CALGARY HERALD (Alberta) 25 July 08 Research aims to limit snake deaths on roads - U of C student embarks on rattlesnake rescue (Richard Cuthbertson)

Tito wasn't happy. He contorted his body and vigorously rattled his tail.

The prairie rattlesnake had been tracked to his hilltop hideaway by a tiny radio transmitter glued to his body.

He was plucked up by University of Calgary environmental design student Adam Martinson, who used a set of snake tongs to nab the reptile before he could slither down his hole.

Adam Martinson fears the prairie rattler may be at risk due to human activities.

Martinson, 24, is in the midst of his master's thesis in Dinosaur Provincial Park.

He is trying to document rattler and bull snake numbers in the area. More importantly, he's trying to find solutions to one of the biggest killers of snakes in southern Alberta --roads.

Being squashed by cars is a major killer of snakes in Alberta, along with development encroaching on habitat and people killing them as vermin, Martinson said. Even with little data on the prairie rattler,

Martinson says the species may be at risk.

Already this year, at least a dozen snakes have been hit by vehicles in and around Dinosaur Provincial Park, Martinson said.

"An adult female being killed on the road is pretty significant for the population," he said, since prairie rattlers reproduce every two to three years.

One of his experiments involves taking rattlers and bullsnakes to a road to study their behaviour as they cross. One thing is apparent -- snakes cross the road very slowly. Martinson said one bullsnake used in a recent experiment took 13 minutes to get to the other side. Others don't slither at all, preferring to sit on the shoulder.

"They don't move very fast when they don't want to," Martinson said.

Rattlers tend to stand their ground when confronted with danger (such as an oncoming car). They are camouflaged and know they're venomous, unlike other snakes that make a run for it.

Martinson hopes his research will offer useful advice for traffic control in areas where snakes live, including reduced speed limits and warning signs at certain times of the day or during weather conditions when snakes are likely found on the roads.

Tito is one of the only rattlers in the park to be fitted with a radio transmitter that can track his movements.

Other snakes are trapped, injected with a small identification chip and DNA samples are obtained. They are taken for the road experiment then released. Since field work began in April, Martinson and his team have tagged 157 rattlesnakes and 80 bullsnakes.

"It's thought to be relatively healthy here," he said of snake populations in and around the park. But, he added, the numbers have been declining in Alberta due to land development.

Snakes, he said, have a useful role to play, particularly for farmers.

"There are basically no gophers around the park," Martinson said, "and that's probably in large part because of really healthy snake population."

The reptiles are also a source of food for raptors.

Conservation officers in the park don't have a good idea how many rattlesnakes live in the area, or how to prevent so many from being crushed by cars.

Getting a better handle on snake numbers would provide a good idea of the overall health of the park ecosystem, District Conservation Officer Robi Gareau said.
Research aims to limit snake deaths on roads

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