COMMUNITY PRESS (Stirling, Ontario) 30 August 10 Eastern Hog-nosed Snake population threatened (Sue Dickens)

Trent Hills: It may look and act like a deadly cobra, but the Eastern Hog-nosed Snake is harmless.

In fact, it is a species at risk, says species at risk technician Mark Rupke.

Rupke, who works for the Rice Lake Plains joint initiative, a Nature Conservacy of Canada program, said he hopes to educate the public on how harmless the snake really is.

The snake can often be mistaken for a cobra because of its mannerisms. When it feels threatened, it rears back, flattens its head and neck like a cobra and hisses. It may even strike.

"Its behaviour often leads people to think it is venomous, but it's not," he said, adding he hopes spreading the word that the species is threatened will encourage people not to harm such snakes if they seen one.

"The snake uses a number of defense mechanisms to protect itself from predators as well as people. If its first line of defense, flattening and spreading its head, puffing up its body to resemble a cobra (hissing and making mock strikes) doesn't work, then it will flop over onto its back, stick out its tongue and play dead," he said.

"I want to encourage people to leave the snake alone. The population is really suffering."

Rupke has been putting up posters in the Trent Hills area asking anyone who has seen this snake to call him so he can record where these reptiles are managing to survive.

"Once called, I try to follow up by taking a GPS reading as to where it was found and at that point it is mapped," he said. "We are trying to keep track of where the populations are. I know there are hog-nosed snakes in Warkworth, and in behind Northumberland tractor in Hastings and there have been some reports of them in Havelock and Serpent Mounds."

Irwin Kennedy, who built a house on Godolphin Road, outside of Warkworth, has first-hand knowledge of the snake.

"They showed up on my property in the 1990s. There is a creek nearby and a sandy area where they seemed to be," he said.

"The first time I saw one I thought it was a rattlesnake. One time I saw one wriggling along the edge of my house where I guess it was warm, in the sun, and another time one was lying right across my driveway," he said.

The stout-bodied snake can reach a length of 115 cm, with males generally being smaller than females.

The snakes Kennedy saw were pale and had dark diamonds in colouring.

"They really were beautiful things," he added.

Kennedy thinks coyotes got to the ones on his property, because he hasn't seen any for the last six years.

Predators is just one threat, however.

Rupke said loss of habitat and cars are also factors.

"We are in the process of getting the message out, 'please brake for snakes'," said Rupke. "One of the real problems today is ... roads have asphalt and when it gets warm, in the early evening, the snakes go onto them and can get hit by cars. This really hammers the populations."

Despite loss of habitat, Rupke said relocating the hog-nosed snake is not an option.

"We are trying to restore habitat and, as a result, we should see a response for those populations now declining," he said.

"With reptiles — they need to have their hibernaculum. If you move them any substantial distance from that, their chances of surviving in winter are decreased.

"A lot of times people talk about the rain forest and habitat destruction but life here in Northumberland has been really badly degraded and the opportunity to restore it and bring back some of these populations is really neat."

For more information on species at risk go to: www.natureconservancy.ca
Eastern Hog-nosed Snake population threatened

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