Common Garter Snake

• fisiologíaIt can survive under the ice through hibernation by slowing its metabolism drastically, tolerating very low oxygen for a time.
• The Narcisse dens, in Manitoba, hold the largest concentration of snakes on the planet: tens of thousands of garter snakes hibernate together in a few limestone cavities and emerge en masse every spring, forming mating balls of hundreds of individuals.
• Some populations have evolved resistance to the tetrodotoxin of rough-skinned newts, and the two species are locked in an evolutionary arms race: the newts grow more toxic and the snakes more resistant.
• It is the reptile that lives furthest north in the Americas: it reaches the southern Northwest Territories of Canada, where it hibernates for more than half the year.

Skeleton type

Vertebrate - internal bony skeleton (reptile)

Habitat & environment

Damp meadows, riverbanks, marshes, woodland and gardens across almost all of North America

Size at birth

12-23 cm at birth; it is viviparous

Sexual maturity

2 years

Gestation / incubation

3.3 months

Litter / clutch size

25 live young

Sources consulted: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thamnophis_sirtalis

Best time: From April to May in Manitoba, when thousands emerge together from the Narcisse hibernacula and form mating balls.