All of this beautiful weather has brought out many creatures who call Rondeau home.
For those of you who have never seen an Eastern Foxsnake, they are easily identified by their orange coloured head and dark brown blotches that run the length of their body. The Foxsnake also grows much larger than any other snake, reaching lengths of up to 6ft, though most are smaller.
Here at the park we are taking special care to help protect the
Foxsnake and its habitat. They are listed as an endangered species and
desperately need our help to survive. Over the last few summers Brady and many
other park staff have worked hard to catch these snakes inside the park and
bring them back to the Visitor Centre to measure their length and weight.
Once
we do that, we insert a pit tag (a small microchip) under the skin that gives
each snake a unique ID number which allows us to identify them if we happen to
catch them again. Tracking the growth of individual snakes gives us a glimpse
at the health of our Foxsnake population. But we would LOVE your help!
Each one
of you can play an important role in this research venture. If you’re out
in the park and happen to see a Foxsnake slither by, give us a call at the
Visitor Centre at 519-674-1768 and let us know where you are. If you are unable
to call, simply keep track of when and where you saw the snake and let us know
at a later time.
Don’t forget to take a look at the activity sheet for the
upcoming week and go to facebook.com/pantsgloydi to stay up to date on our
Foxsnake research and all the other exciting things happening throughout the
park.
Hope to see you soon,
Laura Penner
A/NHE
Leader
Rondeau Provincial Park
18050 Rondeau Park Rd.
Morpeth, ON
(519) 674 1772
Hey, for what it's worth, We were hiking on the Marsh trail this afternoon. When we started hiking, at 1:30 PM (Sunday July 17, 2016), we saw a freshly shed snake skin, with the pattern of the Eastern Fox snake on the trail. It was approximately 750 meters from the white building at the start of the trail. On the way back, we spotted a live Eastern Fox Snake crossing the trail, and hanging out in the verge for awhile. He crossed from the bay towards the interior. It was about 60 cm long. Beautiful creature! I surmised it may be the same snake that shed it's skin, because it looked so darned shiny and pretty, and it was about the same size. We sighted it at 3:45 PM exactly. Today, Sunday July 17, 2016
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