Thanks, in my field experience, the pairs that are what I call bonded, often stay together, within the same area, year a around. Other pairs don't, most breeding pairs, stay or attend the female for at least six months. Remember, together, does not have to mean, constantly on top eachother every minute. Attending means the male follows the female from place to place.

With our rattlesnakes, they can be found coiled together, or three feet apart, or ten feet apart. what makes it interesting is, its the same male and female.

of even more interest, there are indeed other males that come and go and other females.

There are females that do not have mates and males as well.

Again with our rattlesnakes, hmmmm they are much easier to see, the single males do not chase females, but instead they do what I call POST. they find a spot and stay out in the open waiting for something, They will stay there until the breeding season is over. Over the years some have gotten lucky and found mates.

The point to be made is, its behavior, and does not follow strict rules. If pairing fails, they do something else. So you see many degrees of pairing and bonding and grouping.

Overall, the coloney works for pairing and grouping. But its not 100% all the time.

THe problem is we people want it to be a DONE OR DON'T type of thing, and its just not going to do that.

So yes, you can find longterm tightly bonded pairs, and single animals, and everything in between.

What I feel is most important is, the bonded pairs are RELIABLE, which means its very important to recruiting. They are successfully doing the same things over and over. And that means they are avoiding interference like predation and weather changes, etc. Sorry for going on.

AT the BOR meetings last month, there was a paper using cameras that showed mothers brooding, and following others neonates and all manner of social behavior. It was a revolution of sorts. The lady giving the talk was scared out of her mind. She thought she was going to get shot down. But she didn't. Things are changing with the understanding of snake behavior. Thanks

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