The birth of any baby is a moment to celebrate and at Scales Nature Park in Oro-Medonte, the fact that the babies are rare snakes, is an even greater reason to celebrate.
Visitors to Scales Nature Park are doing something you can't do anywhere else in Canada; hold the Blue Racer snake.
One admirer named Merryn told us whatshe thought.
“He's really cute and he's really smooth and I want him as my pet.”
The Blue Racer snake is loveable enough and every bit as rare.
“It’s an endangered species in our country and one of the largest snakes we have,” says Jeff Hathaway of the Scales Nature Park.
The Blue Racer can grow to more than5 feet long but when hatched they're little more than a few centimeters and Hathaway knows this because at Scales they have 12 baby Blue Racers.
“Not only are we the only people in Canada that have this species in a captive setting,” says Hathaway, “but we're the first people in the country to ever produce them in captivity.”
Other parks across Canada and the United States have expressed an interest in taking one of the baby Blue Racers, who can live for as long as 20-years. The only place they can be found in the wild in Canada is Pelee Island in Lake Erie but finding one is tough
“Blue Racer is quite accurate,” continued Hathaway. “This is the fastest snake in the country.”
And one of the most fascinating, Hathaway says the Blue Racer poses no threat to humans, but other snakes better beware.
“If you’re not too thrilled about having snakes around these ones eat other snakes. So if you had one of these around you would have fewer other snakes around.
Visitors can drop by and see the baby Blue Racers and adult Blue Racers at Scales Nature Park any day except Tuesday.
Visitors can hold the adult Blue Racer, but not the babies just yet.
