Posted by:
FR
at Sat Apr 5 10:34:26 2014 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by FR ]
I also did some field work with Green ratsnakes. Its accepted the females are larger then males with those animals. And while true(on the roads) It too was not exactly correct. Green rat adults, Males normally 30 inches, females from 36" to 66" inches. While most adults over 5 feet are female, I indeed recorded a number of males over 5 feet. With C.atrox, I have been watching them for decades. Males get much larger then females. In the breeding groups(dens, congregations) females average 28 to 36 inches, males up to and slightly over 6 feet. On the roads, its so rare to find any gender over 3 feet. Of interest, in 25 years, The large males, do not breed, with many many many events of copulation with smaller males. This is a report, not theory or being hypothetical. What we have in the field is, prejudiced methods of collection(data) individuals crossing roads, moving on the surface a lot, may not necessarily represent an accurate picture of resident successful animals, but do represent a picture of transient individuals. Secondly, we do not have any idea of who fathered whom. Lastly the strategy of survival is complex, Whats more important, a small pair producing 5 to 8 offspring, or a large pair producing a couple clutches of 25 to 30 offspring? Please answer, thank you
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