GCSU students use transmitters to assist with studying the snakes. Eventually the transmitters are surgically removed and snakes are returned to the wild. COURTESY OF GCSU
Dr. DeSantis and his students study the behavioral ecology of snakes at Cedar Creek Wildlife Management Area in Eatonton. COURTESY OF GCSU
Graduate biology student William Tillett in Herty Hall’s herpetology lab. Tillet was the first to use accelerometers on rat snakes and discovered they eat more often than rattlers but use less space when foraging. COURTESY OF GCSU
Humans tend to think a snake’s life is simple. They slink. They slither. They bask. They bite.
But a Georgia College & State University vertebrate biologist says we don’t really know much at all about what snakes do and why. Using stateof- the-art technology, Dr.
Dominic DeSantis and his students keep an eye on these coiling creatures – where they go, what they eat and how they interact – hoping…
