We studied the colonization of the Amur Rat Snake Elaphe schrenckii and the Steppes Rat Snake E. dione of a sawdust mountain, located among the wastes a timber processing complex, during high floods of the Amur River. Since 2013, both species of snakes live in this territory year-round. For snakes, shelters from the cold are shelters in the form of “floa-ting” cracks (depth 1–1.5 m, temperature in winter up to +18°C) with a snow “roof”. Species E. schrenckii dominates in numbers on group wintering.