May Meeting - Lord of the Forest: the Eastern Indigo Snake

"Lord of the Forest: the Eastern Indigo Snake"

Jamy Ian Swiss presents a talk about the natural history, behavior, and unique characteristics of the Eastern Indigo Snake, Drymarchon couperi, America's most charismatic snake. Attendees will have the chance to see and handle an Eastern Indigo Snake!

BIO:

Jamy Ian Swiss brought home his first snake — a Florida Chain Kingsnake — when he was 16 years old. At 17 he began working in the retail pet and aquarium industry in his native Brooklyn, New York, specializing in marine aquaria, snakes and other reptiles. Over the next ten years he wrote numerous articles about marine aqualogy and reptile husbandry for national publications, in both trade journals and hobby magazines. He has been a wildlife activist, a wolf handler, a keeper at the New York Aquarium, and an educator and handler at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Insect Zoo.

Swiss eventually chose to leave the pet industry and did not keep animals again for the ensuing four decades. In July 2017 he attended a San Diego reptile show where he encountered a breeder of his lifelong favorite species, the Eastern Indigo Snake (Drymarchon couperi). In fact, Swiss had bred his first pair of Eastern Indigo Snakes in 1974, successfully hatching the entire first clutch of 11 eggs. In August of 2021, he brought home a young female Eastern Indigo. He is currently raising a small, select (2.3) future breeding colony of Eastern Indigo Snakes, and has created a unique website – www.impeccableindigos.com – devoted entirely to celebrating, and providing thorough educational, practical, and scientific resources about the species, including his original 40,000-word guide to Indigo Snake and Drymarchon husbandry.

www.impeccableindigos.com

www.youtube.com/@impeccableindigos

www.facebook.com/jamyianswiss

www.instagram.com/impeccableindigos

TikTok: Impeccable Indigos