Reptiles at Risk

Regina: CBC Interviews and an Unexpected Friend!

Posted by Jeff Hathaway on August 21, 2006 at 1:48 AM

We left the grasslands area on Wednesday to get to Regina. Although we wished we could have spent more time exploring the park, we were happy to be headed into the city to get some media exposure. We had set up a CBC Radio interview at noon, and a CBC television spot for the 6:00 news. It was raining gently as we left Val Marie- a fairly infrequent event as the area gets less than 30 cm of rainfall annually! We only got about half an hour north when we found an animal that had been brought out by the rain, a barred tiger salamander crossing the highway!

These are the only salamanders that survive the dry conditions of southern Saskatchewan, and like the rest of the Ambystomid or 'mole' salamanders, they do so by spending much of their time underground so that they do not dry out. They breed in small ponds in the early spring, which often dry up fairly quickly, so the larvae also have to develop quickly! These ponds are critcially important to the survival of mole salamanders, so preserving them is important- filling them in, or stocking them with fish, could wipe out the only breeding habitat in a fairly large area!

A picture of the barred tiger salamander is at http://www.flickr.com/photos/scisnake/220759276/ We were happy to see it, as we didn't expect to find one given the exceedingly dry conditions of the last month! We were also happy to move it off of the road so that it didn't get squashed!

We made it to the CBC building in Regina with about 10 minutes to spare, and the radio interview went very well. Crystal got a chance to be on the air as well, which was fun- sometimes people only want to talk to me, especially if the time is brief. We also taped the TV spot (which was much shorter, of course) just after the radio interview, so then we didn't have to hang around! What would we do with all this spare time?

Nearby was the Royal Saskatchewan Museum, which we had heard was very good, and best of all, free! So we headed over there to check it out. We were reading some signs in the lobby when we bumped into our friend from Ontario, Ben Porchuk! What a coincidence! We've worked with Ben over the last 6 years on Pelee Island, doing various conservation projects related to blue racers, eastern fox snakes, and other species. I also went to the University of Guelph with Ben, where we took Herpetology together, though at the time I was more into fish! As it turns out, Ben's new fiance, Roma, is from Regina, and they were in town to visit her parents! We chatted for a little while, and then made arrangements to catch up with them later that night, since they were just finishing the museum and heading off to some hot springs in Moose Jaw.

The museum was really very good; we would recommend it to anyone visiting Regina with an interest in natural history. After that, it was back to work- we caught up some blog entries and uploaded new photos to the website thanks to the wireless service at FutureShop! One thing that has been very difficult for us has been getting reliable internet access, and not being able to delay for long periods of time when we do find it. Val Marie was an exception, of course! We'll have to consider various ways to resolve this for future project tours! Once Ben and Roma had returned, we went over to Roma's parents place for desserts, and a game of pool, which was a lot of fun, and quite a change of pace from our regular activities! We spent the night there, in real beds! It was great to meet them, and get to know Roma better, since she has become very important in Ben's life, and we hope for a great future for them and the kids! Thanks for the incredible hospitality!