#massasauga rattlesnake

[viatravelers]

When people picture a rattlesnake, they generally think of the diamondback and not the shy massasauga rattlesnake. This snake’s name means “big river mouth” in Chippewa, and is named for the type of areas it is commonly found in, namely bogs and marshes. Although the massasauga rattlesnake was once plentiful in numbers, human interference has caused its numbers to dwindle, and it is now being considered for addition on the endangered species list.

[fatehbaz]

At the intersection of Ohio, Michigan and Indiana, the corn monoculture melts away to reveal green rolling hills and deep gorges. The lush forest is pockmarked by steep-banked ponds, carved out by retreating glaciers 10,000 years ago. Standing waist-deep in a forest pool, Megan Seymour scans the shrubby banks with binoculars. A slight change in colour and texture spotted in the tangled buttonbush swamp reveals her quarry: a thick, glossy, copperbelly water snake (Nerodia erythrogaster neglecta). [...]

The copperbelly water snake – named for its tangerine-orange underside – inhabited what was one of the largest wetland areas in North America.

Roughly the size of Connecticut and stretching from Fort Wayne in Indiana across much of north-west Ohio, the Great Black Swamp was home to elk, wolves, mountain lions and black bears.

In the mid-19th century, farmers began to clear the trees and drain the swamp to access the fertile soil hidden beneath the water. In just five decades, the Great Black Swamp was dry.

Today, the copperbelly water snake lays claim to just 50 sq km (20 sq miles) of remnant swamp forest in the tri-state area – slightly smaller than Manhattan Island.

Though the exact number of the reptiles is not known, experts estimate that fewer than 100 individuals, possibly as few as 40, remain.

“I think they will be gone within 20 years,” says [...] a land steward with the Nature Conservancy [...]. He believes saving the copperbelly water snake is essential to the region’s ecology because it is “an umbrella species” [...] for dozens of other declining species that rely on the swamp forest, including the rare bobolink blackbird and the checkerspot butterfly. When Seymour began searching for copperbelly water snakes in spring 2021, no one had seen one alive in the wild in almost three years. She spent more than 180 hours combing through the wetlands historically inhabited by the species but found none. [...]

---

All content above, images, caption, and text published by: Ryan Wagner. “‘They aren’t mean and they aren’t trying to get you’: saving the copperbelly water snake.” The Guardian. 14 February 2023. [All photos published with this story were also taken by Ryan Wagner. Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks added by me.]

For reference, here’s the distribution range of the copperbelly water snake:

And here, what was once the Great Black Swamp:

Snake, endemic species unique to Great Lakes region and flooded prairies of the “Prairie Peninsula,” nearly extinct.

[sabistarphotos]

February 15, 2020

Phoenix Zoo

[merelygifted]

At long last, researchers discover diet of Michigan’s only venomous snake | Bridge Michigan

What’s on the menu today?

If you’re an eastern massasauga rattlesnake in the Lower Peninsula, the main course on your menu is likely to be small mammals like meadow voles and masked shrews, with an occasional side order of bird and snake.

Yummy!

A recent study by Grand Valley State University scientists who researched what Michigan’s only venomous snake eats found that eastern massasaugas “strongly prefer small mammal prey, yet individuals occasionally consume other prey, including amphibians, reptiles and birds.”  ...

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

suppose I just turn into an eastern massasauga rattlesnake, which will both end my relationship with capitalism and contribute one (1) new eastern massasauga rattlesnake to a threatened population

[magewolf-the-artist]

Rocket!

Fun fact: that snake is a Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake, the only poisonous snake in Michigan. It was originally supposed to be a copperhead, but they don't live up in Michigan so ehh. Ofc the poison wouldn't actually affect Rocket, Rosemary is more upset/annoyed they picked up a random wild animal

[rippleclan]

[Image ID: Rattlepelt poses under the lore post's title, "Name Deep Dive: Rattlepelt".]

My furless baby, Rattlepelt! She's got a simple little name, but I love it.

Prefix: "Rattle"

When cats discuss a rattle, they actually refer to the same sort of rattle us humans think of. They have a rattle instrument! A rattle in Clan culture is crafted with a collection of pebbles or sand. Artisans mold clay around the pebbles and bite into the wet clay, forming a sort of mouth handle. When the clay dries, the pebbles rattle around inside the clay while the player holds the rattle in their mouth. All you have to do is shake your head and the rattle, well, rattles!

This rattle instrument provides the rattlesnake with its name. We can’t ignore that, when born, Rattlepelt was called Rattlesnake. There is only one rattlesnake species in the area of Canada RippleClan inhabits; the eastern massasauga. This is the snake that bit Duskkit in the early moons of RippleClan. It is the only venomous snake in the region of the Clans.

With these two uses of the word rattle, we have two connotations of the prefix. The first implies artistry and music. Rattles accompany drums in many Clan songs and performances, acting as a soft, purr-like beat. The name honors the art unique to Clan life. The other connotation is one of an uncommon but dangerous creature or someone who gives warning before dealing their deadly blows.

Suffix: “-pelt”

While -pelt is often compared to -fur, in RippleClan, the two suffixes have very different connotations. When you refer to a pelt in the language of the Clans, you refer to the overall body of any given mammal. A cat’s pelt would imply everything from muzzle to tail tip, with a focus on scars and fur texture. Pelt also refers to leather pelts, which can come from any animal the Clans feel is socially acceptable to turn into leather.

Full Name: Rattlepelt

With this combination of prefix and suffix, the clearest image that pops into any Clan cat’s head is one of snake leather. Snake leather is rather uncommon, as despite there only being one venomous snake in the area, most hunters still don’t wanna risk a bite. If artisans get snake leather, it’s useful for thin crafts like jewelry and straps. Not everyone likes the feel of snake leather, but it is prized among artisans.

Rattlepelt’s name is also the perfect name for a leather worker and top tier artisan. Rattlepelt’s skills with leather are perfectly exemplified with her wonderful, simple name.

[is-the-snake-video-cute]

Just watched a video of a russels viper rescue in India and jeez those things are on fire. Are there any nonvenomous snakes with a similar pattern and more docile behavior?

Aren't they beautiful?

The tough thing here is that vipers in general have a very distinctive appearance and you're just not going to find it in any other family. The closest you can really get are western hognose snakes, who mimic Massasauga rattlesnakes. Hoggies are good pets but they can be very hissy and fussy, and one of my favorite things about them is that they do have that gorgeous rattlesnake-esque pattern.

[lizardsaredinosaurs]

Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake (Sistrurus catenatus)

Midwest USA, Ontario, Canada

Status: Threatened

Threats: habitat loss, persecution

I'm here to audition for the percussionist post ಠ_ಠ

[kihaku-gato]

I just made myself sad cause I ended up looking up on the Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake (native to Ontario, I've mostly only have heard of it being in the wild while camping up in the Bruce Peninsula in the past) and ended up seeing a before/after of their natural range from the google results.

It's sad cause as far as venomous snakes go they are known to be pretty shy. I've heard of some peeps saying they've almost stepped on them and not get bitten cause how much they don't wanna waste their venomous bite on a bumbling giant (not that it'd be wise to be testing that though).

I also didn't know they were associated with the range of the tallgrass prairie since the ones I had heard about- being in the Bruce- are in the open rocky places of the cliffs out from the forest. 🥺

[oldfacesnewdawnoffical]

Dogbane / Laurel / Laurelstorm

Tactician (formerly a supporter) of the Woodruff Faction (as of: the start of A Dream of Destiny)

A massive, thick-furred, fluffy very dark blue-gray spotted tabby molly with odd white spotting on her left side, very dark blue eyes, and protruding “tusks” and canines. Her forepaws are replaced by the feet of a raptor. She sports several scars across her body, most notably across her left shoulder, left side, left eye, across the right side of her muzzle, and with a torn left ear.

Wears three coyote teeth pierced through her left ear, alongside a scale of a massasauga rattlesnake. Wears buffaloberry dye at eyes. Braids the fur on either side of her jaw with brambles, a sharpened snake’s bone each, and with a small osprey feather braided into the right. Wears a loose band of elk leather and crocodile teeth around the base of her tail. Wears specific elk leather and coyote fur cuffs around her forelegs to support her forepaws. Wears the pelt of a small coyote around her neck and across her back, secured with elk leather, a circle of carved elk bone, and two osprey feathers.

•─────⋅ᓚᘏᗢ⋅─────•

Daughter of Snowstorm† and Thistleclaw†. Niece of Rhema Rainfall via Snowstorm†. Niece of Mapletail via Thistleclaw†. Cousin of Aroges Mottledtail and Sors Spottedleaf via Mapletail. Cousin of Fogtongue and Mistfoot of the Riverward via Rainfall. Courting Monarchmask.

Trained by Pineheart.

58 moons old (equivalent to a 34 year old)

Idealistic, Pensive, Guileful | INTJ-T

Transgender Female // Demiromantic // (She/Her/His)

Shadow Weaver - She-Ra and the Princesses of Power - Lorraine Toussaint

Name implies a pale-furred, long-limbed cat who is passionate and with a strong moral compass.

[zeroiii]

now im thinking about venemous ozarks snakes. cottonmouths, copperheads, timber rattlesnakes, massasaugas... in case u ever wanted more reasons not to visit lol

[cadaverousdecay]

heyyy what do you think of snakes. like eyelash vipers and spiney bush vipers and diamond back rattlesnakes and massasauga rattlesnakes and milk snakes and corn snakes and coral snakes and sand boas and burmese pythons and hognose snakes. i may know a lot of snakes. that might give away who i am whoops. anyway. what do you think of those little guys :) ?

i love snakes so so much <3

[riverdrifter]

Fisherman's Log: 8/21/2023

Uhh, hi! You probably don't know this, but I've been working on a long retrospective of Pikmin 4 as I play through the game. That was intended to be my first post on this blog. However, I quickly realized something: writing my thoughts about a game without exhaustively journaling my experience while playing it is excruciating. I grew up playing games for an audience, be it my mom watching me play some obscure Wii game, or me liveposting my playthrough of said game to whomever I was talking to on the Warrior Cats forums at the time. So, to remedy this, I'm going to be posting more hands-on "stream of consciousness"-type logs while I'm playing something. And what better to start with than a game I play very regularly: Creatures of the Deep.

A friend put me onto this quirky little game, knowing my propensity for fish and other aquatic creatures. It's been a fun little way to relax throughout my day, while also engaging my completionist hubris. I will confess: the reason I was iffy on posting journal entries alongside retrospectives is because I was feeling a bit of sunk cost fallacy. After all, if I've already completed a good bit of the game, why start now? But I'm nipping that in the bud. So! I'm going to catalogue my progress up until this point, then get into my daily session.

🗺️ Location Progress

Legend ⦾ Common ◈ Rare ✧ Epic ☆ Legendary

Please note that any inconsistent capitalization or spelling is just me noting things down exactly as the games have them written.

🏝️ Paradise Island 🏝️

41% | Discoveries: 36/37

🐟 Fish - 12/12 ⦾ Bluefish - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ Blue Trevally - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ Bonefish - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ Clownfish - ★★☆☆☆ ◈ Green Humphead Parrotfish - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ Largetooth Flounder - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ Longtail Tuna - ★★☆☆☆ ✧ Pacific Footballfish - ★☆☆☆☆ ✧ Pelagic Stingray - ★☆☆☆☆ ⦾ Snubnose Pompano - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Spot-fin Porcupinefish - ★★★☆☆ ◈ White Tuna - ★☆☆☆☆

🦐 Creatures - 5/5 ⦾ Flower Tube Sea Anemone - ★★★☆☆ ◈ Mimic Octopus - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Peacock Mantis Shrimp - ★☆☆☆☆ ⦾ Red Starfish - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Sand Striker - ★★☆☆☆

🗑️ Trash - 19/19 • Can • Can Fish • Chest With A Skull • Chips • Empty Bottle • Flip Flops • Gear • Kelp Leaf • Key With A Skull • Mask • Message In A Bottle • Old Phone • Pinacolada Drink • Plastic Bag • Plastic Bottle • Rubber Duck • Sea Weed • Straw Hat • Wilson Ball

🏕️ Great Lakes 🏕️

41% | Discoveries: 62/63

🐟 Fish - 23/24 ⦾ Alewife - ★★★☆☆ ✧ American Eel - ★☆☆☆☆ ⦾ Bloater - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ Brook Trout - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ Brown Trout - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ Channel Catfish - ★★★☆☆ ◈ Chinook Salmon - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Coho Salmon - ★★★☆☆ ◈ Flathead Catfish - ★★☆☆☆ ✧ Goldfish - ★☆☆☆☆ ✧ Lake Sturgeon - UNCAUGHT ◈ Lake Trout - ★☆☆☆☆ ⦾ Largemouth Bass - ★☆☆☆☆ ✧ Longnose Gar - ★☆☆☆☆ ◈ Muskie - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ Pink Salmon - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ Redear Sunfish - ★☆☆☆☆ ⦾ Round Whitefish - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Sea Lamprey - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Smallmouth Bass - ★☆☆☆☆ ⦾ Walleye - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ White Bass - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ White Crappie - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ Yellow Perch - ★★★☆☆

🦐 Creatures - 9/9 ⦾ Beaver - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Bullfrog - ★☆☆☆☆ ⦾ Chinese Mystery Snail - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Common Musk Turtle - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnake - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ North American River Otter - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Quagga Mussels - ★★★☆☆ ◈ Queen Snake - ★★☆☆☆

🗑️ Trash - 29/29 • Al'Capone Hat • Arrow • Baseball Hat • Beaver Hat • Beverage can • Boom Floppy Disc • Can Soup • Chip Bag • Cobra Sunglasses • Colorful Headdress • Concrete Shoe • Fish Can • Glass Bottle with XXX Sign • Green floppy disc • Grey Casette • Hot Dog • Meat Can • Mouse Glove • Old Branch • Old Tire • Pipe • Plastic Bottle • Toxic Barrel • Treasure chest • Vegetable Can • Video Cassette • Vinyl Record • Wilted leaf

🌅 Costa Rica 🌅

27% | Discoveries: 41/62

I've elected to not list the undiscovered entries in Costa Rica and any future locations, as I prefer to go into newer areas as blindly as possible. For the Great Lakes, I already know the one fish I don't have is that damn sturgeon. I'd rather leave the rest up to mystery though.

🐟 Fish - 16/22 ⦾ Barracuda - ★★★☆☆ ◈ Blue Marlin - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Broomtail Grouper - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Cubera Snapper - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ Dorado - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Jack Crevalle - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Pompano - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Roosterfish - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ Sierra Mackerel - ★☆☆☆☆ ⦾ Snook - ★★☆☆☆ ◈ Striped Marlin - ★☆☆☆☆ ⦾ Tarpon - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Tripletail - ★★★☆☆ ⦾ Wahoo - ★☆☆☆☆ ✧ Whitetip Shark - ★☆☆☆☆ ⦾ Yellowfin Tuna - ★★☆☆☆

🦐 Creatures - 7/9 ◈ American Crocodile - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Brown Sea Cucumber - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Nudibranch - ★☆☆☆☆ ⦾ Olive Ridley Sea Turtle - ★☆☆☆☆ ⦾ Pacific Land Crab - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Pink Jellyfish - ★★☆☆☆ ⦾ Yellow-Bellied Sea Snake - ★★☆☆☆

🗑️ Trash - 18/30 • Anchor • Bicycle Frame • Bikini Top • Bottle Santa Maria • Broken coral • Chip Bag • Coconut • Costa Rican Vase • Fish Can • Flipper • Oil Barrel • Orange Cassette • Palm Leaf • Scuba Diver Mask • Surfboard • Volcanic Rock • Watermelon Vinyl Record • White Bottle

🏅 Achievements Board

Fish Catcher ★★☆☆☆ 156/500

Explorer of Sea Creatures ★★☆☆☆ 21/40

Recycling Master ★★☆☆☆ 390/500

Trash Catcher ★★☆☆☆ 66/100

Days in the Game ★☆☆☆☆ 23/50

Master Reeler ★★☆☆☆ 7/50 My fucking white whale.

Monster Hunter ★☆☆☆☆ 1/10

Monster Collector ★☆☆☆☆ 1/2

Tournament Lover ☆☆☆☆☆ 0/5 Please don't make me use social functions I am just a humble fisherman

🎣 Fish Tank

I may very well make a spreadsheet for this in the future like some sort of deranged lunatic, but for now I just want to play the damn game so have some pictures.

I'm not sure what else to note. That I haven't bought any character customization yet? That all my stats are 1 except for Luck, which is 2? God forbid, my lure stats?? I don't know, but I'm done cataloguing! Now let's get into what you came here for!!

🗒️ Gameplay Log

📋 Info Board - 4 reel in a row Reward: +2 gems - Catch 5 x Brook Trout Reward: +500 coins - Catch 3 x American Eel Reward: +3 gems

Those gems are so, so valuable, so you know I'll be gunning for those. Although it does mean that I have to remember to play at night if I want to do that eel task. Those are kind of a pain in the ass... I should probably spend some time grinding garbage so that I can get Temporary Luck for eel time.

Well, first thing's first: off to Paradise Island to collect wood and see who our quest NPC is! As it turns out, Sir Joseph Bellywise is waiting for us, with a request for 3 Largetooth Flounder. That should hopefully synergize well with my consecutive reeling task.

I end up getting both tasks done without too much trouble, although I did break my reel chain and I don't want to talk about it. I handed in my three shittiest flounders for a nice 407 gold. I spend the rest of my visit hanging out in the Garbage Patch so that I can take home a full inventory and work towards that Temporary Luck. Once home, I quickly deposit two wood in the next section of the fish tank; that's where I'm focusing my efforts right now, as I've not found myself filling up the item storage yet. But with that, it's Great Lakes time!

Our daily NPC for this area is Mike "Lock" Smith, who just tells me to go fuck myself and that he's looking for someone more experienced. I'm level 7, what the hell do you want from me?! I also encounter some stress early on in the form of Sea Lampreys; the game doesn't recognize this, but I the player know that they're an invasive species, so morally I will not throw them back in to save bag space. Which means I may have to spend more gold going back to free up some slots.

...Or my rod could break and make us have to go back anyway. Neat. I'll plan ahead and go for the cheaper Garbage Grabber Rod; it shouldn't impede my catching too much, and I want to be able to hit a 50 cleanup streak by nightfall. The rest of the Brook Trout search is a cakewalk, but I swear the longer I know my reel streak is, the more scarcely I breathe during the hooking sequence. This is in spite of me purposefully not checking the number because I know it'll psych me out.

While I'm trying to catch one more thing to bring home, I wonder about the internal formula the game must use to calculate rod wear. I know for a fact different rods have different strengths, and I imagine that fish weight must factor in somehow, because some fish will be too strong and will pull the line out of range and break free. Does player strength get taken into account? I see people on the Discord saying that they still lose fish even at 8 or so strength. I don't know. Food for thought.

With the Brook Trout task now complete, I'm able to deposit a two-star into the fish tank, as well as adding some more wood onto the Alaska pile. Seeing as how I've not unlocked that area yet, building that section of the fish tank is not a priority. But I do need something to do with all that wood.

Since our final daily task is locked to nighttime, and I'm writing this at 3:15 pm, that means our last stop for now is Costa Rica! I'll be honest, this map is so huge, I don't even end up finding all the daily wood half the time, and I don't exactly bother. It's just sooo much effort to comb through all that water... based on the size progression so far, I can only imagine Alaska will be downright nightmarish.

I immediately eat my words and find two wood floating right next to each other.

While it's a nice bonus for sure, this still leaves me in the dark on who and where our Daily Slut Encounter is. I eventually give up and bring home some dudes for the tank: a Tarpon, a Jack Crevalle, and a Pompano, all sadly one star. The Tarpon has just the most delightfully smug little face swimming around in there.

I returned to Costa Rica to try and find some new trash, and only on my last bag slot did I snag something new: the Ship Bell from Santa Maria. It's only on the way back that I finally find the NPC. It's Sir Joseph Bellywise again, this time wanting 110 lbs of fish for a party tomorrow. I can do that! After I go drop off this trash run. Self-reminder: he is west of the Spanish Shipwreck. Trash payouts barely make up for the price of coming back, but I need it.

Aand it turns out the task's payout was barely worth the trip anyway! 95 coins for 110 pounds of fish? That is straight up daylight robbery. Anyway, after brutally murdering my reel streak, I don't feel like playing anymore, so I'll resume this entry tonight when it's eel time. I place a one-star Broomtail Grouper face-down and end my turn.

𓆝 𓆟 𓆞

Touching base again past midnight, and holy shit, I was actually able to do it! While I was waiting for my T gel to dry, not only did I snag 3 American Eels and claim the gem prize, but I also caught the Lake Sturgeon (2 stars, straight to the fish tank) and got 5 more gems from Aneta Angler for completing the area! I also slapped a 2-star American Eel and a 1-star Flathead Catfish into the fish tank for good measure. With time left on my Temporary Luck, I set out for the Great Depths of Costa Rica.

And I sure reaped the benefits! I brought home a 2-star Barracuda, a 2-star Wahoo to replace the one in my fish tank, a 2-star Nurse Shark, a 1-star Hammerhead Shark, and a 1-star Whitetip Shark. In other news, I need to do wrist stretches now. I also got myself a new creature discovery in the Red-Ringed Clinging Crab; all in all, this netted me another Aneta Angler prize, with her giving me 5 Rare Bait for my efforts. The payout for this trip wasn't spectacular, but it'll be worth it in the future.

... And dear God, to ride out the last of my Temporary Luck, I hit the middle north of Paradise Island, as that's where other anglers on the Discord had been reporting Shredder sightings for tonight. And whaddya know! I actually caught the fucker first try! This got me two stars in the Monster Collector achievement, and I can finally go talk to Cap'n Slappy and finish out the main area quest. I also level up, getting 2,800 coins in all between that and the quest reward. ...Tapping the level-up turns out to be a major mistake, as I was planning on going to sleep, but now I have an hour of temporary luck. e.e I spend my singular stat point on Strength, boosting it to 2; I've been searching for a lot of large targets, and every time a fish breaks free, I lose a bit of my awake time for the day.

Well, I'm not one to waste Temporary Luck now that I'm journaling my grind, so back to Costa Rica it is. I can't tell if this is just copium on my part, but I swear there is an immediate, noticeable difference in how easy it is to control the reel bar when battling a fish that engages the minigame now that I've leveled up my Strength. Either that or I'm getting better at the game, which is also true, but I swear that bar is just steadier. Honestly, I was considering getting a Monster Rod, but I've been doing so well with just the Carbon Rod that it feels unnecessary at this point.

I'm glad to announce that I got even more new discoveries before bed: the Pacific Sailfish (2 stars) and the Bull Shark (also 2 stars). I was trying for the Black Marlin for a bit, but with a sliver of Temporary Luck left, I decided to call it quits because I was getting too eepy. Still, I'd say that was a relentlessly productive day of fishing.

This was really fun to journal! The verb tenses are all over the place, and punctuation is real funky; this certainly isn't editor's portfolio material. But I think it's something I'd like to do more often! I like writing more than I give myself credit for. Hopefully the next post will be much shorter!

[tgenvs3000w23]

Starting the Conversation: Nature Interpretation

How would I explain my relationship with nature?

I really strive to make a positive impact on the environment around me so that the relationship I have with nature isn't one-sided. Like many of us in ENVS3000, I am in a program that is more or less based on protecting and preserving the natural world around us, and that really is my goal moving forward after university. My relationship with nature started really young, it took me a while to accept getting dirty and some parts of it used to gross me out (anything that crawled was a no), but learning and exploring quickly grew on me!

I feel grade 5 was a really pivotal moment in my relationship with nature, and was key in offering the beginning moments of discovering my sense of place. There was a program that I heard all the big kids on the playground talk about; they got out of school for three days, got to play outside, and they got these awesome keys which really amazed young Teagan. Sounds like an awesome time, right? But grade 5, my time finally came to find out what this program was about for myself.

This program was called "Earthkeepers", if anyone else went to an elementary school in UGDSB you may have also heard and/or done this, it was unforgettable! The purpose of this program is to immerse students in nature, and have them learn firsthand about the connections everywhere, the relationships, cycles and changes in their surroundings. There were so many cool world-building activities, and the guides talked to us often of this mysterious character known only as E.M.. This person was the keeper of the keys, a mysterious wizard of the woods, and wanted to spread an appreciation for the natural world to everyone. Completing each day awarded us a key, which opened a box in a secret location we had to find. Days were filled with journalling under trees, and being alone with our thoughts to reflect in nature about nature.

So who did offer me a sense of place? After thinking about it, I felt like I really discovered my sense of place. Of course I had guidance from teachers, but Earthkeepers was just the start. I always felt like part of my purpose has been to preserve our world for future generations. I used to always feel anxious learning about global warming, and losing a new species every other week, and we were always told we were the generation of change, we were the last hope. And now in university, studying wildlife biology and conservation, I feel like I've been able to make a difference, a positive impact, and I am starting to make that change.

Now that I'm in university I continue to develop my appreciation and relationship with nature. I started volunteering with Wild Ontario, a program based through the university that uses non-releasable raptors to travel the province and educate people about science, conservation, and human impact on wildlife! I've also lived the tree planter life, planting thousands of native trees and seedlings across southern Ontario for the past two years. And I've also worked at Killbear Provincial park, maintaining the greenspaces that people love to visit every year, and helping protect the species within like the Massasauga Rattlesnake and Eastern Foxsnake.

All of these parts of my life, were critical in making me the person I am today with the values and goals and aspirations that I have today. So many sources of inspiration from people and animals and experiences that I carry with me and hope to inspire someone else with, to foster their own relationships with nature. I hope to learn more about other's experiences through their blogs, and reflect more on how I can further develop myself through this course and my abilities as an interpreter.

[mightyflamethrower]

U.S.

Rare "highly toxic" viper found in Ohio. Here's what to know about the eastern Massasauga rattlesnake.

Eastern Massasaugas are "small snakes with thick bodies, heart-shaped heads and vertical pupils," according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. They only grow to be about 2 feet long and have gray or light brown skin with "chocolate brown blotches on the back." Those considered melanistic appear as all black. They've been found in Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. 

They've also been found in more than 30 counties in Ohio, but according to Ohio State University, Massasaugas have "become increasingly rare" – both through the state and its range as a whole. They've only been seen in nine counties since 1976. Extensive farming significantly reduced their populations in the state, though many of their colonies continue to exist in bogs, swamps and wet prairies, according to the Ohio Division of Wildlife's reptile field guide. 

I found one of these rascals lying in the sand dunes of Padre Island. Like the story says.......they are small but deadly. My dog was two steps away from picking it up. They are thick and when they flatten themselves to absorb more of the morning heat they look like they've been run over by a car. Lots of people over the years have been bitten because they messed with one they thought one was dead.