The Okanagan Similkameen Stewardship Society has a slithering new ambassador who is set to help people in the area learn how to be “snake smart” with local threatened species.
The Sonoran gopher snake, Nora, came to the society from a rehab centre after being confiscated. The snake is the same species as those found in the Okanagan, but a different subspecies, and since the new ambassador is unreleasable into the wild she will take on a helpful role education locals about SnakeSmart programs.
“We just wanted to bring her out and show her that show people that snakes aren’t anything to be afraid of to try and reduce the amount of persecution against some of our native snakes,” said Lia McKinnon, stewardship biologist. “So primarily we’re going to be aiming at agricultural landowners. So people with vineyards and orders and who might have workers that encounter snakes on a regular basis.”
It is illegal to harm and harass snakes in the area, but that message does not always get to people, McKinnon said, adding there is little to fear from our slithering friends in the Okanagan. Great Basin gopher snakes, western rattlesnakes and western yellow-bellied racers are all listed as threatened species in the South Okanagan — and desert night snakes are endangered.
“We’re really lucky here because we only have one species of snake that’s venomous, and they’re very considerate because they warn you when you get too close,” McKinnon said, referring to the ever-feared rattle of the rattlesnake.“They really don’t want to bite you. They’re not aggressive and they do rattle so let you know that they are there. so you know that you should move away.”
For hikers and explorers of nature, being snake smart means watching your step over locks and rocks to make sure you are not stepping on any hidden-away snakes.
“They’re really they’re really well behaved and things really don’t want to don’t want to hurt you at all. So they’re not something to be really terrified of, but they are something to have a healthy respect for,” McKinnon said.
The society’s new snake is named Nora after “Sonora.”
