Nyx is being camera-shy.
She’s curled the bulk of her fire-hose-length body behind a log with her mustachioed head peeking out above it. Sometimes she sticks her tongue out as if to blow raspberries at the photographer.
Moments earlier, she was slithering around the arms and neck of her owner, John DeJordy, trying her best not to strike a pose.
Nyx is a boa constrictor imperator DeJordy took in seven years ago. Now 2.23 metres (7 feet 4 inches) in length, Nyx is living it up in a luxurious $4,000 habitat that takes up about half of DeJordy’s home office.
“Three times a day it rains in there,” he said, adding that he keeps it scrupulously clean.
“It’s as close to Brazil as I can get it.”
DeJordy, 59, is a snake enthusiast who lives in Edmonton, having been fascinated with them ever since his grandfather caught a garter snake near Lac Ste. Anne and spent an hour telling his grandson all about it. He has just one now (Nyx), but in his younger years he had about 24, including a 16-foot reticulated python and an ornery rainbow boa that wouldn’t stop biting him.
“They are amazing animals,” he said of snakes, and so different from us.
“Without limbs, they seem to have no problem thriving in almost all environments.”
This week, we take a closer look at snakes in Alberta in recognition of the Year of the Snake.
Snakes of Alberta
Reptile enthusiast Adrian Theroux-Nielsen works with many St. Albert-area snakes and snake owners as manager of Oasis Fish and Reptile. He has two snakes at home: Socket, a white-and-green piebald python, and Sorsha, a purple passion ball python.
Snakes are reptiles with very long bodies and no limbs or eyelids, Adrian explained. They are also ectotherms dependent on external sources of heat to stay warm. That makes it vital for snake owners to regulate the temperature of their pet’s habitat — too much heat can kill them.
Snakes can shed their skins all in one piece, which they do more often when young or injured, said Kris Kendell, a senior biologist with the Alberta Conservation Association, who grew up around snakes.
“It’s like taking off a sock inside out,” he said, and leaves them seemingly reborn — a trait that has led some cultures to associate snakes with rebirth.
Snakes have forked tongues they use to smell/taste their environment, Kendell continued. By touching the tips of their tongue to a special organ in their mouths, they can triangulate the direction of their prey and home in on it. Some snakes also have pits between their eyes and nostrils that detect heat, letting them “see” prey in the darkness. These super-senses are important, as snake otherwise have poor eyesight.
Anyone who’s ever seen a snake eat knows they can dislocate their jaws to swallow meals whole. Look closely and you can see how they move the left and right halves of their jaws separately to pull food down their throats.
“They have right at the base of their tongue a little valve that connects directly to their lungs,” Adrian noted, which lets them breathe with their mouth full of rat.
Alberta has seven native snake species, all of which are protected under the Wildlife Act and are illegal to own as pets.
Plains garter snakes have an orange stripe on their back and yellow-green ones to their sides. Red-sided gartersnakes have yellow or greenish stripes on their back and sides and often have red marks between their stripes. Neither are venomous.
In the warm season, Kendell said these snakes hunt frogs, fish, or voles. In the winter, these snakes will hide in underground chambers called hibernacula.
Snakes in society
DeJordy and Adrian said to do your research before getting a snake as a pet. Don’t get one if you want an animal that will play fetch and shower you with affection; they’re not that active. But if you’re allergic to other animals and don’t have a lot of time to socialize with them, a snake could be right.
“Snakes on that level are a little more of a pet of convenience,” Adrian said.
The most popular pet snakes nowadays are the ball python, corn snake, milk snake, kingsnake, and boa, Adrian said. Some, like the orange-and-black Kenyon sand boa he has at his store, are hunters, and will swiftly slither about your fingers when you handle them. Others, such as ball pythons, are ambush predators, and will typically just chill out in your hand if you pick them up.
Adrian said pet snakes cost hundreds to thousands of dollars to buy, depending on the species, but cost maybe $8 a month to feed, as they eat about one rat a month. Expect to shell out about $800 on a habitat as well, which should be at least the length of the snake, temperature-controlled with a warm and cool zone, and contain a source of fresh water.
While some owners create minimalist habitats for their snakes, DeJordy said he seeks to give his snakes everything they need to be their best selves. That’s why Nyx’s habitat has UV lights, heating coils, climbing branches, living moss and bugs, computer-controlled mist nozzles, several hiding places, and a small lake.
A pet snake may strike and bite you if it feels threatened, Adrian said. If it does, stay still until it lets go, then disinfect and bandage the wound. Always wash your hands after handling a snake in case they had salmonella on them.
You can keep venomous snakes as pets in Alberta so long as they’re rear-fanged ones, as those aren’t dangerous to humans, said Crystal Theroux-Nielsen, owner of Oasis Fish and Reptile. Front-fanged venomous ones are banned as they can kill people.
While snakes have a dangerous reputation, Kendell said St. Albert’s wild snakes are harmless to humans, although they might bite or exude stinky musk and poop if you try to grab them.
“They really just want to go unnoticed,” he said.
Kendell said wild snakes were beautiful creatures that played important roles as both predators and prey. Habitat loss, pesticides, global heating, and cars all threaten their survival.
Anyone who finds a wild snake should leave it alone, Kendell said.
“If you encounter a garter snake in St. Albert, I think you should enjoy the experience, because they are rare.”
DeJordy said Nyx is probably fully grown by now, but others of her species have reached 3.7 metres (12 feet) in length. She could easily live for another 20 to 30 years.
“I think the Year of the Snake is one of my favourite years because I keep snakes,” he said.
“I don’t think [Nyx] cares at all!”
Year of the Snake
This year’s Chinese or Lunar New Year starts Jan. 29. The Lunar New Year is based on the Chinese lunar calendar, which follows a 12-year cycle of rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog, and pig, in that order.
Chinese mythology says the order of animals in the zodiac was decided by a race across a river between all of them held by the Jade Emperor, reports chinesenewyear.net. The snake took sixth; depending on which version of the story you read, it either spooked the horse or hitched a ride on one of its hooves to beat it across the finish line.
People born under the sign of the snake are thought to be cool, mysterious, and suspicious, but full of wisdom and passion.
