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magazine / ja08
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July/August 2008 issue |
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FEATURE
The lost Eden of Okanagan
Vineyards are replacing orchards, recreation is replacing ranching and retirees are replacing rattlesnakes in the arid ponderosa hills of the Okanagan Valley
By Allan Casey with photography by Kevin Dunn
Online exclusive: Canadian Geographic Photo Club
Join us for an interview with photographer Kevin Dunn and get
a behind-the-scenes look into a photo shoot for Canadian Geographic. |
For an hour, I have been following the snake man under a rocky bluff on the slope
of the Okanagan Valley. Biologist Mike Sarell is knocking on doors in western
rattlesnake country. Scrambling across the jagged red-black talus, he tilts up
every large flat rock he finds. If no one is home, he carefully lays
the stone back in place. The task is made difficult by a dirty plastic
cast he has been wearing on his arm since severing a tendon in his thumb a week
before. He says this technique is dangerous without expertise. Red-tailed hawks
routinely dine on rattlers, he adds, as if this explains things.
Presumably, Sarell, too, knows what he is doing, though at each rock, his face
seems perilously close to the steep slope and the danger that may spring from
it. Then he tilts a plate-sized slab and strikes.
“Night snake!” he says in a triumphant whisper, cradling something
small and alive in his good hand.
He calls his business Ophiuchus Consulting, after the snake han dler of Greek mythology, and you can tell by his kid-at-Christmas
expression that he loves wild, slithering things. The desert night snake
(Hypsiglena torquata deserticola) is a real find, considered by herpetol ogists like Sarell to be the rarest vertebrate in Canada. Fewer than 57
have been identified here, most by Sarell himself. Small and exquisite,
this juvenile female might coil on a two-dollar coin. Slightly ven omous, it shows no interest in biting Sarell as it explores the warmth
of his hand, plotting its escape. Its body is as slender as a cocktail straw,
its head a tiny diamond shape. Over the radio, Sarell summons his crew
for a look at this living wonder, pulls out a measuring tape and notebook and lights a cigarette to celebrate the discovery.
top
For the rest of this story, visit your local newsstand or go to our store to buy this issue.
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