How 2 snake species can survive winter months in Edmonton

There are some things you might need to know if you come across a snake. Dale Gienow with WildNorth explains what kinds you could meet in Edmonton.

People may not think of snakes in the Edmonton area, but two species are out there. Dale Gienow with WildNorth joined CTV Your Morning Edmonton’s Cory Edel on the kinds of snakes you could meet in the city and what you should do.

This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.

Cory Edel: I ran into a snake a few years ago and it totally caught me off guard. It was in the River Valley. What kind of snakes do we have here in Edmonton?

Dale Gienow: There’s a number of snake species across Alberta but when you get as far as Edmonton, we really only have two species. They’re both Garter snakes. There’s a Red-sided Garter snake and a Plains Garter snake, and completely harmless, so nothing to worry about here in Edmonton.

Cory: So they’re not dangerous at all? They’re not venomous or they’re not going to strangle you?

Dale: No. As we get down to southern Alberta, we get into the Prairie rattlesnake but in the Edmonton area, we don’t have them. Just the two Garter snakes and they’re going to try to avoid you any chance they get. If you do see one, consider it a banner day and enjoy it.

Cory: How do they survive the Edmonton winters?

Dale: They actually congregate in these huge groups, we call them “hibernaculums.”

These are the areas where they go underneath the frost line where it doesn’t ever get really cold. But the Red-sided Garter snake, the most common species we have in Edmonton, has a very unique ability among snakes. It can literally freeze 40 per cent of its body for several hours and still survive it. So these guys are designed for the winter temperatures.

Cory: Do you get many of them at WildNorth?

Dale: We don’t get a lot, but we do get some that are dug up in the process of their hibernation. Outside construction jobs will dig up these hibernaculums where we can get hundreds or even thousands of these snakes that are congregating together.

We get lawnmower accidents, those kinds of things. They can congregate in huge groups. There’s a place, Narcisse (Wildlife Management Area) in Manitoba, has the largest grouping of Garter snakes in the world. They can gather up to 100,000 individual snakes in one hibernaculum.

Cory: If you do find one and you think, “Hey, maybe this would be fun to take home,” can you keep them as pets?

Dale: Small snakes can make really great pets, but you’re not allowed to take our native Garter snakes. You can’t take the wild snakes out of the wild to make them as pets. There are a variety of other species that you can find in pet stores that can just make great pets, but not our wild guys. Those guys are best left in the wild where they belong.

Cory: If we do come across one, what should we do?

Dale: Honestly, just enjoy them. They’re starting to emerge right now from their hibernaculums. They don’t really start to emerge until it gets about 20 C. So you’re going to see sometimes, if you’re near one of these spaces, a lot of them disperse and they’re going to come back to that same spot next year.

So if you see them, enjoy them. Nothing to worry about. They’re more worried about your cats outside or your dog who’s on a leash. Make sure you keep your pets under control and keep an eye out for these guys. They’re very helpful. They keep pests under control. They’re nice to have in Edmonton and part of our natural ecosystem.