Reptiles at Risk

Bulls and Rattles

Posted by Jeff Hathaway on July 27, 2008 at 1:38 AM

We've been in Saskatchewan for a few days now and our shows have been going really well. The audiences in Saskatchewan have been smaller than in the other provinces, however they are still just as enthusiastic to learn about all our snakes.

At our Saskatchewan shows our Bull Snakes seem to be the most popular. Everyone always seems really excited to meet them and most people have stories of seeing them in the areas that we've been to here. A lot of people seem to have fears or misconceptions about the Bull Snakes before our shows, but once we bring out Brenda or Ferdinand, our two big Bull snakes, and tell them all about what they do, the audiences are won over and excited for a chance to hold Canada's second largest snake (Black Rat Snakes can get slightly longer). Bull Snakes live on the prairies and use gopher or ground squirrel holes as shelter from the sun or cold. These holes are great for the snakes because Bull snakes love to eat, you guessed it - gophers and ground squirrels! It's like an all you can eat buffet in you own home! These snakes are great for farmers to have around because they help to keep the numbers of these hole digging rodents down.

We've also had a couple of afternoons to go out in the field recently. Grasslands National Park was really beautiful and we spent a great day wandering around in that park. We've already written about that experience though so I'll talk about our most recent outting.

After our show at the Leader Community Centre, James, a local resident, offered to take us out to a place near the town where Prairie Rattlesnakes can be found. It turned out that James had a ton of experience researching Rattlesnakes in Canada as well as the United States. He had a wealth of knowledge and we had a great time chatting with him. It was lucky for us that he attended our show! We spent a great evening wandering around the hills next to the Saskatchewan river with James looking for Prairie Rattlesnakes. Unfortunately we didn't see one - well James saw one just as it went down a hole - but we can't really count that. It was still a great evening though. Prairie Rattlesnakes are Canada's largest Rattlesnakes and are found over a much larger area than either of the other two Rattlesnakes found in Canada (Massassauga and Pacific Rattlesnakes). But even with that distinction there have been no recorded deaths from a Prairie Rattlesnake bite ever! Not something the you have too much to worry about. Most of the residents that live near where the snakes can be found know that the best thing to do is wear cowboy boots and jeans when you go into the field. That way, in the unlikely event that a rattlesnake were to bite you it wouldn't even be able to bite you through your boots with it's short teeth.

Right now I'm sitting in the laundry room at Saskatchewan Landing Provincial Park. We're doing a bunch of laundry before heading out to Regina tonight. In the morning we will have a session with CBC radio then we're off to the airport to send Sean off (with CBC television in tow) and pick up our new crew member, James. Once we have James with us we head back to Grasslands for another show at the community movie night in Val Marie next to the park. Should be an interesting day!

- Heather