Rescued snakes headed back to Saskatchewan plains

Almost250 snakes are being released north of Regina today.They invaded a farm-house near the city last fall. The gartersnakes were rescued and over the past few months, Saskatchewan Polytechnic students and Salthaven Wildlife Rehabilitation Centre went to extraordinary lengths to keepthem safe..

Salthaventook care of150 snakes.Saskatchewan Polytechnic took 99 and created a hibernating chamber.Hamilton Greenwood supervised the hibernation at the collegein Prince Albert.

"We woke them up last week to see how they were doing and 99 in and 99 out,"said Greenwood.

Greenwood said the walk-in-fridgeserved as a hibernating chamber. He said it's something other animal rehab centreswill be able to study.

"I think that the students at thePolyhere have been able to contribute to our knowledge base and help rehab experts across North America come up with a way to mass overwinter a number of snakes that normally would go into hibernation," Greenwood said.

All of the snakes will be released Saturday afternoon atCondieNature Refuge north of Regina.

"Salthaven folks have found a suitable release site that's close to water, bush and prairie grassland so I think we've found them a nice new home away from city buildings," Greenwood said.