For a few years, I worked hard at finding the greatest concentrations of animals in North America. Northwest of Winnipeg, Manitoba in an area between Lake Winnipeg and Lake Manitoba there is a region of limestone topography. Sink holes in the limestone provide denning for masses of red-sided garter snakes. Indeed, the area has the highest concentration of snakes in the world. In late April or early May, sex starved males emerge first in mass and wait for the larger females to emerge. Once breeding occurs, the snakes disperse into marshy areas nearby. The snakes were the most docile snakes I've ever seen. When I was in the sinkholes with them, I literally had to keep picking up balls of snakes that crawled under me to prevent from harming them. I never had one attempt to bite or produce musk (a rather disagreeable thing garter snakes sometimes do). The cool thing, was something I didn't expect; you could hear the sound of all those scales rubbing together!
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