What Snakes have you ever caught in Ontario?

[tabastifur]

Hey Jeff,

First of all, T(depressor) and I live fairly close to Hamilton in the first place, in fact, I am listed in the hamilton side of our phone book. The habitat we found him in was not a suburban area. We found him on T's street, which is located in the "boons." Literally, there could be 1000 rattlers there and no one would know because it's so far out there, and has such primie habitat. So I feel there was a strong possibily of seeing one. However I do take into account that you seem to know what you are talking about, (which is always nice to hear.) I believe had you seen it yourself, you would agree. But we'll never know of course, because that day has past.

Thanks for listening Jeff,

-Dan

[depressor86]

after looking around at different snakes i doubt it was a rattler or a milk snake, it was probably a fox snake because they coil and rattle their tails. though fox snakes live more north than burlington, its the only snake that looks like what i saw and acts that aggresive.

i live in a heavily forested area with a creek across the road. theres a huge section of untouched forest at the end of my street and its perfect for looking for snakes.

guess we were both wrong

also ive looked at the milksnake pictures, really dont think it was one.

[Jeff Hathaway]

Hey depressor,

In my experience (20+ wild fox snakes observed/ captured) fox snakes rarely coil. I've only ever seen neonates adopt a defensive posture that was even close to 'coiling'. They do rattle their tails, as do milks. Milks are more prone to posturing, flattening their heads to look like rattlesnakes, etc. Juvenile milks and foxes are very difficult to distinguish from each other.

Fox snakes are found in SW Ontario and along the eastern coastline of Georgian Bay, but not normally in the Burlington area. One turned up in north Etobicoke a couple of years however, probably an escaped captive.

Jeff Hathaway
Sciensational Sssnakes!!

[NewLineReptile]

there are rattle snake's in burlington and surrounding area's, this I know becouse my sister's friend is a vet tech that is in a partnership which studies and microchips these snake to study migration. How ever the larger population is found in Fort Erie area, and have been spotted in Missasauga.

[Jeff Hathaway]

burmese python,

I think you need to get more accurate info from your sister's friend. Check with her, and if she still says that they live in Mississauga or Burlington, please ask her to call someone on the Eastern Massasauga Recovery Team (which is the partnership you describe studying the Wainfleet Bog population near Fort Erie). She could just ask me, but then why would she believe me? Apparently no one else does...

Why do people feel the need to defend that species X (especially so when X = rattlesnake) is normally found in an area when it clearly is not?

Wainfleet bog, near Fort Erie, does have a small population, possibly the smallest of the four known discrete populations in Ontario (Ojibway is also a very small population, but they tend to find more there than at Wainfleet). It would be ridiculous to say it is 'larger' than anything. Repeated searches in previous years often turned up no specimens, as in zero! However, some have been found, and they are implanted with microchips for identification. This facilitates mark/ recapture studies, growth data, and aids in identification of specimens removed from the bog by humans. While massasaugas don't 'migrate' in the technical sense, they do have a home range which they move through during their active months. This home range is studied by surgically implanting some individuals with radio transmitters (not microchips) and tracking them with a receiver.

Individual snakes are RARELY found outside the actual limits of the bog. It is incorrect, and irresponisble, to say that they wander through the countryside all the way to Burlington or even Mississauga. The individual home range of a specimen is usually about a square kilometre, meaning they don't typically travel farther than that in their whole lives! The space from Wainfleet to Mississauga is close to the size of the entire range of the Georgian Bay population (the largest by far), through some of the most densely populated and developed land in Canada.

Let me state, clearly, for the record: There are no populations of eastern massasauga rattlesnakes in Burlington, Mississauga, or anywhere else in the greater Toronto area. Individual snakes may turn up from time to time, but these are either released captives or specimens that have been translocated, either intentionally, or not (i.e. the classic 'back of a truck' scenario). I know of one such specimen from Mississauga, and another from Etobicoke (both verified rattlesnakes, 99% of such calls are eastern milks). Here are some other snake sightings or captures from the GTA- taiwan beauty snake (in a shipping container), corn snake & florida garter (from plant shipments), tricolour milksnake, florida watersnake, saw-scaled viper, 2 burmese pythons, boa constrictor (all escaped pets), and an unknown tricoloured snake (at a truck stop). None of these species 'live' in the GTA either!!!

Believe me, I would welcome the news that a population of massasaugas had recolonized part of their former range, anywhere in Ontario (which actually appears not have included Mississauga and Burlington). But please, don't encourage such rumors without checking the facts and making sure that the information is correct. It makes it much harder to get people to realize the truth (including how much help massasaugas need in southern Ontario) and may lead to many harmless snakes being mistakenly killed (okay, that happens anyway...).

Jeff Hathaway
Sciensational Sssnakes!!

[Nicky]

last year was great me and my cousin found

...3 black rat snakes that were around 4 feet long
...1 northern water snake that was 3 and a bit feet long
.. 1 eastern milk snake that was 1 foot long
..21 eastern garters
..10 red sided garters

but that was last year the snakes at my cottage are still underground hibernating just acouple more months

[Burmies]

Non cause I live in Nova Scotia.

Burmies

[Jeff Hathaway]

Nicky,

Whereabouts is your cottage? It sounds like eastern Ontario, but the red-sided garters are confusing. Red-sideds are only found in northwestern Ontario, near the Manitoba border. Ironically, in Ontario they tend not to have much red, from what I've been told; never seen one in the wild myself. Many easterns have lots of red in them, but they are still T. sirtalis sirtalis.

Jeff Hathaway
Sciensational Sssnakes!!