By Nick Cairns, Sam Jaques and Graham Rothwell

In early July, while scampering up a hill to check out a potential site to find bushy-tailed woodrats, we stumbled acrossthis beautiful fellow hiding in a burrow.     

Prairie Rattlesnake

This is the first verified prairie rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis) in this part of Saskatchewan in some time. 

None of the local ranchers seemed that surprised when we told them, but we were pretty proud nonetheless. That is, until two days later when we went back to check on the snake and found the hole had been excavated by something (likely a badger) and there was no sign of the snake.

So we return to the question often asked by visitors to the East Block of Grasslands National Park: “Are there rattlesnakes in this area?”