hibernaculum north south east west or ???

[Manitou]

I googled "hibernaculum" "north"

then

"hibernaculum" "south"

then searched this forum for the same terms, and even had to look thru a very long thread entitled "jons-garter-snake-thread-suzi" until I found the terms on the 14th page.

And I still haven't quite found what I'm looking for.

Last week "joeysgreen" replied to my 1st post, in part, "The garter snake hibernaculum that I studied was at the bottom of a north facing hill and was the last place to lose the snow cover each year." (See what you started Joey.)

A webpage entitled "SNAKE HIBERNACULA" reads, in part, "How to Build a Hibernaculum 1. Select a well-drained site protected from cold winds, with good sun exposure (south-facing)." ( torontozoo.com/adoptapond/snakehibernacula.asp )

Here in the Catskill Mountains it's common knowledge (at least among outdoor enthusiasts, e.g. hikers, hunters, etc) that Timber Rattlesnakes' hibernacula are located amongst rocky outcrops on south facing slopes. It's also common knowledge that most Black Bear (Catskills has one of the world's highest densities) hibernate in dens on north facing slopes, where the snow is deepest, lasts the longest, and therefore provides the best insulation.

North or south, sun or snow?

I get it. I get that lots of members here have "Ball-Pythonitis," i.e. are primarily interested in creating the next morph. That's cool. I too like some of the morph photos/videos that I've seen. I get that a subject re where Garters congregate 6 months a year doesn't quite cut it. However on a purely mathematically basis it would seem to me that we can see more Garters emerging from just one single hibernaculum in the Spring than we can by stomping around all Summer long, and see even more returning to that same very site in the Fall. Therefore the odds of finding the next aberrant snake to produce those morphs (especially aberrants which are darker than Normals) are significantly higher in certain isolated areas during the Spring and Fall.

So, where be the Garters now?

[d_virginiana]

There really isn't a huge focus on creating 'the next morph' of garters on this forum... I mean, several people have projects going that might end with a new morph, but the majority of the forum is focused on husbandry and ecology of garters. Right now it just happens to be the season when people are pairing up their snakes for breeding.

I don't know if this is something that's intentional on this forum, but a lot of times it's not good to publicly put out information on how to find large numbers of wild individuals because it can attract people who are interested in exploiting it. I used to do that for some of my ecology work, and I'm a plant biologist... I had one friend who worked with endangered amphibians, and they kept their sampling locations top secret because of people wanting to illegally capture them.

[d_virginiana]

Also, I'm from the south in a relatively rare geological area, so the tips I have for looking for hibernation spots don't really apply to anyone not living in a Triassic Basin. We have some bizarre plant/geological factors here.

[joeysgreen]

Bears and snakes have two very different needs for hibernacula. Snakes can, and have to get below the frost line or they will freeze and die. Bears (which don't truly hibernate, but the extent of the English word isn't as black and white as one might think) don't worry about the frost line because they can produce their own heat. They look for deep snow cover to insulate themselves from the extremes above. Coincidently, this is similar to many freeze (or near-freeze)tolerant herp's like mountain short horned toads, wood frogs, boreal chorus frogs... aka, the herps of Alberta Nonetheless, the big picture is that while south facing slopes for snake hibernacula is the norm, the snakes can't always be picky.

The real hibernacula, those with hundreds or thousands of snakes are rare and typically near the northern extents of the range... in Canada. As you go further south, there are more areas that are deep enough, and the frost line is shallow enough, where snakes don't have to congregate in a few good locations.

To answer your question regarding morphs... I counted over 2400 snakes that spring and saw some really fabulous individual variation, but nothing that I'd jump on regarding producing the next fad morph. Some with black bellies, some with more or less red, some with really vivid, wide stripes, some with less, a few had some red on the cheeks... The same goes for the Narcisse snake dens in Manitoba... 10's of thousands of snakes and they're all "typical" red-sided garter snakes.

I do urge that if you come across a hibernacula, to look, but don't touch. This is a sensitive time for the entire population, as they are either breeding (garters), or warming young soon to be born (many rattlers). Take a photo, sit and watch, then leave the spot a secret, or report it to a local natural history museum or conservation agency.

Ian