Reproduction
Snakes reproduce the same way other reptiles do, and they may reproduce every year or they may reproduce every alternate year. But there are some snakes that lay eggs while there are some that give birth to young ones. These are excellent care takers of their young ones, and remain near them till they are quite mature enough to take care of themselves.
There are some snakes that are venomous that lay eggs like that of the rattle snake, the king cobra and the cotton mouth. But the non venomous snake like the anacondas and the boa constrictors give birth to their young ones. They usually give birth to 80 or 85 young ones.
As said before they give birth and reproduce either every year or every alternate year. It’s the female part of the snake kingdom that usually takes the first initiative to call for other males. This is because they release or emit some kind of chemical or what we could even call some special body perfume through their skin glands on her back.
As this is where the males get attracted and start following her. So after following the female and after they are near each other, the male snake would court the female by bumping his chin on the back of her head until the female snake is ready for the reproduction process.
So if the snake is willing to reproduce it would raise its tail and show that she is willing and now that the ball is in the male snake’s court. This is very important because if the male snake forces himself then this would lead to a violent situation and things would get worse. So until the female does not display signs of willingness, the male does not take any further step.
The reproduction style of the boa and the anacondas is really very interesting this is because the production process could last for a days or weeks and sometimes even a fortnight. However this would all depend on the female, because if she feels that she is not tired then he would continue with the males.
And another part that is very interesting and surprising is that the female usually mates with multiple partners and not a single anaconda. This meeting ground for the snakes is called the mating ball. And the anacondas usually mate in shallow waters of rivers or lakes.
This entry was posted on Friday, January 9th, 2009 at 10:42 am and is filed under Information. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.