>>I suspect it's a myriad of things that lead to what we witness in captivity. One idea that is hard for me to ignore is that there is some sort of facultative response to environmental conditions. There are enough observations of Gonyosoma to know that they can lay eggs early or late in the gestation process and that they can lay eggs in a variety of conditions.
>>
>>The areas these snakes come from have widely dramatic shifts in climate, water levels, etc. It could be that during rainy periods, for example, these snakes lay softer eggs that the female has not gestated as long. This is supported a bit by captive observations of females kept in rain chambers who lay their eggs in solid clumps around upper tree branches in their cages.
>>
>>Conversely, in dryer times, females may be conditioned to gestate their eggs a bit longer and produce thicker eggs that are less sensitive to drying out. This is supported in part by the majority of captive females who lay heavily calcified eggs in more terrestrial situations.
>>
>>From what I have gathered, I suspect these changes occur a bit too quickly in captive females for diet to be the significant contributor. Some sort of facultative response seems to be a better fit.


Thankyou for this insight, very interesting and makes perfect sense.

Sue x
-----
The Ratsnake Foundation Online Society

[ Reply To This Message ] [ Subscribe to this Thread ] [ Hide Replies ]