Hope – (Hope BC Bulletin Board/June Russell) – An update on the Friday snake situation in Hope.
After tons of phone calls, Conservation officers came all the way from Aldergrove and told locals that it was a gopher snake and does not belong here. So they relocated it.
They are BC’s largest snake and it is on a protection program as people are killing them thinking they are rattlesnakes. If you have lived in the Thompson Okanagan, you get used to these lovely creatures. They’re more afraid of you and you of them.
June Russell told FVN on where the little guy was found: in my backyard near Kawkawa bridge.
From Wikipedia: Common name: Pacific gopher snake, coast gopher snake, western gopher snake,[5] more
Pituophis catenifer is a species of nonvenomous colubrid snake endemic to North America. Nine subspecies are currently recognized, including the nominotypical subspecies, Pituophis catenifer catenifer, described here.[6] This snake is often mistaken for the prairie rattlesnake, but can be easily distinguished from a rattlesnake by the lack of black and white banding on its tail and by the shape of its head, which is narrower than a rattlesnake’s.
