KAMLOOPS THIS WEEK (British Columbia) 07 May 06 Rattling the hills of Kamloops - Tracking the northern Pacific rattlesnake (Markus Ermisch)
Yeller remained elusive.
Coiled up in a thicket of sagebrush and Saskatoon shrubs, the cold-blooded fellow just chilled.
And who can blame him?
The ground temperature in the hills above Kamloops hovered around 23 degrees Celsius on Thursday afternoon. Only a mild breeze offered relief from the blazing sun that had slowly started its decent from the zenith.
Rattlesnakes, like humans, are not averse to a siesta in the afternoon. Unlike humans, they actually reserve time for a snooze.
Yeller is one of the northern Pacific rattlesnakes University of Victoria students Lita Gomez and Anicka Burianyk are tracking throughout the next few months to study their summer migration patterns.
Gomez started the project last spring and plans to write her master's thesis based on the research.
All 10 snakes have tiny radio transmitters surgically implanted in their abdomen, which will be removed once the two-year study in complete.
Early Thursday afternoon, the two women planned to track three snakes that had been released the previous weekend. To track the first one, Gomez set the radio to the frequency reserved for Yeller.
The signal was weak at first. With the slightly beat-up radio antenna held above her head, Gomez started climbing the sagebrush-dotted rocky hillside.
Burianyk followed close behind, carrying an orange notebook and two tongs designed to pick up the animals.
The pair looked like cultists in search of an UFO landing pad to be whisked away into the ether by extraterrestrials.
Sometimes, people curious about what she is doing approach Gomez.
She prefers not to tell them, lest they come back and disturb the snakes.
That is why she doesn't want to publicly disclose the two areas where she is studying the snakes.
To track Yeller's approximate whereabouts took about 15 minutes.
He hadn't slithered far from where he had been released a few days earlier.
But he remained hidden in the shade underneath shrubs. Snakes, contrary to popular belief, don't enjoy sunbathing when temperatures are at their highest - long exposure to heat and direct sun can kill them.
Rather, rattlesnakes prefer to warm themselves in the morning, when temperatures are still mild.
Finding Jack and Flathead proved more successful.
The two were hidden a few hundred metres uphill underneath rocks, barely visible as their camouflaged skin allows them to blend in almost perfectly with their environment.
Flathead - who derives his name from the shape of the rock on which he was found - was curled up underneath a rock next to what looked like a rodent runway.
Gomez said rattlesnakes are often found in such spots, lurking for prey.
They place their head on the ground next to the path, picking up vibrations as faint as the patter of a rodent's feet with sensors located in their jaws. Once a mouse scurries past, the snake pounces.
Although the snakes are famous for the rattle at the end of their bodies, little is known about them scientifically.
The northern Pacific rattlesnake is found in the grasslands between northern California and British Columbia. In Canada, the animal is considered "threatened" under the federal Species at Risk Act.
In her research last year, Gomez discovered that in the course of summer, most of her snakes made their way into the forested areas near the hilltops.
Some migrated as far as five kilometres from their hibernation dens, perhaps to seek more food or cooler temperatures.
This year's field study will help determine whether last year's findings were unique or can be replicated.
Gomez said she realizes that studying 10 snakes is a small sample, and that it is difficult to draw general conclusions from the research.
Her work, however, is limited by the $30,000 grant paid for from the Endangered Species Recovery Fund for the two-year field study.
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