U of M researcher finds dozens of garter snakes massacred near den in Manitoba

Dozens of garter snakes were discovered butchered near a large den on Thursday morning.

Neil Balchan, a student doing research for his undergraduate thesis at the University of Manitoba, discovered the grisly scene.

“I went up and there were just dead snakes everywhere,” Balchan said. “Usually as you get closer and closer to the den you’ll see snakes moving in the grass, one becomes two, then two becomes ten and before you know it you’re at a pit of snakes.”

Balchan visits the site just north of Inwood, Man., and near Narcisse Snake Dens, three times a week for his research. He drives then hikes to the isolated field site.

RELATED: Thousands of snakes appear in Narcisse

“While I’m walking, I see a dead snake on the ground with its head cleanly cut off and I think ‘ok somebody came and killed a snake,’” Balchan said. “And I continue to walk and there’s more and more and more and I get to the den itself and there’s a good 15 or 20 dead snakes just lying on the ground there.”

“The more I walked around and looked, the more dead bodies I was finding.”

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Balchan said he believes the snakes were killed only an hour or so before he arrived at the site, “a lot of the snakes were still alive, some were still very actively bleeding.”

“Animals were either bludgeoned to death with rocks, a few were shot and some were decapitated.”

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Balchan said the snakes are vulnerable at this time of year with the dipping temperatures and having expended a lot of energy moving.

RELATED: Most red-sided garter snakes in the world

“I’ve been trying to wrap my head around it and think of a cause or a reason, but the fact is these animals are in the middle of nowhere, Balchan said.

“Somebody spent their Thursday morning on a good hike to this den in order to kill that many animals.”

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Manitoba Conservation said they’re aware of the incident and released a statement to Global News.

Manitoba Sustainable Development is aware of this disturbing incident. Although red sided garter snakes are protected in the Narcisse Wildlife Management Area, we understand this incident occurred outside the WMA, so in this case they would not be protected. The province asks all people to respect and help us protect wildlife.