(Radio Iowa) – Iowa D-N-R veterinarian Rachel Ruden is studying the impact of a viral fungal pathogen on the state’s rattlesnake population. “It affects snakes kind of broadly and the vipers, so things that include rattlesnakes specifically,” she says. “So they have seemingly worse outcomes than other types of snakes.” Ruden has been doing some testing of rattlesnakes. “So we’re doing these skin swabs to kind of understand how much of the fungus we have on the landscape. You know, in that population and kind of what it’s doing to that population over time,” Ruden says. Ruden says Iowa doesn’t have the number of rattlesnakes seen in other states.

“They are fragmented across the state already, so we don’t have big contiguous, connected populations. In places locally, they’re doing well,” Ruden says. “Overall, we’ve lost a lot of our habitat and you know our numbers really for the different rattlesnake species. But some are doing better than others and it kind of depends on the place.”

Ruden has been working in southeast Iowa, but isn’t disclosing the exact location to protect the rattlesnakes.