Checking on hibernating snakes
In this video, Kelly Antaya, field technician for the Ojibway Prairie Reptile Recovery program in Windsor-Essex region, Ontario, uses a borescope camera to check on the eastern garter snakes hibernating in one of our artificial hibernaculum.
WPC’s hibernation habitat study is just one part of a larger effort to prepare for an eastern massasauga (Sistrurus catenatus) reintroduction. Snakes have a unique natural history and complex needs to survive the winter, including requiring appropriate overwintering burrows. The perfect burrow will allow snakes to get below the frost line, and be deep enough that they can access the water table to prevent desiccation while hibernating.
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Read more about WPC’s hibernation habitat study by clicking here.
What to know more about how the artificial hibernacula are built and installed? Watch the video below!
Kelly Antaya
Field Technician – Ojibway Prairie Reptil Recovery
Kelly started working with Wildlife Preservation Canada as an intern, and is now a field technician. She has worked in reptile conservation throughout Ontario, and has also assisted on population studies of skinks and snakes on islands in northern Madagascar. Kelly is a graduate of Fleming College, where she received her diploma in ecosystem management.
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