FREE PRESS (Burlington, Vermont) 26 September 08 Rare snake eludes searchers (Candace Page)
Shelburne: The Great Shelburne Pond Eastern Ribbon Snake Hunt found no ribbon snakes Thursday. Nevertheless, a fine reptile-rich time was had by all.
The elusive cousin of the garter snake hasn’t been seen around the pond — or much of anywhere else in Vermont outside western Rutland County — since the early 1970s.
Jim Andrews, a herpetologist, or snake expert, from Salisbury had hoped a team of volunteers recruited by Defenders of Wildlife would find the slender, colorfully striped snake soaking up sun on rocks near the pond’s wetlands.
“I wouldn’t get discouraged yet,” Andrews said “There’s more habitat to search here. I guess we can say they certainly aren’t abundant.”
The hunt was part of Andrews’ work documenting the distribution in Vermont of dozens of reptile and amphibian species, from timber rattlers to spring peepers.
“The ribbon snake is quite unusual in Vermont. I think it is worth some conservation effort — but we can’t protect it if we don’t know where it is,” Andrews said before the hunt began.
The snake is considered endangered or threatened in other Northern states and parts of Canada, but is not on Vermont’s endangered species list.
“A Hollywood version of a garter snake,” is how Andrews describes the ribbon snake. While the untrained eye has difficulty telling the two species apart, the ribbon snake is skinnier, more richly colored and its yellow stripes are more clearly defined.
Northern New England is the northern edge of the snake’s range. Housing developments have removed much of its shoreline habitat. Road-building has made it dangerous for the snake to travel between its summer home in low-lying wetlands and winter dens in rocky uplands.
A dozen amateur snake hunters gathered at the fishing access on the undeveloped shores of the pond as morning sun warmed the air.
“It would be very, very exciting to find this snake north of Rutland,” Andrews told the group, and added, “Our chances of finding the snake are no better than 50-50, but there will be lots of other cool things to see.”
As if on cue, volunteer Chris Slesar of Monkton emerged from the woods carrying a snake. Not a ribbon snake, but a Northern water snake, a gray-brown reptile banded with rust.
The creature quickly separated the group into those at home with snakes and those who were dubious.
“Isn’t that coooool!” exclaimed 6-year-old Sabian York of South Burlington, allowing the snake to rest on his palms.
“Um, yeah,” replied his mother, Kathy McNames, each syllable heavy with doubt.
Andrews delivered his standard snakes-won’t-hurt-you message: Vermont has only one venomous reptile, the timber rattlesnake, and it is confined to an area of western Rutland County. Most snakes, certainly small ribbon and garter snakes, don’t have teeth large enough to break the skin of a human.
“You pick up a chipmunk, you’re going to get bitten,” he told the group. “Handle a snake right, and mostly you won’t.”
Primed with the description of ribbon snakes, the volunteers headed for the canoes and kayaks. McNames said she has watched the field trips listed on the national Defenders of Wildlife Web site, most of them in faraway places.
“Then I saw this snake hunt and I was like, ‘Oh, my gosh, that’s in Shelburne — I can go there,’” she said. In addition to introducing her son to the natural world, trips like the snake hunt help her feel she is doing her part to “help preserve the natural ecology of our area.”
Out on the water, the searchers immediately began spotting more water snakes. Children led the way.
“There’s one!” cried Julian Slesar, 6, from the front of his family’s canoe.
“Shall I grab it?” asked his sister Clara, 11.
“I don’t want to grab it,” said their mother, Laura Slesar. Julian plucked the thick snake from the pond’s surface.
While most anglers and paddlers might spend the day on Shelburne Pond without seeing any snakes, they are abundant, Andrews said. It’s all a matter of having a search image in one’s mind.
Half a mile along the shore, the volunteers landed on a rocky outcrop.
“Let’s find ribbon snakes!” Andrews urged them. The volunteers stretched in an uneven line across the peninsula and headed back south through the oak-fir forest, turning over rocks and fallen logs, scuffing their feet through the brush to arouse any snakes in the grass.
In an hour, their haul (all caught, examined and released unharmed) included two more water snakes; two spring peepers, hoppy as Mexican jumping beans; one cyanide-producing millipede (shake it lightly in your fist and it exudes the odor of almonds); a red eft, the neon-colored newt common in Vermont forests; two Eastern red-backed salamanders; and a leopard frog.
It was time to break for lunch.
Although the volunteers’ quarry eluded them Thursday, Andrews urged them — and anyone interested in reptiles — to learn the identifying marks of the ribbon snake and watch out for it, especially in the temperate Champlain Valley. He welcomes reports of all kinds of snakes.
“You can make a significant contribution,” Andrews told them. “If you are out riding your bike and see a dead snake in the road, take a picture, send it to me. Maybe we didn’t know that snake species was found in your town.
“There aren’t enough of us,” he said of Vermont’s small band of snake experts. “We depend on folks like you.”
Rare snake eludes searchers