Indigo Bluegrass BBQ event benefits Florida snake conservation
An event in Eustis aims to celebrate and fund wildlife conservation efforts centered on the threatened eastern indigo snake.
Indigo Bluegrass BBQ welcomes the public to the Orianne Center for Indigo Conservation on Feb. 11 for a day of twangy tunes and enjoyable eats.
The center is owned and managed by the Central Florida Zoo and helps breed the threatened species to increase wild populations.
“They normally live throughout the entire state of Florida, historically, plus the southern third of Georgia, the southern 10 percent or so of Alabama and that little dangly part of Mississippi,” said Dr. James Bogan, the center’s director. “Currently, they only exist in the peninsular part of Florida and the southern fourth of Georgia. Everywhere else they’re considered locally extinct, extirpated.”
The species, which is a staple of the longleaf pine ecosystem and America’s longest snake, has faced challenges mainly due to habitat loss.
“The longleaf pine ecosystem used to be more than 93 million acres; we’re down to less than three percent of its original footprint,” Bogan said.
The group has released more than 300 snakes to date at The Nature Conservancy’s Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve in Bristol and Alabama’s Conecuh National Forest.
It’s important to restore the indigo population because they’re apex predators and keep other species in check, Bogan said.
“They’re a large snake, they’re not venomous, they’re not a constrictor. They just grab, bite and hold,” he said. “They’re very strong snakes, they’ll eat anything they can overpower — small mammals, birds, lizards, a small raccoon or possum — but their favorite food is snakes.”
On Saturday, visitors will get a rare glimpse into the center’s operations, which are usually off-limits to the public. In several buildings in rural Eustis, snakes are paired for breeding and then cared for once babies are hatched.
During the second Indigo Bluegrass BBQ, the center hopes to raise funds to build a new $100,000 outdoor enclosure for snakes and raise young hatchlings, which cost about $4,000 each to care for.
“This is the only facility that breeds indigos for the sole purpose of releasing them into the wild,” Bogan said. “Everything has its own check and balance.”
IF YOU GO
Indigo Bluegrass BBQ is noon-4 p.m. Feb. 11 at the OCIC with parking at Cassia Community Center, 29245 Florida Highway 44 in Eustis. Tickets are $30 per person or $50 for two. Items are also available for auction online. For more information and tickets, visit biddingforgood. com.