Fauna Journal Entry
New Snake Species Found (January 10, 2003)
Photo of Slowinski's corn snake by Dr. F. Burbrink. Courtesy College of Staten Island/CUNY.
Dr. F. Burbrink, a biologist doing fieldwork at Louisiana State University, recently discovered a new snake species in northern Louisiana and eastern Texas. The snake has been named Slowinski's corn snake in memory of Dr. James Slowinski. Dr. Slowinski was curator of herpetology at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. He died in September 2001 a day after being bitten by a poisonous krait snake while doing field research in Burma.
Until now, scientists didn't realize the snake differed from other corn snake species. But Dr. Burbrink's laboratory tests show the species has unique DNA. It is the first new snake species found in the United States in decades. It raises the country's total from 140 to 141 snake species.
