However, Scott Ballard, a District Heritage biologist and herpetologist with the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, found that the snake migration took a lot longer than anyone first thought. In 1972, the Forest Service made the decision to close LaRue Road for three weeks in the spring and three weeks in the fall in order for the snakes to migrate safely. It is estimated that tens to hundreds of millions of snakes have been killed by automobiles in the United States. It is possible that up to twenty-five percent of all snakes will eventually become roadkill: According to biologist Rich Seigel, almost one in four of the snakes he collected for one of his studies had been killed by vehicular traffic. That is why so many snakes, frogs, toads, and turtles get hit by cars. In the cool early morning and evening hours, the black asphalt is relatively warm, and rather than crossing quickly, snakes and other cold-blooded creatures like to hang out. If you’re a snake, crossing the road is dangerous. To get to and from the bluffs, snakes must migrate across LaRue Road every spring and fall. They are protected from the weather, cool in the summer and warm in the winter. These ridges and caves make an ideal habitat for snakes. Wind and erosion cut grooves and gullies into the soft limestone surface. Over millions of years, those skeletons became limestone rock. When the sea creatures died, they left behind skeletons made of calcium carbonate. There were seashells and coral in the Illinois Basin. Scientists think the bluffs were at the bottom of a vast sea called the Illinois Basin. The limestone rock of the bluffs is more common to Missouri and Arkansas than the rest of Illinois. They form the easternmost point of the Ozark Mountain ecosystem. The LaRue-Pine Hills are famous for their majestic bluffs towering 46 meters (150 feet) straight into the air. The LaRue-Pine Hills are on the east side of the road. LaRue Swamp is also an important stop for migrating waterfowl, such as ducks and geese. These animals are common in Mississippi and Louisiana, but are not usually seen as far north as Illinois. Here you will see species such as the cottonmouth snake ( Agkistrodon piscivorus), the southern leopard frog (Lithobates sphenocephalus), and the bird-voiced tree frog ( Hyla avivoca). The swamp is part of the Mississippi River basin. LaRue Swamp is on the west side of the road. LaRue Road runs between two very different ecosystems. Running between the cliffs and the swamp is Snake Road, also called LaRue Road. In the fall, the migration is reversed as the snakes come out of LaRue Swamp to spend the winter at the dry base of the limestone cliffs. In spring, snakes (along with other reptiles and amphibians) migrate out of the forest’s limestone bluffs and into LaRue Swamp. The Shawnee National Forest is famous for its twice-yearly snake migration.
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