The Buzz Tale - Summer Update

What's the Buzz?

Welcome to the summer 2021 issue of The Buzz Tale—The Rattlesnake Conservancy’s official quarterly newsletter. We are a non-profit organization dedicated to advancing the protection of rattlesnakes, and their habitat, through research and education. In this newsletter you’ll find important updates on our organization, upcoming events, announcements, and recaps of some of our favorite moments from the last few months!

If you’d like to get involved with The Rattlesnake Conservancy and support the work that we’ve been doing be sure to check us out on social media and find us online at savethebuzztails.org where you can volunteer, make a donation, purchase an item from our shop, sign up for a training course, adopt a rattlesnake, become a sustaining member, or just drop us a message to let us know your thoughts!

We had an amazing time at our fifth annual "Get Buzzed for Buzztails" event! The event was hosted on Saturday, May 15th at the St. Augustine Alligator Farm in St. Augustine, Florida. It brought in hundreds of attendees from throughout the United States who are passionate about wildlife and conservation.

The numbers are in, auction prizes are sent out, and we are thrilled to announced that our 2021 Get Buzzed for Buzztails raised over $14,000 for conservation! These funds will go towards projects focused on opening our public facility, imperiled rattlesnakes, youth education, community outreach, first responder training grants, scientific research, and land management; and will support our mission to advance the protection of rattlesnakes, and their habitat, through research and education!

We wanted to send out a huge thank you to all of you who made this event possible by buying tickets, participating in the auction or live events, and sharing our posts. We are also so thankful to our 2021 Sponsors:

Wild Florida

Wild Things Exotic Animals

Goatsby’s Place

Lake & Wetland North Florida

Greenshades Software

Bone Clones, Inc

Ancient City Brewing

Announcements

Public Facility – Our permits have arrived, construction is complete, and we now officially have animals in the facility! We are looking forward to our grand opening on Saturday, August 14th!

Welcome, Hunter! – This quarter we were able to hire Hunter Chipman as a seasonal Conservation intern! Hunter will help with projects at the facility, venomous handling training courses, and Conservation Camp.

Welcome, Megan! – Megan Grams was hired as our new Education and Conservation Programs Coordinator! She will be responsible for overall operation of our education program and we look forward to the exciting ideas she has!

Upcoming Events

Congratulations to all the recent

Introductory Relocator, Level 1, and Level 2 graduates of our Venomous Handling Certification Training! These courses set the standard for safety, husbandry, and protocol for working with venomous reptiles. Our graduates go into the workforce and their communities with a mindset that prepares them to handle potentially dangerous situations confidently and safely.

We are looking forward to the following upcoming classes:

Oct 16 & 17: Level 1 @ AZ Game & Fish Department in Phoenix, AZ
Oct 16 & 17: Level 2 @ Tree Hill Nature Center in Jacksonville, FL
Oct 23 & 24: Level 1 @Bryant Lodge in Central SC
Nov 6 & 7: Level 1 @The Amphibian Foundation in Atlanta, GA

Conservation Camp

Our second year of Conservation Camp kicked off this quarter on June 14th and was a wild success, with every week filling up. Conservation Camp is a groundbreaking youth program for science, conservation, and wildlife. It gives children from ages 8-17 in Duval county, Florida the opportunity to spend a week as a wildlife biologist. This year our team hosted 5 weeks of camp, serving over 75 children at our facility in Jacksonville, Florida. We spent the weeks on wildlife surveys, environmental monitoring, habitat evaluation, and a weekly kayak excursion hosted by Riptide Watersports.

We can't wait for summer 2022!

Working Group Meetings

This Quarter our team hosted meetings for our two working groups, the Montane Rattlesnake Working Group and the Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake Working Group. These groups will connect collaborators from our team, universities. institutions, organizations, researchers, and other individuals to discuss the conservation status of rattlesnake species and to develop informed conservation action plans. These groups will meet monthly to quarterly and are open to other professionals who believe they can help identify data gaps that exist in current research and inform the action plans. These meetings have been attended by representatives from The Rattlesnake Conservancy, the Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Jekyll Island Conservation Authority, Rattlesnake Solutions, The University of Arizona, Southwestern Ecological Research Company, the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Florida Gulf Coast University, The Jones Center, University of Arizona, Mesa Community College, and more.

If you are a researcher our educator interested in participating in one of these working groups or leading one in your area, please reach out to Tony Daly-Crews at director@savethebuzztails.org.

Meet the Animals

Here's a first look at some of the animals housed at our public facility in Jacksonville, Florida.

Website and Social Media

If you haven't been on our website recently, be sure to check it out! We gave the website an overhaul and added a bunch of new swag to our store!

Be sure to follow us on social media for exciting weekly series posts, distance learning opportunities, event updates, and more!

Website Blog — Follow our blog for a new series called Conservation Pulse - an exciting glimpse into some conservation efforts from around the globe! You can follow along at savethebuzztails.org/articles