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Deadly Fungus Threatens Rare Illinois Rattler

The Illinois State Museum

A mysterious fungus is threatening to wipe out some isolated populations of rare rattlesnakes. 

In Illinois, the fungus infects about 15 percent of eastern massasauga rattlesnakes: it kills up to 90 percent of those that contract it. There are only about 300 of the snakes in Illinois, mostly in Clinton county. The swamp rattler has also been found in Cook, DuPage, and Will counties. It was already a candidate for the federal endangered species list before the fungus was discovered. 

The eastern massasauga rattlesnake was once found in the northern four-fifths of Illinois, but farming destroyed most of its habitat.

Biologists compare the disease to the fungus that causes white nose syndrome in bats, which has killed millions of bats across the nation.

Additional information from the Illinois State Museum