Wells with snakes in Manitoba

Each spring, the Canadian wilds of Manitoba filled with thousands of dreadful writhing snakes. At this point, there is one of the largest collections of snakes in the world. After long months of hibernation they crawl to the surface to bask in the sun and perform the ritual mating. All this happens in a particular place - in the Narcisse Snake Dens, a few kilometers from Narcisse, Manitoba.

What makes this place so attractive to snakes? The answer to this question is directly related to the time of the Paleozoic era, when the region was covered in Manitoba ancient ocean. Now there is no ocean, but the bottom left. limestone layers with thousands of caves, crevices and cracks form a kind of a well through which water infiltrates.

Cold-blooded snakes are very fond of these sinkholes, which are ideal for hibernation during the harsh Canadian winters with temperatures reaching 50 degrees below zero. They crawl in there to shelter from the cold, but the place there is not too much, so they have to close. As a result, tens of thousands of snakes stuffed into each well of the size of an average living room, and stay there for the whole winter. They crawl out of their hiding places they are at the beginning of May, when the snow melts.

The first to appear on the surface of the males, followed by females. Since they are all the same color, then to find each other, they become like a sea spaghetti. Sometimes it happens that one female attacked as many as fifty males. They are woven into a ball that looks like a ball. These balls can be found everywhere - in the trees, on rocks, in the bushes.

Each year, thousands of tourists come to this den of snakes. This type of snake is not dangerous to humans, so they are a success, even in children.