(water splashing)
- I'm Coyote Peterson, and today
I'm gonna kayak to North Bass Island
to show you one of the rarest reptiles on the planet,
the Lake Erie Water Snake
There's one!
(splashing)
You get bit,
you're definitely gonna bleed.
(drums)
(wild Safari music)
(growl)
(dramatic music)
Alright, so what I'm looking for today
is one of the rarest snakes
on the face of the planet.
The Lake Erie Water Snake.
This species is only native to the Erie Islands.
Right now, we're on North Bass
where these snakes completely roam free.
I'm gonna catch one of these so you guys can see
just how cool this snake really is.
We're gonna comb the shoreline,
you're gonna follow me,
and hopefully we're gonna catch one.
All these large rocks like this,
the snakes will sit up and sun,
dive off the edge into the water to go hunt.
I'm hoping to scare 'em out,
so then I can jump after the snakes.
The water's crystal clear,
and that means I'll be able to see the snakes
once they dive in.
(water swishing)
- Oh, it's behind you.
(splashing)
- Jeeze!
That,
is a baby Lake Erie Water Snake.
I saw it
dart off the edge
and then I lost it as I kinda
disturbed the bottom.
What's really cool about the babies is,
they have these very distinctive bands.
They kinda disappear as they get older.
When they get older and big
they kinda just turn this dark grey color.
Now this snake is probably a newborn,
and the mother Lake Erie Water Snakes
can have anywhere between 25 and 40 babies.
And they give birth to live young.
And, this snake will grow to be
about three and a half, four feet long.
And that's what we're really looking for today.
Is a big Lake Erie Water Snake.
(waster swishing)
There's one!
(splashing)
There we go!
That's a pretty good sized one, right there!
That is
the Lake Erie Water Snake!
And the typical signs of aggression.
He's trying to bite me,
right from the start.
And these guys, are non-venomous
but, you get bit,
you're definitely gonna bleed.
Wow, that is a good--
Ow! Jeeze...
Yeah, he just took the tip of my finger,
and sliced it open.
Okay, hold on, let me try to get him
under control a little bit better.
(water swishing)
Hold on, calm down, buddy.
Wow, that is a good-sized snake!
Um, lemme get him up onto the edge here,
Jeeze, look at that!
He has sliced the top of my finger open.
Wow, that's probably, what?
A good three and a half foot long snake.
(water swishing)
I'll get him up here
and try not to get bit a second time.
My finger, is bleeding so much
because there's actually an anticoagulant
in the saliva of all water snakes.
The anticoagulant prevents the blood from clotting,
and that's just gonna keep bleeding, and bleeding.
Now one of the reasons
that people are so afraid of these snakes;
let me see if I can get him to kinda puff his head up.
They'll actually form their head into a V shape,
which makes them look like Water Moccasins.
Now, Water Moccasins are very dark in coloration,
almost resemble these snakes identically.
And that's why people thought,
"This is a venomous snake,
"I need to kill 'em off of the Island."
Not the case, though.
The only reason you get bit,
like I just did,
is I ran and jumped in
and grabbed ahold of him.
(small splash)
Now, these snakes really just wanna be left alone.
And the reason that I wanted to catch him
is so you could get the chance to see
a species that was almost
wiped off the face of the planet.
(dramatic music)
And these guys just camouflage
so incredibly well.
Let me just see if I can get him to
maybe go into the rocks here.
You see that?
He blends in almost perfectly
with the colorations,
in these different shades of rocks.
That allows these guys to stay hidden
as they go out hunting along the floor
of the lake, looking for Round Gobies.
The reason I think this snake is so cool is
because it's only native to the Erie Islands.
Once an endangered species,
these guys are rebounding back
and actually helping the ecosystem
because they're eating the invasive Round Gobies.
So, I'm gonna let this guy go,
so he can go out there
and eat some of those nasty little buggers.
(ethereal music) (water swishing)
Alright, what an adventure!
Time to head back to the mainland.
I'm Coyote Peterson.
Be brave, stay wild.
We'll see you guys next time.
- [Voiceover] If you thought that was one wild adventure,
check out these other animal encounters.
And don't forget,
subscribe to follow me and the crew
on this season of Breaking Trail.
(growl)
(bird call)