After a long winter cold winter, wildlife in the North is chomping at the bit to get out and enjoy the short summer. Those shaking off their winter topor range from bears to frogs and even snakes.

Yes, you read that right - Canada's frozen territory is home to the ºÚÁϳԹÏÍømost population of garter snakes known in North America.

"They just barely make it into the NWT," said Dr. Karl Larsen of Thompson Rivers University, who was in Fort Smith to assist his graduate student Johanna Stewart in her work. 

He said there's one confirmed mound in the NWT and several candidate areas in the area, adding scientists were reliant on local knowledge to help root the snakes out. 

"It's a tough slog. These snakes are at their ºÚÁϳԹÏÍø limit, not just for their species but for reptiles in general," he said. "It's probably a struggle normally, and now we add the major landscape disturbance from the 2023 wildfires."

A subspecies known as the Red Sided Garter, the serpents have a number of adaptations and behaviours that make living in the North feasible. For one, they winter in large mounds, gathering together by the dozens. This helps offset their "cold blood" — which simply means they're body temperature is the same as the area around them. In the summer, they leave their traditional mounds to hunt, sometimes up to five kilometres away, then return to the same spot every winter.

They also give birth to live young, though on average a female only gives birth every three or so years.

"If you look at all those snakes that live in Canada, a lot of them are live-bearers," he said. "Garter snakes are very tolerant of cold — they can move around in cold temperatures where other snakes would be immobile.

"I've measured snakes coming out of hibernation with a body temperature of half a degree."

ºÚÁϳԹÏÍøers are tough and our snakes are no exception. Not only are the NWT's garters larger than average, pulling up to a metre in length, they also are long lived for snakes, averaging at least 10 or more years.

Living predominantly off another critter not normally associated with the North, those being frogs, the snakes are showing remarkable resiliency. 

Larsen said there was concern the population would be snuffed out by the 2023 wildfires. Their numbers took a hit, but the snakes are still there.

"We decided it would be good to do a really deep dive back into the population to see how they handled this," he said. "We're still crunching numbers and collecting data, but our gut is telling us in at least two of out of the three places we've been going to, the numbers are low.

"When you stand at the den, it's just a burnt landscape as far as you can see. The snakes have to get through that no man's land to get to frogs. The way they read the world is largely through smell, so the question is when you burn the landscape off how do they still find their way around? We know they do, they're still finding their way back to these dens.

"Our hope is the remaining group will persist and rebound."