Polar Bears aren’t the only species that migrate to Manitoba in huge numbers! In fact, snakes are more plentiful in the far northern province of Canada. And, most of those snakes gather in a space about the size of your living room…roughly 75,000 to be more precise!
Paul Colangelo, a National Geographic grantee, recently spent time photographing the largest snake gathering in the world in the Narcisse Snake Dens of Manitoba found in southern Manitoba.
Every spring thousands of red – sided garter snakes amass inside the unique limestone caves of the region and form “mating balls” consisting of hundreds of male snakes attempting to mate with a sole female. The female twists and moves desperately to escape the pit and thus creating these balls of motion rolling on the ground around the area. The female “is desperately trying to get out of the pit,” states Colangelo, an environmental documentary photographer.
The cluster of slithery bodies seems a “frenzy, but a closer look reveals a much finer dance,” Colangelo said in his field notes. “The small males court the larger female by rubbing her head with their chins and maintaining as much contact between their long bodies as possible.”
Interacting and photographing these oft – feared reptiles brings awareness to the species and assists in fostering more appreciation for the fascinating snakes. Colangelo even goes as far as describing the snakes as “cute”. They have “puppy-dog eyes—they just don’t blink,” he quipped.
Researchers are seeing melting glaciers and declining sea ice in the Arctic. Getty Photo.
Some scientists believe the best adjective to characterize the Arctic is “unravelling”!
According to some data, the region is warming more than twice as fast as the rest of the Earth’s regions according to findings by a team comprised of over 90 researchers. Declining sea ice and receding glaciers have been noted consistently over the last decade and the team has confirmed the continuation of these processes.
Warming in the Arctic has increased more rapidly between 2011 and 2015 since 1900 when the first climate records were registered. Snow cover in the region has also decreased by 50% further confirming the rise in temperatures over the years.
A major resulting affect from the warming will be global sea levels rising faster than predicted. Estimates of 2013 by an intergovernmental panel estimate levels rising twice as much as previously thought.
The Arctic Monitoring and Assessment Programme, in their most recent publication of Snow, Water, Ice and Permafrost in the Arctic report the findings in line with what the scientists are finding all across the Arctic.
“The Arctic that you will have by mid-century will be very different from the Arctic that we see today,” said Morten Skovgård Olsen, who coordinated the research.
Polar bear mother and cub this past fall in Churchill. Dorota Walkoski photo.
Polar bear season 2016 was filled with mother and cub polar bear sightings This shot by Great White Bear Tour’s Dorota Walkoski captures the loving affection of a mom and cub resting on the Precambrian shield. Every polar bear season in Churchill and come October 2017 we are sure there will be something different!
When one thinks spring in the Arctic, one thinks snow buntings. Snow buntings arrive first on the scene once winter releases its grip on the Arctic. When you see these harbingers of spring congregating in your town on their way north, rest assured the migration of birds north has begun. Soon the Arctic will be filled with various species feasting on the bounty the northern summer provides. So, keep an eye out for those incredibly cute snow buntings and head north to see all the other migratory species!
Hold your breath and hope for the best for this Arctic hare as these wolves pursue him at high speed. This is survival of the fittest in the purest sense. Another interesting fact about Arctic Hares, that I used to teach travelers to Churchill working as a guide for Natural Habitat Adventures, is that their black – tipped ears are a distraction and target for raptor predators. The birds focus on the spots and attempt to grab the hare by those dark natural targets instead of the neck or fleshy body. Since they are moving and thinner, they are hard to grab on to. These creatures are quite adapted to the Arctic environment!
Old Yakutian cemetery where the deep thawing has exceeded one meter. Array photo.
This is something global warming proponents could not have predicted when temperatures began to rise faster than expected in the Arctic. Is it possible that a disease that has been eradicated from the world could reemerge again?
Scientists from Russia are worried that deadly diseases such as smallpox and anthrax could be released back into the human population via the thawing of ground covering Arctic graves in a report released by The Sun UK. An anthrax outbreak in the Yamal peninsula last year caused the death of one child and nearly 2,500 reindeer. Thawing reindeer graves is blamed on this particular outbreak and was fairly harmless to people though the fear that smallpox could be released in the same fashion is now prevalent.
Disinfection of the territory in the area of anthrax outbreak in Yamal. Siberian Times photo.
Russian scientists are concerned that smallpox could be released from Arctic graves in Siberia where thawing is occurring three times faster than usual. Climate change is the driving factor behind the melting scientists argue.
The primary concern stems from an 1890’s smallpox epidemic that killed almost half the population in eastern Siberia. Boris Kerhengolts, Deputy Director for research at the Institiute of Biological Problems of the Cryolithozone in Yakutsk, issued a concerning statement; “during the 1890s, a major epidemic of smallpox occurred in a town near the Kolyma River in eastern Siberia, and up to 40 percent of the population died. Their bodies were quickly buried under the upper layer of permafrost soil. A little more than 100 years later, Kolyma’s flood waters have started eroding the banks.”
Mikhail Grigoriev, Deputy Director of the Permafrost Studies Institute, says “The rock and soil that forms the Yamal Peninsula contains much ice, melting may loosen the soil rather quickly, so the probability is high that old cattle graves may come to the surface.”
Dangers other than smallpox and anthrax might be released from the shallow Arctic graves. Increased melting will possibly unveil centuries – old dangers in the near future.
