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Whistler Reptile Survey underway and herpetologists want your help
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Wandering Garter Snake Photo by Leslie Anthony.

By Leslie Anthony

No one will be surprised to hear that Whistler has plenty of reptilian characters. But they might be surprised that these don't include the abundance of lounge lizards, slimy developers, corporate dinosaurs or real-estate snakes hoping to cash in on the Olympics.

Many have seen small, striped Garter Snakes darting across the Valley Trail or Alligator Lizards scrambling over a rock in the backyard, but others are genuinely surprised to hear that reptiles of the scaly kind lurk in the glacier-rimmed valleys of the Coast Mountains. In fact, those of us who know of them know little about what species are here, where they like to hang out, their abundance, or how they handle the climatic rigours of Whistler given that snakeskin ain't no Gore-Tex.

Are some species as common as ski bums? Others rare and getting rarer? Adaptive generalists or specialists associated with threatened habitat? We'd like to know, and that's where the Reptile Survey of the Whistler Biodiversity Project comes in.

In an effort to answer these and other questions, a two-year study got underway this August. The first year aims to establish presence/absence of certain species in the RMOW and gain preliminary data on distribution patterns, while the second year will seek to more fully delineate distributions of various species in both the RMOW and Sea to Sky corridor, and understand more about their populations and life history in the area.

To gather as much data as possible on the what, where and when of Whistler's reptiles, the community is being asked (begged, actually) to help augment the direct observations of researchers on these generally secretive creatures: the more eyes the better. Post your sightings and digital photos (helpful for identifications-see below) at www.whistlerbiodiversity.ca.

And what exactly are we/you looking for?

LIZARDS

As advertised, the Northern Alligator Lizard, Elgaria coerulea , resembles a miniaturized version of what might happen if an alligator could actually mate with a lizard. Its body is covered in square-ish, non-overlapping scales but if you're looking to make a briefcase or pair of shoes, forget it — it's no longer than 20 cm, tail in.

The eyes are brown and ground colour somewhere in the grey-brown continuum, its usually darker flanks checkered with still darker square-ish blotches and bars, and the belly whiteish. Pattern-wise, some have rows of dark spots down the back while others sport dark crossbars.

More tolerant of damp, cool environments than most, this truly northwestern reptile associated with coniferous forests still requires a few sunny clearings to make its day. Look for it in rock, wood and brush piles around the edges of meadows, road-cuts, abandoned buildings, and anywhere human activity has opened the tree canopy (even mountain-bike trails attract it). In such areas it's found under logs, bark, rocks and other cover, and especially inside decaying logs. It's often spotted sitting in the open, but usually dashes to the safety of rocks or brush.

If captured it bites like hell, though the tiny teeth mean it doesn't hurt.

The Alligator Lizard eats insects and their larvae, spiders, centipedes, millipedes, slugs and worms. Because it lives where weather makes the reliable incubation of eggs a bit of a crapshoot, it's also one of the few lizards to bear live young: 2-8 of the little guys pop out sometime between July and September. Being small, these are easily confused by amateurs with the only other lizard-like animals in the Whistler area: salamanders. The latter, being amphibians, haven't shared anything in common with lizards-save four legs and a tail-for about 300 million years. That's pre-Intrawest.

SNAKES

Whistler lies in a unique biogeographic position, with coastal fauna creeping up the Cheakamus Valley from Squamish, and interior denizens sneaking in the back door via the Green River Valley from Pemberton (much like certain exploitive commercial elements zeroing in on Whistler these days). This situation very much informs the Sea-to-Sky snake fauna.

The rather primitive Rubber Boa, Charina bottae , has been recorded in the Pinecrest area to the south and as close as the Rutherford Creek area to the north. Known to be within 20 km on either side of Whistler, it begs the question of whether this species — which occurs in scattered, localized populations throughout its range — is also found in the RMOW.

A reliable recent sighting from Emerald, and an older one from the Lost Lake area are promising, but documentation and authentication is required. The olive- to dark-brown Rubber Boa rarely exceeds a half-metre in length, and looks, feels and acts quite literally like a piece of rubber. It has tiny, often lustrous scales, small head with reduced eyes, and a short, stubby tail that looks like its head — hence the common folk name of two-headed snake. The blunt tail is used to distract female rodents from their nests while the head is busy sucking down the helpless young. The tail is thus often scarred due to rodent bites; you can notice this when the timid, slow-moving snake is disturbed: it coils into a ball, sticks up the tail and waves it around like a head.

Despite it's name and pedigree, the boa is as harmless as they come; unlike other snakes it never, ever bites. Its distribution in the province generally follows river valleys, where it's found in the same kind of situations as the Alligator Lizard. It's particularly fond of burrowing into rotting stumps, logs and leaf litter where rodents usually nest. Extremely secretive, it's active at dusk and nocturnally, though sometimes seen abroad on warm, cloudy days. Up to eight bracelet-like young are live-born sometime in August. If you see one, you'll know it, and find yourself mimicking the late Steve Irwin: "Crikey-isn't she a little beauty?"

By feeding largely on amphibians, the lowly Garter Snake plays an important role in energy and biomass transfer from aquatic to terrestrial ecosystems. Hence, anyone hacking them up with a shovel can be considered an environmental terrorist and will be dealt with as such.

The garter we're most familiar with in Whistler is a subspecies of the Common Garter Snake, Thamnophis sirtalis, dark colored with a bright, mid-dorsal yellow stripe and, along its flanks, at least faint lateral stripes as well as regular red splotches. Like all garters the scales are strongly keeled. You'll see this species most everywhere although it tends more to wetlands and adjacent habitat. Small ones eat worms and large ones scarf almost anything but prefer amphibians.

Garter-snake photos are helpful because we'd also like to know if two other species also occur in the RMOW. The Northwestern Garter Snake, Thamnophis ordinoides , is a slug specialist with a highly variable pattern that can include yellow, green, or orange dorsal stripes, no stripes, partial stripes, orange or yellow flecks, checkered patterns or a combination of any/all of these. It's best distinguishing characteristic at first blush is a smaller head than most garters. It occurs at least as far north as Squamish.

Another generalist, the Wandering Garter Snake, Thamnophis elegans vagrans , is common in Pemberton and again creeps south at least to Rutherford Creek. This beast is less striped than checkered, with a greenish-brown to grey-brown ground colour and black checker markings over a mid-dorsal stripe that's faint at best and often absent. If you want to get as geeky as a herpetologist (those who study reptiles and amphibians), the Wandering Garter has eight upper labials (the scales along the upper jaw) while the previous two species have seven.

So that's it. With two reptile species known to occur in Whistler and a possible three more, we need your help to figure it all out. Post your sightings at www.whistlerbiodiversity.ca. You won't win any fabulous prizes, but you'll win the hearts and minds of every herpetologist in the Sea to Sky corridor. All three of them.

Boxed Insert:

REPORT A REPTILE!

Have you seen a reptile? Got a photo you'd like to share? Please go to www.whistlerbiodiversity.ca and report your sighting. As the site grows we will continue to add more information on native species including a map of sighting records.