Ontario's Herpetofauna

 Summer of 2018 was nothing short of amazing. It was filled with cool snakes, and some awesome amphibians too. In late June, I started out with a trip to a local spot in extreme southern Ontario that is home to an endangered rattlesnake, the Eastern Massasauga. On my first attempt, I was able to spot a beautiful golden-brown sauga basking in the afternoon sun. I went back the next day with my friends and researchers, and we were able to observe 4 others. Three of the snakes on the second day were gravid females, and were captured and collected to be taken into the lab where they gave birth. This was done so under appropriate permits and intensive protocols to ensure all of the snakes were safely handled and kept. Once the babies were born, the adults and neonates were put back into the wild. Eastern Massasauga Eastern Massasauga Along with the sole Massasauga that was observed on the first day, I managed to slip in a bit of extra herping time back at the Niagara Gorge to find the N...

May rolled around intriguingly quickly in 2018. But it brought some incredible herping moments with it!  My first herp adventure was right on May 1st, where I went on a search for Ontario's endangered Spotted Turtle with a close friend of mine. Though we didn't find our target this time around, we did see an extremely red-coloured Eastern Garter Snake, and a lovely Snapping Turtle. Eastern Gartersnake A few other trips in early May to a couple of local gold mines produced many breeding frog species, and some basking snakes along a creek! The highlights were a particularly pretty American Toad, an in-situ Northern Water Snake, and a handful of endangered Queen Snakes. American Toad Northern Watersnake Queensnake By the second week of May, I had began working as an intern at Ontario Nature. I was desperately excited because they were hoping to use my herp knowledge and enthusiasm in surveys for species of reptiles and amphibians across Ontario. And it didn't disappoint. Right...