Oliver woman overjoyed to see elusive northern scorpion on her porch
A long-time resident of Oliver found a strange creature late one night earlier this week, and she was able to capture a photo of it before it scurried away.
It was the first time Skye McLean saw a rare northern scorpion and she called the experience “a treat.”
“I was outside, it was dark, I started screaming for my husband when I saw it and he ran out,” she said. “We were able to take a few photos of it before it moved off into the darkness. It was gorgeous, about two and half inches long.”
McLean is an insect and animal lover but was careful not to touch the scorpion for fear of getting stung. She said the critter was “quiet and shy” and quick to move out of sight.
“I would love to see another one, it was a beautiful experience,” she said.
McLean has been keeping her eyes open for the scorpion ever since, wearing shoes on the patio at night and making sure the porch light is on to make sure she doesn’t squish it in the event it’s still around.
“People keep telling me to get a black light so I can see them better, a lot of people say they glow in the dark.”
Scorpions are under the class Arachnida, which makes them a distant cousin of spiders. Northern scorpions are the only species in Canada as well as the northernmost species of scorpion in the world, according to iNaturalist.ca. They are found in Alberta and BC, with specimens collected in the Okanagan valley.
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The critters are solitary and nocturnal, coming out to hunt insects and small prey at night. They typically stay in the same territory for their life span and many dig burrows to live in or steal burrows from other wildlife.
The northern scorpion is not known to sting humans and the venom is mild.
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Scorpions glow electric scarab green under ultraviolet light so can be seen with a black light at night, according to HowStuffWorks, due to chemicals in the exoskeletons called a hyaline layer.
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