Sharp Tailed Snake
Contia tenuis - Endangered

Description
Range
Habitat Needs
Threats
Conservation Information for Private Landowners
How To Help
What we Are Doing at SSIC
Additional Links

Description

Sharp-tailed Snakes are one of the smallest snakes in BC. These little critters are about the size of a pencil, rarely longer than 30 cm, and they often only reach the size of a pencil. They have a reddish-brown colouring as adults, somewhat akin to the colour of arbutus bark, and the young hatchlings are a brighter reddish-brown colour often being confused as earthworms. They have distinctive black and white barring on their bellies. They can be difficult to distinguish from young garter snakes, but garter snakes have a long tapering tail that comes to a point, while the Sharp-tailed snake has almost a thorn-like appendage at the very tip of its tail. They are very elusive, preferring to hide under rocks, decaying logs, and other debris.

Range

Sharp-tailed Snakes are at the northern end of their range in Canada, occurring only at a few locations on the Gulf Islands and southern Vancouver Island. Their population is also dispersed through Washington and Oregon, with more extensive population ranges in California.

Habitat Needs

Sharp-tailed Snakes prefer sunny, south-facing openings in mixed forests with Douglas Fir, Arbutus, and Garry oak trees. They are often found under rocks and debris, or in logs and rotting wood. These sunny opening are ideal conditions for the snakes to thermoregulate and lay their eggs in.

Threats

Sharp-tailed Snakes face several threats common to many species living in highly populated habitats. These include habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, loss of available nesting sites, roadkills, persecution by humans, and predation by domestic cats.

Conservation Information for Private Landowners

Landowners can be stewards of their land in many ways that benefit the Sharp-tailed Snakes and other wildlife. The following are good stewarship practices for the snakes:

• Protect and enhance existing Sharp-tailed Snake habitat and native ecosystems.
• Allow logs, branches and leaves to decay where they fall to form soil-building mulch, retain moisture and provide habitat for STS.
• Incorporate Sharp-tailed Snake habitat in our garden design.
• Ensure Sharp-tailed Snake friendly grass and weed maintenance.
• Remove invasive species like Scot’s broom, gorse, and English ivy.
• Use native plants or drought tolerant ornamentals for landscaping, wherever possible.
• Eliminate the use of slug-bait and other chemical and synthetic fertilizers or pesticides.
• Report sightings of the Sharp-tailed Snake to SSIC.
• Leave the snakes where they are found.

How To Help

As a landowner, you can use the Sharp-tailed Snake Habitat Assessment Tool to discover whether you may have highly suitable snake habitat on your property. If you think you might have suitable habitat for the snakes, you can contact the SSIC to have a biologist visit your site. If you are interested, we can help you begin to monitor for the snakes on your property.

Thanks to the many landowners who have been monitoring for Sharp-tailed Snakes on their land, we have discovered 19 known locations for the snakes. For those who are less than thrilled at searching for snakes on their property, it might help to know that these snakes, along with the three species of garter snakes that occur on the Gulf Islands, are non-venomous and harmless to humans. Almost all of the known Gulf Islands sites are found on private property and, thus, are unprotected by law. At this time, the fate of this snake relies on good stewardship practices and voluntary protection of habitat by concerned landowners.

What We Are Doing At The Salt Spring Conservancy

The Salt Spring Island Conservancy (SSIC) Stewardship Project works towards:

• conservation
• restoration
• stewardship of the natural values of the island.

Our project involves:

• locating and mapping rare and endangered animal and plant species
• educating the public about these species
• contacting landowners who have a high likelihood of rare species on their properties.

According to Ministry of Environment's Biodiversity BC Report, Salt Spring Island residents have the rare privilege of living among British Columbia's rarest biogeoclimatic zone, the Coastal Douglas Fir ecosystem.

The Conservancy is working with landowners who have Sharp-tailed Snakes on their property, and with landowners who are interested in detecting and monitoring for the snakes on their land. Some of our snake habitat enhancement projects include:

• removing invasive species
• replanting native plants
• constructing rock walls
• constructing artificial snake hibernacula

If you think you have seen a Sharp-tailed snake, please try to take a photograph of it for verification by one of our snake experts, or call the office and give a description of what you have seen.To learn more about becoming a voluntary Sharp Tailed Snake Steward, please download our Sharp Tailed Snake Stewardship Agreement (pdf) or visit our Stewardship Agreements page for more information. You can also call the Salt Spring Island Conservancy office at 250-538-0318 or email: info@saltspringconservancy.ca.

Additional Links

You can find more information on the Sharp-tailed Snake at the following links.

Sharp-tailed Snake Identification Guide (BC Ministry of Environment)

Sharp-tailed Snake Wildlife At Risk brochure (BC Ministry of Environment)

Sharp-tailed Snakes in Our Backyard brochure (Habitat Acquisition Trust)

Attracting Snakes into your Backyard - Tips for Reptile-Friendly Landscaping and Gardening brochure (BC Ministry of Environment)