Bruce
07-10-2004, 11:43 AM
Check this
out. Gets pretty racey! Interesting about the pheromones both before and after. Whoa... what's this about "one
of his two sex organs" One for special occassions or what? Wait a minute; 1 hour courtship and 8.5 hours of
intercourse! No wonder he needs a spare. :)
Enjoy,
B
Snip from an article on copperhead snake
mating behavior. I added a few [editor's notes]. Hope you don't mind.
------------
Mating begins in the
spring after the snakes emerge from winter dens (there are some reports of autumn mating [that's just not right!]).
At this time males begin to seek out sexually active females using their tongue to detect pheromones in the air
[works for me]. Once he has located a female, the male will begin moving his head or rubbing his chin on the ground
[I've tried this one myself]. Eventually, after a lot of tail movements, slow to rapid back to forth waving from
the female [So *that's* what that means?], the male aligns his body with hers. This courtship may last for an hour
or more if the female does not respond [If they don't respond to the draggin my chin on the ground, I usually give
up after 10 minutes max]. After being sufficiently stimulated, the female lifts and arches her tail and lowers the
scale that covers her cloaca [nothing more frustrating than a female who won't uncover her cloaca]. Then the male
arches his body and tail, everting one of his two sex organs and mates with the female. Mating time varies, the
range can be as much as 3.5 to 8.5 hours. The long mating time correlates with the fact that females usually only
mate with one male per year. This is because during the mating period males produce a pheromone that makes the
female unattractive to other males [we're coming out with this product very soon], who pay little or no attention
to mating or just mated females. Females also have little interest in mating after a long successful first mating
(Tyning 1990).
out. Gets pretty racey! Interesting about the pheromones both before and after. Whoa... what's this about "one
of his two sex organs" One for special occassions or what? Wait a minute; 1 hour courtship and 8.5 hours of
intercourse! No wonder he needs a spare. :)
Enjoy,
B
Snip from an article on copperhead snake
mating behavior. I added a few [editor's notes]. Hope you don't mind.
------------
Mating begins in the
spring after the snakes emerge from winter dens (there are some reports of autumn mating [that's just not right!]).
At this time males begin to seek out sexually active females using their tongue to detect pheromones in the air
[works for me]. Once he has located a female, the male will begin moving his head or rubbing his chin on the ground
[I've tried this one myself]. Eventually, after a lot of tail movements, slow to rapid back to forth waving from
the female [So *that's* what that means?], the male aligns his body with hers. This courtship may last for an hour
or more if the female does not respond [If they don't respond to the draggin my chin on the ground, I usually give
up after 10 minutes max]. After being sufficiently stimulated, the female lifts and arches her tail and lowers the
scale that covers her cloaca [nothing more frustrating than a female who won't uncover her cloaca]. Then the male
arches his body and tail, everting one of his two sex organs and mates with the female. Mating time varies, the
range can be as much as 3.5 to 8.5 hours. The long mating time correlates with the fact that females usually only
mate with one male per year. This is because during the mating period males produce a pheromone that makes the
female unattractive to other males [we're coming out with this product very soon], who pay little or no attention
to mating or just mated females. Females also have little interest in mating after a long successful first mating
(Tyning 1990).