First I will say, after all this discussion, I had hope to eliminate the word "they" in these types of questions, and or the word "snakes". The reason is, they are way to broad and general for a specific discussion.



In fact, most of the "discussion" below, was to clarify and to induce a more specific question(like yours). As in, what part of the population does not hibernate and what part does. But as you see, most are far to paradigned to even ask such a question. Either that or, most are far to inexperienced to understand that at all times of the year there are a mass of different tasks being accomplished by individuals with different needs. As you must understand, any normal(healthy) population must include all age groups and sizes. Of course, a declining(unhealthy population) may only include old adults. That type of population is not a good study group, at this time in "our"(all of us) research. We need to understand what "they" do normally first.



Then I had hoped people would start to comprehend, that with such things as snakes or better yet kingsnakes. Their ranges and conditions are far to variable to express a constricted defined statement. Like, "they" hibernate or do not hibernate. You really are expressing your own inexperience when you try and say such a thing. There ranges and conditions are far to extreme to say such a thing.



Also, from my experience and as you can see, many others, there are exceptions(varified observations) to just about everything stated. So the term "trend" becomes important.



So to your question, the trend seems to be that adults congregate more often and more regular then any other part of the population. Which leaves other parts possibly not congregating or not to the same extent. So what are these adults congregating for? First let me say, I do not know, why should I, I am studying that now, I think its not a good thing to have a preconcieved idea what the result will be, while in the middle of a study(which is commonplace in science)(in fact, its taught in science). I can say, they are doing this for a reason/s. Or they would not do this. It appears they are doing this for reproductive convience. Which could mean lots of things. Like, because of the varing conditions of each season, its important for the possible breeders to be near eachother as soon as possible. It also appears(evidence leading to) there is some attraction amoung individuals that congregate. That is, possible pairing,to attract a mate or defined, bonded or as in, already paired in the past. Or even something like, its far more important that the breeders be "safe" and live thru adverse conditions then the rest of the population. It also may be that the breeders require a slightly different set of conditions in order to maintain reproductive viability. Also, there are indeed reproductive individuals that do not congregate(exceptions) And yes, its possible that all or most of these are factors.



So, at this time, I do not all the reasons why they congregate(or not), but I do know, there are reasons.



You do understand, that congregating may or may not be related to hibernation. As they congregate across their entire north/south and altitude ranges.



Sorry for the long post, when all I needed was the last few paragraphs, but if we are going to advance in these conversations, we do need to break up these giant lumps of things into seperate more understandable little lumps. FR

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