Community Corner

Weird News: Saving Snakes and Quails, One Critter at a Time

Some stories are downright strange. Here's our wrap-up from around Northern Suffolk and the East End.

As a local news organization, Patch covers stories of all kinds, from heartbreaking tragedies to inspiring tales of community brotherhood. But some stories are just plain weird. Here are some of the stranger headlines from the past seven days.

Man Hopes to Breed Threatened Snakes

A Rocky Point man's love for snakes and reptiles has his basement slithering.

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Tom Bush, and his girlfriend, Cindy Truen, are trying to breed a pair of eastern indigo snakes - named for their iridescent scales that take on a purplish hue under sunlight. The reptiles, native to Florida and Georgia, have been listed as "threatened" on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's registry of endangered species since the 1970s.

The couple had to pick up a special permit to obtain the snakes, and an annual permit from New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to keep them.

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Bush said he hopes to breed the pair when they reach maturity in 2015, and donates a snake to The Orianne Society, a nonprofit in Georgia that is dedicated to the conservation of imperiled snakes worldwide – the eastern indigo in particular.

Students Turn Friends to the Quails

A fifth grade class at Bretton Woods Elementary School in Hauppauge has a lofty goal: restore Long Island’s quail population to a self-sustaining level.

This year, marked the 10th anniversary of teacher Veronica Week’s involvement with the Bobwhite Quail Restoration Project.

Weeks’ class, along with Mrs. Palmieri, incubated 100 quail eggs in the classroom. They achieved an 80-percent hatch rate, according to a statement.

The quail were kept in brooders for several weeks in the classroom and then were brought to Caleb Smith State Park where they stayed in pens until they were released ceremoniously on June 29.


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