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Most of the time, when people think of Mother's Day, they think of thoughtful gifts, family gatherings, colorful bouquets of flowers and boxes of chocolates. But when I think of Mother's Day, I think of garter snakes. In the Interlake Region of southern Manitoba, Mother's Day is the time of the year when thousands of red-sided garter snakes well to the surface from their winter dens, deep below the frost line. Some snake dens shelter as many as 15,000 writhing, sex-starved serpents.
Male garter snakes are the first to emerge, and they surface in great numbers. As soon as a female shows up, she is mobbed by a tangle of male suitors. As many as a hundred eager males, each intent on copulation, intertwine with the female and form a "mating ball" but only one of the males will eventually succeed.
In male garter snakes the courtship urge is very strong, and females are irresistible. In some experiments, males even courted dead females. A pheromone, or odor chemical, is responsible for the female's magnetism. The courting males detect the enticing pheromone by tongue-flicking the female's skin. Often, on first contact, the lusty male will drape his forked tongue over the female's back (we've seen men in single's bars use the same courtship tactic). The skin between the scales of the female's back (we're talking about snakes now) is extremely thin and has a rich blood supply that flushes the provocative pheromones close to the surface and makes her alluring.
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A tangle of male red-sided garter snakes entwine a newly emerged female. Shot with a Nikkor 105mm macro on Fujichome Provia 100 film.
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After mating, which lasts 15 to 20 minutes, the successful male leaves behind a gelatinous plug in the female's cloaca that functions like a chastity belt. The plug contains a second kind of pheromone, this time a repellent pheromone that suppresses male courtship. As a result, once the female garter snake has mated, she is spared any further harassment from the mob of lovesick males crawling around her.
Aubrey and I first traveled to Manitoba, the snake Mecca of Canada, twenty years ago to photograph this remarkable serpentine spectacle. Since then, we've returned twice and every time it's been more exciting than the time before. It was this orgy of garter snake sex that first got us interested in snake photography. Snakes are not warm and fuzzy like young cottontails, they're usually not very colorful, and they don't sing like songbirds and make our spirits soar. Most snakes are shy and elusive, and their behavior difficult to witness. Yet the challenges in photographing them can be very rewarding and sometimes memorable. One time in the Pantanal of Brazil, we caught a yellow anaconda and it escaped inside our rented van and wedged itself behind the dashboard. No amount of coaxing would make the snake budge. We finally parked the van, with the doors open, in the midday sun so that the temperature inside was like an oven, and the snake eventually crawled out. Of course, our other option was to return the van and forget to mention to the rental company that there was a short-tempered, 9-foot constrictor now living behind the steering wheel.
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The yellow anaconda, reaching lengths of 10 feet or more, is a junior version of its giant relative. We used a Nikkor 300mm lens, Fujichrome Velvia film, and balanced fill flash with a sepia filter over the flash.
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Another time, I was snake hunting in Baja, Mexico with two biologists from Arizona when our car was stopped and searched by a trio of machine-gun-wielding soldiers. The men, probably looking for drugs, mysteriously ignored a Styrofoam cooler sitting on the back seat. Lucky for them, and for me, for inside the cooler there was some stale cheese, a few wrinkled sticks of pepperoni, and a bag full of rattlesnakes. Normally, stories involving agitated Mexican soldiers, automatic weapons, deadly venomous snakes and grubby unshaven biologists usually end with unhappy gringos.
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The racer is a rare snake from the prairies of Canada, and it is especially active during the day. It is a visual hunter and it was searching a cluster of prickly pear cactus. The shot was taken on Kodachrome 64 using a 300mm lens and a 27.5mm extension tube.
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On another occasion we flew to Florida to look for water moccasins. This irritable viper is also called a cottonmouth because of the way the snake gapes menacingly when threatened, exposing the white lining of its fang-filled mouth. It was early spring and we were driving slowly along a quiet road in rural southern Florida searching for snakes which often haul themselves onto highways at night to absorb the heat from the pavement. After two hours, we had found a lovely corn snake, a couple of brown water snakes, but no cottonmouth. Then, in the lights of an oncoming car, we saw the shadow of a thick-bodied snake on the opposite edge of the highway. I jumped from the car with a long-handled snake stick in one hand and a metal collecting can in the other. "Bring the spotlight," I said to Aubrey excitedly, and disappeared into the Florida darkness. Aubrey had no sooner parked the car and located the spotlight when a state trooper, no doubt the pride of the local constabulary, pulled up behind her with his dome lights flashing, and his hand on his holster. Meanwhile, I was in the shadows across the road with a large cottonmouth cornered against the buttressed base of a cypress tree. "Do you need some help, Ma'am?" drawled the trooper. Aubrey answered, "No, officer, everything is fine." The suspicious man continued to question. "What are you doing way out here at night? You know, it's not very safe." Aubrey, in her best French-Canadian charm, answered sheepishly, "I'm with my husband. He's over on the other side of the road, trying to catch a snake." The trooper had never heard this story before, and he started to get a little nervous with the unfamiliarity of the situation. He yelled at me, "Hey fella, would you come back to your car please?" Reluctantly, I abandoned the only cottonmouth we saw that night, and returned to the car empty-handed. Fifteen minutes later, after a check of our drivers' licenses and the trunk of our car, Florida's finest left shaking his head. Undoubtedly, he was thinking, "Damn Canadians, why don't they stay home and look for snakes in their own country."
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A current trend in wildlife photography is to use a wide-angle lens, yet keep the subject large in the frame. That means getting close, sometimes dangerously close. This venomous sidewinder was shot with a 28mm lens, and the snake was just inches in front of the lens. One of us controlled the sidewinder with a snake hook while the other one shot the photos.
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One of my most frightening snake adventures happened in Australia where there are 172 species of snakes, of which two-thirds are venomous and six are among the most deadly in the world. The story begins in our motel room in Cairns, and I was in the shower trying to wash away the jetlag from an 18-hour flight. Suddenly, Aubrey screamed from the bedroom and I leaped from the shower and ran naked, and dripping, out to her. Under the edge of the bed was a large black snake. I instantly recognized the reptile as a deadly taipan. "Don't move," I screamed. "Watch where it goes." As I was digging desperately in our duffle bag for my heavy Gitzo tripod, Aubrey moved over by the bed. "It's moved under the bed" she screeched, and then cringed against the wall. "Stand on a chair," I shouted. "You'll be safe there." With the tripod legs extended, I prodded the shiny body of the taipan intending to pummel the snake's head as soon as it became visible. After two blows, the snake still didn't move. Perhaps it was the unresponsiveness of the deadly snake, or the stifled giggles from Aubrey, that signaled something wasn't quite right. A final heavy blow, and I triumphantly dragged the large rubber snake from beneath the bed. Aubrey cooed, "Thank you, my love, you're so brave." Between gales of laughter, she suggested, "Maybe you should put some clothes on. I don't want Tarzan to catch a cold."
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Bullsnakes are constrictors, and they can climb trees to hunt for nesting birds and roosting bats. We shot this image with a Nikkor 500mm f/4, on Fujichrome Velvia film.
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Spring is one of the best times to look for snakes. Most have just surfaced from winter hibernation, and all of them are hungry for sex and sustenance, and are moving about. As with every wildlife subject, you need to begin with knowledge. We've listed our favorite snake books at the end of the column and these will yield lots of information on which species live in your area, and tips on where you can find them. We've learned most about snakes by going out with professional and amateur herpetologists. There are amphibian and reptile clubs in many areas of the country, and the members often run field trips in the warm months of the year. If you think birdwatchers are passionate about sharing their hobby, hang out with some herpers. They set a whole new standard for enthusiasm, and we've had some wonderful times searching for snakes with such kindred spirits. Your local library is likely to have contact information for such clubs or, nowadays, you can search the web.
I suppose you're impatient for us to finally get talking about shooting snakes on celluloid. Well, we could give you a big song and dance about which film is best, the lenses we prefer and the family secrets of flash photography, but all of that has been addressed in previous columns. Most of you already have all the right equipment and know how to use it. You just need to get out there and shoot. What we want to achieve most with this column is to get you thinking about snakes as a desirable subject to photograph. Often, when we go hunting for snakes, we explore new locations we've previously ignored, and sometimes we discover exciting hideaways in the process. Successful photography is as much about visualizing a subject in your mind, as it is about manipulating equipment and mastering technique. The next time a snake slithers across the path in front of you, we hope you'll remember this column, grab your camera and have some fun.
Field Guides
- Reptiles & Amphibians of Eastern and Central North America, 3rd Edition, Roger Conant & Joseph Collins, Peterson Field Guides, 1991.
- Field Guide to Western Reptiles & Amphibians, Robert Stebbins, Peterson Field Guides, 1966.
- A Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles, Thomas F. Tyning, Stokes Nature Guide, 1990. This is a personal favorite of ours.
Serious Science for Nature Nerds
- Snakes - Ecology and Behavior, Richard A. Siegel & Joseph Collins, McGraw Hill, 1993.
- Snakes of Eastern North America, Carl H. Ernst & Roger Barbour, George Mason University Press, 1989.
- Snakes - The Evolution of Mystery in Nature, Harry W. Greene, University of California Press, 1997. Visually stunning, with beautiful photographs by Michael & Patricia Fogden.
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