Hi,

We are due to move to Calgary soon... (It was supposed to be in the next couple of weeks, but it has now been delayed until probably Christmas).

Anyway, a friends son is in the Royal Marines. He is currently away in Canada (3 hrs away from Calgary apparently). He has told his parents of a snake which bit his colleague whilst they were out on a run.

The marine survived, but was in a lot of pain, and has been flown back to the UK.

We will be moving to Calgary - has anyone else had an 'run-ins' with snakes. I am TERRIFIED of them, and now getting myself into a panic that they are out and about in the countryside....

Can anyone tell me how common they actually are?

x

I doubt very much that you will ever see a snake in Calgary. I suspect the marine you refer to was at BATUS, located near Medicine Hat.

I've seen a couple of Garter snakes in Calgary last year but they are harmless, I find them more common the closer you get to the Coast, every day I see at least 1 while walking the dog while on the coast.

I've seen 5-6 Rattlesnakes in Drumheller / Okanagan but you won't be finding them in Calgary.

If he was an ordinary marine, probably very common but a Royal marine is more likely a bit upper crust.

There is a large conservation area for garter snakes in the south west part of Fish Creek Park, and I have seen lots of them in Fish Creek Park.

Aren't Royal Marines trained to bite the heads off snakes? Survival Training and all that stuff.

Hi


1. Other than the zoos, there is only 1 venomous snake in Alberta, Prairie Rattlesnake. This snake ranges in Alberta’s Grassland Natural Region, south of the Red Deer River and east of Lethbridge.
2. Probably the same chance of encountering one, as encountering the UK Vipera berus berus, which is venomous.

I would not worry, its not going to be a common sight if at all in Calgary.

I've only ever seen 1 snake in Canada at all, a garter snake of some sort, but they are harmless creatures.

Thanks guys!

In the UK I have encountered precisely 0 snakes. I don't know what I would do if I actually saw one.

Jsmth321 - I appreciate your message, but I'm not sure they are 'harmless'! Even if I saw a garter snake I fear I would probably die through a sudden heart attack!!

What about David Cameron?

Haha! Okay, perhaps I have met a few snakes...!

You probably wouldn't like a nest of garter snakes when they wake up in the spring then, defines creepy! Although most of my knowledge of rattlesnakes has been gleaned from old westerns on tv we do have them here in southern Okanagan. When I was a kid we used to visit the snake ranch on the way to OK Falls and see them in cages. The man who caught them charged a small admission and sold assorted curios and the skins and rattles. At the Old Fairview townsite up on the benchland west of Oliver I went poking through the scrub brush looking for artifacts while wearing my sneakers. By my second trip the town had erected a sign warning of rattlesnakes and I wore combat boots and stayed in the middle of the paths. At least in snake country the hospital is tooled up so if someone does get bit they don't have to fool around looking for the anti-venin. I'd say in the Calgary area you're more likely to be mauled by a bear or lion than bitten by a snake.

I have been in Windsor Ontario for four years now and I have only seen a dead baby snake on a footpath. I am extremely snake phobic and it did worry me. To such an extent that I did not want to go and cut my grass for two years...just in case, I got other people to do that for me. I have relaxed now, because I have not seen any moving ones anywhere, but I am careful not to go walking on the wild side anywhere.....so no carefree countryside walks for me

We see garter snakes in the garden, they seem harmless enough.

Garter snakes are quite common here in Ontario and they are small, harmless and will actively avoid confrontation.

The biggest pest here, for my money, is the mosquito!