Alberta snake enthusiasts thrilled by encounter with 'extremely docile' bullsnake

Reptile enthusiasts Dave Galley and Lukas Erickson feel like they landed the big one during a mid-May snake spotting expedition in the badlands of southern Alberta.

"At first I thought it was a stretched out large snakeskin and it wasn't moving," Galley said. "We quickly realized it was a bullsnake and it was very much alive, and active, and five feet long. It was a big snake."

Bullsnakes are the largest snake species found in Alberta and one of the biggest in North America.

Galley and Erickson were thrilled to get photos and video of this unusually accommodating serpent as it weaved through the branches of a tree.

"Bullsnakes will often have quite a, we'll call it an anger issue, they can be quite defensive," Erickson said. "This guy was extremely docile, he was super fine with us being around and taking video and pictures of him."

Erickson, 26, from Red Deer, and Galley, 47, from Calgary, were recently introduced and became fast friends over their shared hobby.

"Both of us are interested in something called herping," Erickson said in an interview with CBC News. "Herping is short for herpetology, so it's basically going out and looking for reptiles and amphibians."

Galley's only had a couple of quick glances at fleeing bullsnakes over the years, until now. For Erickson, who has been interested in reptiles since he was a child, it was a moment he'll never forget.

"My personal largest before this one was actually a different subspecies of gopher snake in B.C and he was about four and a half feet," he said. "This one broke my record by a good six inches, breaking that five-foot mark."

Strictly constrictors

Bullsnakes can grow up to two metres long, according to Ken Moore, a naturalist who specializes in snakes in southern Alberta.

Moore volunteers at the Helen Schuler Nature Centre in Lethbridge where he gives snake safety talks. Those are focused on Alberta's most dangerous and only venomous snake, the prairie rattlesnake.

Moore is not often asked about bullsnakes but he's seen his share.

He tells CBC News they're not uncommon in the southeastern part of the province and the trick to spotting them is to look up.

"You find them up in the trees in the river valleys more so than you do down on the ground," Moore said, adding that they're often looking for bird nests.

Some people may not like the slithering creatures but Moore says the snakes are important.

"They eat more rodents than any other snake in Canada," he said. "Any time you happen to have a bullsnake around, you have a fairly healthy environment"

The bullsnake can bite and occasionally break the skin but Moore said they are generally harmless to humans.

"They do not have any type of venom, they are strictly constrictors," he said. "Bullsnakes are nothing but beneficial."

In 2017 the species was designated "special concern" by the federal government due to habitat loss and roadkill.

"It's not endangered but its future depends upon how humans treat it," Moore said. "It's losing habitat all the time and when it loses habitat there are going to be fewer of them."

Both Erickson and Galley hope to get others interested in Alberta's reptiles and a photo of the bullsnake they posted to the Alberta Wildlife Facebook page is certainly helping.

"My phone was just lighting up with the notifications of likes and comments," said Galley. "It was quite well received, the size of that snake in a tree was quite a spectacle for sure."

They're happy to share their finds but are careful about how much information they reveal.

"A good place for finding snakes is kind of like a good fishing hole," Erickson said. "You don't really want to give away all your secrets and part of that is for protection of the snakes."

Erickson and his brother Evan, who lives in British Columbia, have a YouTube channel called "Herping BC" where they share videos of the creatures they find.

According to information provided by the Alberta government, there are nine different reptile species in the province, including seven snakes, one lizard, and one turtle.

In Canada, the bullsnake is only found in southern areas of Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan.