Thursday, September 20, 2007

Large snakes are better flood survivors

ST. LOUIS, Sept. 13 (UPI) -- A U.S. researcher has discovered larger species of snakes have a better chance of surviving a flood than do even aquatic ones.

Washington University Professor Emeritus of biology Owen Sexton completed a census of snakes at a conservation preserve northwest of St. Louis, when a 1993 flood put the preserve at least 15 feet under water.

Sexton said the flood displaced or killed 70 percent of the pre-flood population of five snake species and either eliminated the populations of three other species or rendered them undetectable.

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