Dr. Dan Speake

As my imagination. and fascination with Indigos is never ending, ...I have countless ideas, theories, and questions. I have asked many of the so called experts about many things concerning the Indigo Snake. Some times those "experts'' are correct, and some times they are not. Some times they tell on themselves by refering me to people that they don't think that I will be able to contact. Sometimes I surprise them by doing what they did not expect.

With regards to my ongoing search for reproductive information about the Indigo. I have had several people make certain statements to me that did not sound quite right. They illuded that Dr. Dan Speake had made the findings to which they were refering. I have seen and heard his name many times, and I knew that he had made many wild releases of indigos into places from which they had been long gone. So I did some digging, and found his phone number. I called him earlier this evening, and these are some things that he had to say.

He is absolutely convinced that repatriation of the Eastern Indigo, is possible. He says he is certain that numerous new populations were started by him, and he would venture to assume that there are healthy populations decendant of those releases.

Dr. Speake also told me that he HAS found numerous Indigo egg depositories, or nests. He found them both inside of gopher tortoise burrows, at an average depth of 6 ft., in more northern areas of the Indigo range. And in the southern range, he has found them in rotton logs. He got some of these finds by surgicly implanting a fake egg/radio transmitter inside of a pregnant female, and releasing her.

I understand that there are some out there who will be offended by this post because it flies in the face of their "expertise". But when you want the truth, you should go to the source. That is exactly why, I encouraged dr. Speake, who is now in his 70s to learn to use the computer, and come here, and share all that he has learned about these creatures. I hope he does! We could use his input! Not to mention the knowledge he has should not be lost, but saved, and passed on. Someone like him could set the record straight on a lot of topics!
T.

That's pretty interesting. Did he say what made him so confident that he had infact established new populations? Tell us more of what he said...
I'm going to post a link to this one at ks.com also.

Eric

Now that's..

some true dedication, Tony!! Way to go..Post more as you can..

none

I did not record the conversation, and my memory is probably not perfect, but I am pretty sure Dr. Speake said that he went back to several of these release areas several years later, and was able to locate not only the origional animals, but offspring as well. He did say that not every animal survived, and not every animal could be located, obviously. But he was very confident that there were new populations in places where they had been previously absent, although it has been many years since. And these findngs are by no means absolutely conclusive. But this is a pretty smart guy, with lot's of experience, and education. Let's just say that I got the distinct impression that this guy knows what he's talking about.

As I said before, I did try to encourage him to come to the forum, and speak for himself, but he is an old timer, and way behind the power curve of the computer generation! So it may be a while before we hear from him. I plan to call him again, and see if he already has anything in writing that he wouldn't mind being posted here. I think that he is an extremely valuable source of information, and every effort should be made to preseve, and pass on what he knows.

And I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those who have been supporting this new forum, and especialy Doug Taylor for making the link from his website! THANKS DOUG!!! I would also like to say, please come here,...not that old crapy forum! While there have been some very good discussions over there, it would be realy nice if those people and there discussions would come here instead!!! Thanks,
T.