Reptiles at Risk

Crossing the Manitoba/Saskatchewan Border

Posted by Jeff Hathaway on July 22, 2008 at 3:26 PM

Tuesday, July 22nd,

Within the last four days we went from Spruce Woods Provincial Park to Turtle Mountain National Park, both in Manitoba, before crossing over the Saskatchewan border. We gained another hour that day, giving us more time to get to Val Marie, our first stop in this province. The drive over the border was long, we totaled about nine hours on the road between driving and stopping for a couple of short breaks. If that is not surprising enough, Heather drove the whole way! It is no surprise that we were all wiped by the time we reached Grasslands National Park, near the small town of Val Marie, in Southern Saskatchewan.

We woke up the next morning to the prairie sun and an opportunity to go for a hike around the grasslands before our 2:00 show. We wandered the park, which turned out to be very scenic, interesting, and unlike any other terrain I have seen yet. And we saw a Bull Snake! Heather and Sean spotted it about 10 minutes after we set out on our hike, and it was perfect timing because our wild snake sightings have been quite limited. Jeff measured the big guy and discovered that it was 160 centimeters long.

Following the show, we headed out into the field again in search of Short-Horned Lizards and Bison. Grasslands is one of two areas that are working to re-introduce these Bison back into the wild prairie landscape. Jeff has been telling me about how the staff at Grasslands National Park are working closely with the locals to ensure that the Bison do not negatively affect any of the nearby farmland. We did not see any bison up close but we may have spotted a heard in the distance while on our hike. The elusive Short-horned Lizards, Saskatchewan's only native lizard species, also failed to surface during our walks, but it was nice to spend the day out in the warm sunshine.
This brings me to today, which has already been eventful. We had our earliest morning yet, waking up at 4:30 am, early enough to see the sun rise, and headed out into the field with two researchers. They were two enthusiastic young ladies, (especially for the early wake-up), Jessica and Ashley, that are tracking Yellow-bellied Racers and Bull Snakes to study their behaviors and hopefully gaining a better insight into their lives and habits. We did not have any snake encounters but it was an interesting experience nonetheless.

Following that adventure, we piled into the van again and drove North-West a couple hours towards Shaunavon, Saskatchewan, where we recently finished a show. The audience was full of little snake enthusiasts who were all exited about handling snakes, many for the first time.

I think I will stop there and let the adventure continue...

Lenny