iN PHOTOS: The seven snakes of the Thompson-Okanagan

Several species of snakes are slithering around Kamloops and the Okanagan during the warmer months, and some residents are getting close-up encounters with them.

Kamloops resident Sherry Bennett said she was thrilled when a four foot long gopher snake slowly slithered across her property earlier this month.

“The first thing I did when it popped out of the bushes is look for its tail to make sure it didn’t have a rattle,” she said. “It was a startle factor at the beginning, but it was more afraid of me.”

Snakes are generally given a bad rap by most, but depending on your point of view, the Thompson-Okanagan region is lucky enough to have seven of the nine species of snake that call BC home: the western rattlesnake, yellow-bellied racer, common garter snake, terrestrial garter snake, northern rubber boa, desert night snake, and the great basin gopher snake like the one in Bennett’s yard.

“I just sat there and watched it. It came in, looked at me and checked me out,” Bennett said. “I’m so happy, we had so many rats and now we don’t anymore.”

The great basin gopher snake has a cream-coloured body marked with black blotches that become stripes on its tail, and can grow more than six feet in length.

“I feel honoured to have him in my yard, now that I know he’s there,” Bennett said. “I’m hoping to see him again. We have raptors where we live, so at one point he might become somebody’s supper.”

Snakes are great for the ecosystem, eating a number of small mammals, rodents, reptiles and insects. They are also food for predatory birds and mammals, according to the Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship Society.

The only poisonous snake in the province is the rattler which only bites when threatened.

Jesse Berube is an avid outdoor enthusiast and snake aficionado in Kamloops who spends a lot of time exploring the grasslands.

He sees a half dozen of rattlers every year and captured footage of one in a strike position earlier this month. He recently found a baby rubber boa.

“I like snakes and my favourite thing to do is go hiking, so I try to find and photograph all the species in a year if I can,” he said.

The western rattlesnake is green, grey and brown in colour with dark circles that turn into strips at the tail, and grows up to three feet long. The head is triangular with hooded eyes, and it’s the only snake in BC with a rattle.

One snake Berube hasn’t found yet is the rare desert night snake and that’s because the only place in the country this snake lives is in the Southern Okanagan and lower Similkameen valleys.

“This elusive, nocturnal snake is one of Canada’s rarest and most mysterious reptiles,” the Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship posted on social media. “Since it was first discovered in Canada in 1980, fewer than 100 confirmed sightings have been recorded, highlighting just how rare and difficult this species is to find in the wild.”

Found under rocks in dry grassland and shrub-steppe habitats, the desert night snake is listed as endangered in Canada due to habitat loss, road mortality and low population numbers. 

The yellow-bellied racer snake is slender with a yellow-coloured underbelly and grows up to a metre long. This snake is known to be fast and is one of few snakes worldwide that eat insects. Northern rubber boas appear to be made of rubber due to having very small scales and grow to less than a metre long.

The common garter snake has a distinct yellow stripe down its back while the terrestrial garter snake is more mottled in appearance. Both species are often near water.

Excluding the garter snakes, these snakes are blue-listed in BC, meaning their populations are vulnerable due to habitat loss, persecution and getting run over by vehicles and agricultural machinery.

If you have photos of snakes to share, send them news@infonews.ca.