Wainfleet

Wainfleet finished another summer of tracking snakes and doing habitat assessments. Restoration of the Wainfleet Bog is proposed. The team is examining this issue, specifically regarding how hibernating rattlesnakes might react to flooding.

Ojibway

The Toronto Zoo is caring for a number of young snakes removed from an area undergoing development in the Ojibway area. The recovery team is examining the opportunity to repatriate these snakes to the Ojibway Prairie. School outreach is ongoing. The new displays for live specimens at the Ojibway Nature Centre have worked out great.

Bruce Peninsula

Over 225 snakes have been captured as part of a master’s degree being done on the Massasauga. The thesis will provide information on microhabitat use, the role of temperature in habitat selection, the effects of short distance translocations, and venom analysis. Also on the Bruce over 223 residents and 23 businesses were contacted and given information packages on the snakes. Public workshops were very successful.

Georgian Bay East

The highway 400 extension officially opened as the Recovery Team met. Although culverts were installed they did not appear to be very effective. This past summer drift fencing was added and study results are being determined. The fencing did appear to be a barrier to movement across the highway and funnel a variety of species through the culverts however only one snake observation was made. It is believed that culverts continue to present a thermal challenge to the snakes. At Georgian Bay Islands National Park the PIT tag monitoring continued and the park produced several replicas of our COSEWIC listed species for education purposes. As well a French translation of our new Snake Safety Sheet was completed.

Outreach

The Recovery Team was lucky to be selected by a very enthusiastic volunteer Yvonne who is attending Herp Expos on behalf of the team. Yvonne has worked hard to put together a display and has attended five Expos delivering the teams message and fundraising. The Reptile Awareness Programme continues to strongly support education efforts on 11 listed reptile species. At total of 7,800 contacts were made at school programmes, workshops, open houses and other special events.

Health News

The team continues to partner with the Reptile Awareness programme and West Parry Sound Health Centre to develop safety information and train health care professionals on rattlesnake issues.