‘They get such a bad rap’: Meet Lottie, Anderson Humane Wildlife’s ambassador snake

How can you be afraid of an animal whose keeper lovingly refers to it as a “little noodle?”

That’s the goal with Lottie, an integrated milk snake that Stephanie Francza, program manager at Anderson Humane Wildlife Center, has made an ambassador to help people with their ophidiophobia.

“She’s going to educate people about snakes and the many misconceptions about them,” Franczak said. “I mean, look at this little noodle, who could be afraid of that?”

The integrated milk snake is a naturally occurring hybrid between the eastern milk snake and the red milk snake, two Illinois native subspecies.

In regions where their habitats overlap, including parts of Illinois, the snakes can interbreed, resulting in offspring with blended features such as Lottie’s reddish blotches and checkerboard belly.

Franczak had been wanting to add a snake to Anderson’s ambassador program at the Elburn center for a while, but she didn’t want to take one from the wild.

“I wanted one that didn’t have anywhere to go,” she said. “So I reached out to a couple of wildlife centers and waited.”

Her patience was rewarded in February when a rehab center in downstate Dow told her about Lottie, who was 2 weeks old at the time.

The center reported that someone found a nest, took the eggs, and incubated them. When the eggs hatched, the individual released most of the snakes into the wild but kept two as pets. However, the person quickly realized they didn’t know how to care for them.

The snakes were off at the center. By that point, Lottie was too accustomed to humans to be released into the wild.

“She’s perfect for this,” Franczak said. “She’s completely harmless and comfortable with people, making her an ideal candidate to help folks overcome their fear of snakes.”

Franczak said the misunderstood reptiles play a vital role in the ecosystem. Milk snakes in particular are great for rodent control.

“Snakes are just too important and people kill them way too often and easily,” she said. “They get such a bad rap.”

Franczak has three animals in Anderson’s ambassador program; Lottie joins Wanda the Woodchuck and Tailless Tina the opossum.

They are utilized for educational visits and programs at local libraries, civic events, and youth groups.

“I love having ambassadors that are the unloved creatures,” Franczak said. “People are always like ‘Eww, no’ about possums. But then we talk about how perfect this creature is.”

Lottie made her public debut during a recent National Night Out event in Geneva.

“She was amazing the whole time,” Franczak said. “It’s so impressive how she handled the attention.”

While people aren’t allowed to handle Lottie, Franczak will let kids touch her to prove she’s not “slimy” as she works to dispel myriad myths about snakes.

The young snake is roughly 9 inches long and about as big around as a pencil. She could end up anywhere from 18 inches to 3 feet long and much thicker. They can live up to about 15 years.

Lottie eats newborn baby mice twice a week. While the mice seem like more than a mouthful for Lottie, she and most snakes swallow something that is up to one and a half times the size of the thickest part of her body.

“She loves them,” Franczak said. “The first time I gave her one, I thought it was too big and there was no way she’d be able to eat it. She ate two.”

Groups can submit requests to meet Lottie and the other ambassadors for visits or programs at ahconnects.org/wildlifeeducation/.

Donations to the wildlife center, which at times has as many as 400 animals in its care, can be made at ahconnects.org.