It occurs in northern USA (Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa) but in Canada is restricted to the eastern two-thirds of Pelee Island (western Lake Erie, Ontario).
The blue racer ( Coluber constrictor foxii (Baird and Girard, 1853)) is a large, non-venomous subspecies of the eastern racer, with a limited distribution in North America.
Our assay should be effective for other environmental samples and can be used for investigating other factors negatively affecting blue racers, for example, helping to quantify blue racer habitat suitability and site occupancy. More faecal samples collected at strategic locations during snake peak activity on Pelee Island would enable a more thorough assessment of the possibility of turkey predation. We detected no racer DNA in any wild turkey faecal sample. Our assay is specific, can detect the target species at very low levels of concentration (0.002 copies/µL), and can accurately quantify copy numbers ≥ 0.26 copies/µL. As wild turkey predation has been suggested to negatively affect racers, we tested the assay on eight wild turkey faecal samples. We tested the assay in silico and in vitro using DNA of blue racers and co-occurring snake species and estimated the LOD and LOQ using synthetic DNA. We designed and evaluated the performance of an environmental DNA droplet digital PCR assay that can be used for multiple facets of conservation of this species. The species is threatened by multiple factors, including habitat degradation and loss, road mortality, persecution, and potentially predation. The only population of the endangered blue racer ( Coluber constrictor foxii) in Canada occurs on Pelee Island, Ontario.
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