Thats a very good question. Officially scientifically speaking, NO. That is, there is no direct proof yet.



On the otherhand, I do believe they do, in fact, I have seen evidence of more then double clutching. That is, I set out AC around two pyro nesting areas, and observed up to four distint waves of neonates emerging from the nesting areas. But there is no way of knowing if one female was responsible for more then one clutch. the waves of babies were about one month apart which was rather indictative of multiclutching.



Also, many of our colubrid snakes can be found gravid over a very long period. Lets take gophersnakes, you can find gravid females from late april to august, early sept. Thats over four months. The same can be seen with many species including getulus and pyros.



When observing this, the individuals often compare well to captive females. Early in the year(first clutches) females are big and healthy, thick body mass(fat) late in the year, gravid females can be very very skinny, thin body mass(depleted fat stores)



I believe I mentioned seeing a gravid gophersnake splattered all our the road by my house last month, the site of eggs all over the road is wonderful(just not in a good way)



When we are out snake hunting we often say things like, that appears to be a second or third clutch, when veiwing a gravid female. Judging that by the month and condition of the female. It does compare well to captives.



So yes, I believe they do, but current methods that could prove that, are disruptive and interfere with snakes lives(collecting and tagging or surgery for tracking devices) I would love to see if operating and installing a radio in a captive female/s would interfere with reproductive potential. My opinion is, it surely would and I would not do that to my captives. Its hard enough to get them to multiclutch without such setbacks.



So in the end, its not about the snakes, whether they do or do not, its about how we study them. Its kinda like studying watermelons with a tank. We run them over and then say watermelons are kinda round and flat, and leak their insides all over the place. FR

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