Osoyoos rattlesnake hitches ride to Vancouver in Ferrari

Here’s a travel companion you don’t see every day.

According to the Wildlife Rescue Association of BC, a rattlesnake managed to hitch a ride from Osoyoos to Vancouver inside a luxury vehicle last week.

The call came from Vancouver Ferrari, which apparently held a recent road trip to the Okanagan.

The slithery reptile, initially thought to be a local garter snake, was eventually properly identified by experts as a Northern Pacific Rattlesnake and taken to the Dewdney Animal Hospital by a volunteer.

“I’ve done a lot of things like marmots hitching rides in cars and stuff like that, but I’ve never done a snake before,” a Wildlife Rescue Association volunteer says in a video posted by the Dewdney Animal Hospital.

The snake has affectionately been named “Enzo,” an homage to Italian race car driver Enzo Ferrari.

But there’s more to Enzo’s story than meets the eye. According to the Dewdney Animal Hospital, the snake had a microchip. That chip revealed that Enzo was part of a research project from the Nk’Mip Desert Cultural Centre.

Last summer, the Nk’Mip Creek wildfire ripped through the area, including Enzo’s home. Researchers are working to figure out how damaging that fire was on local snake populations.

With the information from the microchip and research project, the Dewdney Animal Hospital says they know exactly where Enzo needs to be released — it’s just a matter of getting him back to the Okanagan.

“He’s requested a Ferrari, preferably red. Unfortunately I think he’s getting a Tacoma, grey, for the trip home,” a narrator in the video quipped.

According to WildSafe BC, the Northern Pacific Rattlesnake is the only rattlesnake found in this province. Rattlesnakes are protected under the BC Wildlife Act, with WildSafe noting it’s “illegal to harm, capture, or kill a rattlesnake.”

They are usually found in the Southern Interior and are described as “generally shy and non-aggressive.” They are the only snake in this province with a rattle, and range in colour from olive green to tan with black on their backs.