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I've read that the sex ratio of females to males at birth is about 1:2 (females:males).....is that true?

Also, I'm no expert but I'm pretty sure it's a female, but I really have nothing to compare it to.
(sorry for the crappy picture....it's a scan lol!)

The part that we really need to see to determine the sex of the animal isn't quite in focus. Perhaps gently pinning the snake down with some foam or something similar while scanning will make for a better scan?

As far as the sex ratio, I haven't noticed this in copperheads. If I'm not mistaken pitvipers don't usually deviate statistically from a 1:1 sex ratio. The only thing that immediately comes to mind about abnormal sex ratios is I *think* Dr. Richard Shine published some work recently about some Aussie snakes that have skewed sex ratios at birth.

I just looked up the article I had in mind and it isn't a recent article... it was published in 1977 when Shine and Bull found that Notechis scutatus has a skewed sex ratio at birth of 1.5:1 (male:female). Citation is as follows if you need it for more info... The only pitviper example I could come up with immediately is Trimeresurus stejnegeri stejnegeri which was published on in 2003. I found a link to this article freely available online at zoolstud.sinica.edu.tw/Journals/42.2/379.pdf.

Shine, R. and J. J. Bull. 1977. Skewed sex ratios in snakes. Copeia. 1977(2). pp 228-234.

I read the sex ratio bit in Chris Mattison's "The Encyclopedia of snakes".

Here's the passage : "Apart from population numbers, it is interesting to look at the proportion of males and females within a population. The flowerpot snake is a female-only species can be ignored here. Otherwise, male and female snakes would be expected to occur in equal numbers at hatching (or birthed in viviparous snakes). Since they are usually of similar size, there is no advantage in producing a higher proportion of one sex over another. This appears to be the case in all the species that have been studied, with just a few known exceptions. Four of these species involve species in which males predominate: the copperhead (in which there are twice as many males at birth as there are females), the four-striped rat snake, the Australian tiger snake, and the gopher snake. It is difficult to offer an explanation for these figures. The fifth exception is that of the Japanese Rat Snake, in which females predominate at hatching. Again, it is hard to explain why this should be so and the possibility of small sample sizes producing a false picture should not be discounted."

And I know it was a bad scan, I was really trying to induce as little stress as I could when I did it......I'll try to get another shot on here soon.

it's a little less blurry.

This looks like a male.
However, instead of relying on me, or others to sex snakes by jpegs, why not probe the snake yourself to determine the sex?
It's very simple. And..if you don't know how, ask someone that has experience to do it for you or show you how. That is the "fun" part of herpetoculture.

Randal

Probing would be effective but I really don't want to put it under any stress.....plus it really doesn't matter to me as I don't plan to breed them them or anything. I was just curious and thought someone might be able to tell.

Thanks for the help!