a biologist with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, has been spending many hours on this sandy barren in Wells, managed by the Nature Conservancy. He's in search of an elusive creature.

"We're looking for the northern black racer, which is a large five-to-six foot long solid black snake with a white to grayish belly, and a fairly rare snake for this part of the country," Mays says.

These barrens, and the adjacent Kennebunk Plains, are strongholds for Maine racers. But even here it can take a field biologist 80 hours of searching to find just one specimen. For two years, Mays has been tracking 14 snakes that he's captured and implanted with radio transmitters. The study is winding down and he has retrieved most of the transmitters, but three snakes are still on the air.

"So in order to track them, it's just as simple as using a receiver, tuning it to the snake's frequency, then using an antenna. So I can turn this on, I can tune it to the frequency that we most need, then we'll raise it up, and see if we can't hear anybody."

He quickly gets signals from all three snakes. Following the strongest signal, Mays walks out into the barren, radio receiver in one hand, antenna in the other. The signal gets clearer. "We're pretty close, probably ten to fifteen meters. I'm going to turn down the gain even more. Just the fact that we're able to even get a signal means that he's nearby."

Soon, Mays spots the snake, basking in the fall sunshine. "He's actually about five feet out in front of us at the base of a sweet fern, tightly coiled, sitting on top of the sedge. That's probably a four and a half to five foot male, really in a nice patch of sunlight. Oh, he's starting to move, he's basically up and soaking up some heat. He's slowly starting to crawl off."

Among Mays' findings is that home ranges for Maine black racers are far larger than those studied further south, where they are more abundant; in Maine, females will travel up to three miles to lay eggs. Mays also discovered that black racers apparently don't like to cross paved roads. Only one of the 14 tracked snakes did so, three times with success. The fourth time, the snake was killed.

Tracking the snakes across the barrens, Mays also keeps his eyes peeled for racers without radios. He soon spots one, puts his radio gear down quietly, then pounces. He catches the snake on his first dive.

"You can feel she or he is very cold to the touch, she has yet to strike, which is not a common trait for a racer. But you can see that tail, he or she is starting to heat up, and that tail is starting to rattle some, they'll shake it, you might even be able to hear it. It's vibrating on its own body, but imagine if that was in the leaves."

Murray Carpenter: "It just struck at the microphone."

Jonathan Mays: "Yes, I think it just attacked the microphone."

The black racer is not venemous, and Mays says when it bites, it hurts less than being scratched by a blackberry thorn.
The next snake of the afternoon is a bit harder to find. After tracking it for several hundred yards, the signal gets stronger--the snake is just feet away.

JM: "I'm looking for anything black and shiny. All I'm seeing right now is a little depression. That's where the signal is kind of loud. There's a good chance this snake is underground."
MC: "In that little hole right there."
JM: "Yeah, so that's very similar to one we were looking earlier."

This snake, and the third snake he's tracking today, are in or near the dens where they will spend the winter -- old root holes enlarged by small mammals. And this is another of Mays' discoveries -- these racers don't hibernate in wooded ravines, as biologists had thought, but beneath the open grasslands. He says the research will allow the department to better protect black racers, and their habitat, in fast-developing southern Maine.