Greg Riley I’m walking towards the end of the tunnel, I hear right next to my right side, I hear rattling.’ An Osoyoos photographer was alerted to a rattlesnake near him Friday morning when he took a walk through the canal tunnel. “I thought to myself what was that sound,” Greg Riley said after hearing the rattle. “So I see there’s a rattlesnake right on the ledge.” “It was just sitting there and it looked like it was injured when I took a closer look. And the tail was either hit by a car or maybe caught by an animal or something.” Reely said he’s not afraid of snakes and has encountered them in the area before, but he was worried someone else might not realize he was hanging out on the popular public trail and get bitten. “If someone didn’t know it was there and put their hand on the ledge there, they could easily get bitten.” He then visited the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre, which works with support from Environment Canada to study Western Rattlesnakes and Great Basin Gopher snakes. Biologists will track the snakes using radio telemetry to learn about their habits in the area. “The guy said let nature take its course, it’s going to find its way back somewhere,” Riley said. “Like most habitats, leave the animals alone and don’t bother them, they won’t bother you.” Reely took the opportunity to film the snake while keeping his distance, using a 300mm lens to really zoom in on the slithery creature. “It looked like it was staring at me, like it was going to come off the ledge, off the cement slope there, but it never did. I wasn’t too worried.” See more from Reely on his Facebook photography page here.
