Andy Snider, Fresno Chaffee Zoo's director of animal care and conservation, is in Armenia to tag and track Armenian vipers. Snider is a nationally known expert on reptiles and amphibians. Snider is in Armenia until Sept. 10 and is sharing his experiences with readers of The Bee.

Andy's Armenia Adventure
Part 2, 27 August 2008

A total relaxation day. Since I had fresh clothes to change into (from my newly arrived luggage), it felt luxurious to take a nice hot shower and not have to put on the same ratty clothes from the last several days. Ah, the simple pleasures! We read and watched TV most of the day, alternating between CNN (the only English-speaking channel available) and one of the two music video channels. Watching the same footage over and over again from the Democratic National Convention became rather ho-hum, but watching Britney Spears and Tina Turner videos while in Armenia is almost surreal.

I should probably explain a little bit about the Armenian viper project, so you'll understand why we're doing what we're doing. The Armenian viper is classified as a threatened species, and it is a candidate species for the more comprehensive world Red Data List. As such, it is undergoing reassessment at the moment. It is only found in Armenia and the extreme eastern side of Turkey on Mount Ararat.

In this country, it is found in scattered localities and can be somewhat abundant in the proper rocky, mountainous habitat. In past years, we've taken blood samples from specimens in various parts of its range to determine how closely related different populations are to one another. In fact, it isn't even totally known that all of the populations are really the same subspecies at all!

The animals found in the extreme south part of the range near Meghri are very different beasts, being very dark in color and being somewhat different in behavior and habitat as well. We also do radiotelemetry on these animals.

A tiny radiotransmitter is surgically implanted inside the body cavity of the snake, and each individual specimen has its own unique transmission signal to find with a receiver and antenna. Each specimen is located every couple-to-few days and coordinates are taken to later enter into a computer program. In this way, each snake can be tracked throughout the year, and a "home range" can be determined for each specimen. In past years, we've even taken blood samples from a tiny species of viper (Darevsky's viper) in the very north part of the country, near the Georgia border, to help our colleague Levon with his research.

I think we're headed to Yerevan's "City Center" tonight, to see the city lights at night and perhaps have some dinner. Every day I'm here, for the 4 years I've come here, I'm thankful to have the privilege to be in such a beautiful place!