VIDEO: writhing carpet of 75,000 snakes

- Canadian hamlet Narcisse are treated each year for a miracle of nature. 75,000 garter snakes then form a living carpet, as the reptiles awaken from hibernation. This weekend the natural wonder seems to take place again.

Garter Snakes enjoy a hibernation lasting about eight months. They hide than in their underground burrows of limestone. As spring bursts tumble reptiles out of their burrows to reproduce.

'If I have lived underground for eight months, I would have to pull a Big Mac,' said Bob Mason, who as a biologist studying the garter snakes in Narcisse. 'Not these snakes. The first thing is sex is on the agenda. '

The males leave first their burrows and they wait impatiently until the females arrive trickle a few weeks later. 'As soon as they enter the 'floor', the females are buried under the males,' says the local forester Doug Collicut. In this sea of ​​snakes females are hard to find, despite being three to four times larger than a male. 'Try to find a string of spaghetti in a large colander, while the spaghetti strands still moving,' Bob Mason describes the situation.

Through the smell vropuwtjes are highlighted. The closest male leaves a smelly plug in the back of the female, which other males are warned to withdraw. A few days later the female will be fertilized. Incidentally save a female sperm for up to seven years to pass to fertilization.