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Snakes on a Plain: A Weird but true Manitoba tale
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SNAKES ON A PLAIN
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One might suspect that you’d have to travel to
As we got closer to Narcisse, I saw little black lines, live red-sided garter snakes darting off the road. Soon, we arrived at the Narcisse Snake Dens, a Manitoba Wildlife Management Area. I was accompanied by guide Don Finkbeiner and Jacques Bourgeois, a Naturalist from the nearby Oak Hammock Marsh Interpretive Centre. Though Finkbeiner is a native Winnipegger, he had never seen the famous snakes in person and appeared quite apprehensive. Bourgeois, a burly Quebecois who had moved to
While the occasional snake slithered along the path, Bourgeois led us on a short hike to the snake dens; he then quickly swooped down and expertly picked up a specimen. It wriggled a little, then calmed down and looked at us placidly. About 18 inches long, black with a red stripe, he looked harmless, even a bit cuddly. Bourgeois gently put it down and then we all peered over a wooden railing into a well established cave about fifteen feet below the path.
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I could only see dark rocks, crevices in the earth and some vegetation. However, once my eyes got accustomed to the mottled light, the darkness came to life, and I could see a few hundred dark snakes moving around. All males, I discovered - the first to awaken from a long winter’s hibernation. “It’s amazing watching these little guys who, after spending 6 month starving in those dark caves, come out so excited about mating,” said an animated Bourgeois. The “boys” were stretching their legs, so to speak, and eagerly awaiting the females, often three times their size. Finally, a female slithered out of the cave and the males sprung into action. They pounced on her - with some ten, twenty, fifty or more males attacking from all directions. The female bravely tried to get away, and go up and out of the cave. But the males were relentless, forming writhing, moving “balls of snake,” with a lone female in the middle. The noise of fifty or so very excited snakes in a ball makes a sibilant rustling sound. Eventually mating occurred and the female was able to make her escape. After mating, the female emits a pheromone (like a diamond ring, for snakes) that keeps the other males away. Afterwards, she then looks for a “proper,” suitable mate. Fortunately for the males, they have two hemipenes - snake penises, in case one breaks off in the commotion. (Ouch!) You can only feel sorry for the females, but this rapacious behavior is totally natural.
c. Bob Ecker 2009
For more information:
www.gov.mb.ca/conservation/wildlife/managing/
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