By Ronica Stromberg
For Husker senior Nia Meyer, her stay at Cedar Point Biological Station this past summer might be termed “all-inclusive.” From snake rescue to snake surgery to snake CPR and a cool-looking snake bite, Meyer experienced it all in a UCARE project in western Nebraska from May 26 to August 2, 2024.
In her Undergraduate Creative Activities and Research Experiences project, the fisheries and wildlife major received a salary and room and board through the Pepsi Endowment and Program of Excellence funds, but bullsnakes also contributed their share to the experience.
The largest snake native to Nebraska, bullsnakes can grow up to about eight feet long. They are commonly referred to as “the farmer’s friend” because they eat rodents that feed on crops. They are also called “gopher snakes” because they are often found in abandoned burrows of small mammals.
Meyer worked with Dennis Ferraro, a herpetology professor, to research how these snakes use the land at the Cedar Point Biological Station near Lake McConaughy. Her initial plan was for Ferraro to install transmitters on snakes she found so that she could then track them using radio telemetry. That plan ran afoul when she found only one bullsnake, a male PIT tagged by students the previous summer.
Read the full article and see more images of Nia at https://snr.unl.edu/aboutus/what/newstory.aspx?fid=1180