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Their job is to protect Rocky the
rattler:[Final Edition] |
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People: |
Tervo,
Rob, Yagi, Anne |
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Author(s): |
Matthew
Van Dongen |
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Article
types: |
News |
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Dateline: |
WAINFLEET |
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Section: |
News |
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Publication
title: |
Standard. St.
Catharines, Ont.: Jul 9, 2003. pg. A.1.Fro |
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Source
Type: |
Newspaper |
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ISSN/ISBN: |
08373434 |
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ProQuest
document ID: |
365238371 |
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Text
Word Count |
812 |
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Article
URL: |
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Abstract (Article Summary) |
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[Rob Tervo]
and fellow species-at-risk technician Devin Milos were out on Tuesday
searching for Rocky, a grey-brown rattler, almost a metre along, who likes to
linger on the edge of the bog. Ministry of
Natural Resources employees such as Tervo and Milos have been tracking the
movements of the bog's rattler population since 1999, said ministry biologist
Anne Yagi. Colour Photo:
Matthew Van Dongen, The Standard / Devin Milos and Rob Tervo of the Ministry
of Natural Resources take a careful look at [Rocky], an Eastern Massasauga
rattler. |
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Full Text (812 words) |
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(Copyright The Standard (St. Catharines) 2003) WAINFLEET -
Most people would have been distracted by the blasting heat of the afternoon
sun and the determined buzzing of blood-sucking insects. But as he
pushed through the dense jungle of long grass on the periphery of the
Wainfleet bog Tuesday, Rob Tervo didn't appear to have any concentration
problems. Searching for
the Eastern Massasauga rattler, Ontario's only venomous snake, is a wonderful
way to focus the mind. Tervo and
fellow species-at-risk technician Devin Milos were out on Tuesday searching
for Rocky, a grey-brown rattler, almost a metre along, who likes to linger on
the edge of the bog. Ministry of
Natural Resources employees such as Tervo and Milos have been tracking the
movements of the bog's rattler population since 1999, said ministry biologist
Anne Yagi. Part of the
reason for the study is to map out the "critical habitat" of the
snakes, whose threatened population in the bog is estimated at less than 200. Yagi hopes the
result of the report will be a two-kilometre "buffer zone" around
the bog to protect them from new road construction and development dangers. New roads are
a special danger to the snakes, which use hot pavement in the summer to warm
their cold-blooded bodies. "Any
major highway that is built through West Lincoln, Port Colborne, Wainfleet is
bad news for threatened species in general," she said. "When
(Highway) 58 came through, tons of rattlesnakes were killed. The gene pool
from that area is gone." By the end of
the year, Yagi will have submitted a preliminary report to regional and
municipal councils detailing the proposed buffer zone. She's also
talked about the proposal with Ministry of Environment staff in connection
with to the proposed mid-peninsula highway. Yagi said rattlers
don't travel farther than two kilometres from their territory -- but they do
head outside the bog in the spring to sun themselves in open spaces. On Tuesday,
Rocky is hidden away out of the sun in dense undergrowth that seems to hold a
myriad of potential hiding places. Yet Tervo
searches quickly and confidently, poking here and there with the aid of his
metre-long "snake stick," what looks like a golf club tipped with a
curved metal hook. The searchers
know generally where to look, since they and Rocky have played this
hide-and-seek game in the past. Two years ago,
the rattler was implanted with a radio transmitter, which Tervo now tracks
with the help of a telemetry antenna that beeps as the searchers near their
target. Implanting and
releasing the snake also allow researchers to track the movements of the
females that Rocky encounters. But it doesn't
necessarily make them easier to catch. On Tuesday, Rocky was displeased to be
roused from underneath his shady, inaccessible bush. After several
failed attempts, Tervo manages to grab the testy rattler with a long pair of
tongs and the help of Milos' snake stick. Rocky's mood
is as loud and clear as its rattling tail, but Milos is unperturbed. "It's a
matter of experience, you know how to deal with it," he said. "If
you see it reared back in the strike position, you know it wants to snap. But
other times, you'll find them sleepy and basking in the sun -- no problem at
all." The snakes
aren't typically a danger to humans, Yagi takes pains to point out. "Some
people have this perception that rattlers are these dangerous snakes ready to
bite at you as you walk by," she said. "That's not the case." She said in
five years of study and capture, none of her crew has been bitten -- even
after stepping on hidden serpents by accident. Ignorance
about the nature and value of the reptiles is still something the ministry
has to deal with, according to Yagi. She and her
staff have caught would-be poachers in the bog looking to make a quick buck,
while other people prefer killing them for fun. "You get drunks out
there who make it a game," she said. "They actually try to hit them
with their trucks." But on the
whole, farmers and homeowners around the bog have responded favourably to the
ministry's research, said Yagi. She said the
proposed buffer zone is meant to discourage suburban development and
highways, but wouldn't interfere with existing farms or homes. She added some
farmers are even willing to change their plowing practices to help revive the
threatened species, which suffered from decades of peat extraction from their
bog habitat. On Tuesday, a
local farmer stopped his tractor to chat with "the snake guys,"
about the general health and whereabouts of Rocky's peers. "People
who live here grew up with them," Yagi said. "They're willing to
help out."
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