Our first trip of 2001 was a road trip to Manitoba to photograph emerging red-sided garter snakes just northeast of Winnipeg. I had long known about the snake dens, and finally devoted the time to visit this amazing area where tens of thousands of garter snakes overwinter in limestone sink holes. A slight rise in terrain in the "Interlake" region between Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba provides ideal denning sites allowing the snakes to get below winter frosts. The surrounding marshes provide excellent summer habitat for the snakes.
The snakes typically emerge in the last weeks of April and the first few weeks of May. Males emerge first, and gather in large numbers waiting for females to emerge. Females are usually larger than the males, and as they come out of the dens, they are swarmed by the males. Balls or strings of snakes form and reform in a breeding frenzy.
Thousands of school children come by bus to visit the snake dens at Narcisse Wildlife Management Area. Volunteer naturalists help the children and other visitors enjoy the snakes, and even encourage children to gently pick them up. The snakes are unbelievably docile, and rarely attempt to do anything but get away from little groping hands.
The height of activity varies depending on the weather, but it often comes right around Mother's Day. While some children treat their moms to a fancy breakfast at a local restaurant, children in Manitoba go to visit the snake dens with their mothers on Mother's Day!
I'll have to say that I really enjoyed photographing the snakes in Manitoba! For a few years now, I've been working on a project trying to photograph large concentrations of animals. The snake dens were for me, one of the more fun subjects I've worked with to date.
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