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Friday night my VIRGIN nine-year-old copperhead gave birth to a single healthy-looking baby. There were no slugs or dead babies.

The mother is an Osage or Osage/Southern intergrade that I found as a neonate in Boone Co., Mo, in the fall of '95. She has been in my possession ever since. I did not know her sex until now. She has never had so much as a live mouse in her cage with her. She is the only copperhead I have kept, thus could not have been confused with another snake. The baby could not have been "planted" as a joke by a herper friend.

The baby is very dark (has not shed yet) with normal patterning. It is about 8.5" long and plump with yolk retention (if that is the right terminology). Its movements and everything about it look normal, although this is the first pre-shed newborn copperhead that I have ever seen. Momma is fine, too.

I have not been able to get a sense of how rare this phenomenon is in snakes. There was an account in Reptiles Magazine several years ago, based on a journal report, of parthogenesis in a C.horridus. There was a thread on the subject on this forum some time later. I don't remember anything about it except that my friend Maryann replied that she and her husband had a C.d.cumanensis (if I remember right) that had a baby 7 years after exposure to a male, which still might allow for sperm retention. It occurs to me that since so many more snakes are kept in the hobby than in laboratories, this phenomenon might be under-reported. Any reports from anyone here?

Naturally I expect skepticism of this report. I have no credentials and can provide no proof. I do hope to get pics up this week after a friend with a decent camera can get over here. I also hope "Snakes and Stuff" can provide a more certain identification of the mother, since his posts suggest he knows Missouri copperheads well. I have a call into Jeff Ettling at the St.Louis Zoo, but he might be out of town.

Although I've heard of it happening, I've only heard of probably less than 5 reliable cases. I guess it's possible that it happens more often, but most people don't really know for sure that thier female has never come in contact with a male...

If it is an emaculate birth, does any know if this could be verified by DNA testing (if anyone is interested enough to pay for it)?

After posting I just talked with a friend who raised the same question. The baby should essentially be a clone of momma, shouldn't it? It seems like this should be verifiable through DNA testing, but I don't know.

Yep, it can be verified by DNA testing. The test is the same exact thing used on humans. DNA Fingerprinting (Paternity Testing is the same process). Mom and little-mom will have the exact same fingerprint (excluding maybe one sample digest due to random mutation). Even if the little one has double of 1/2 of moms chromosomes, the fingerprint map will be the same. It'd be rather pricey to have done though. It's not particularly hard, but the stuff used to do it is expensive and expensive to store. (I know how to do it, but I don't have enough of the proper ingredients to do it. Not to mention I might get scolded at work. )

So if I understand this chromosome thing in reptiles...females are the "XY" and males are the "XX"...so just like in people "YY" ova die because they are missing important genes. Although, it still seems that if the self-fertilization happens by *chance*, it's 2:1 it would be female. However, what I remember in my genetic classes is that it's more likely for one of the cells to not split at the second splitting (Meiosis 2) so both copies stay together. Essentially the same as the other explanation. So you'd get WW ("YY" dies, or ZZ ("XX" male. UNLESS, it's a different method of self-fertilization, then you could get WZ, females. O.k. this paragraph is more for my comprehension, been a long time since I did genetics work on non-mammal sex genes.

And in genetics....never say something can't happen. It will and it'll bite you on the ash.

Siriana

Always neat to have a birth in the collection, especially a parthenogenetic one.

The baby copperhead only has one parent, so the it is a clone of the parent (of course, random mutation does occur, but for all practical purposes they are identical).

This has been reported in C. horridus and other snakes. I have a Gloydius blomhoffi siniticus that was raised in a university colony and never exposed to a male that produced 4 babies. There have been several articles in peer reviewed literature in recent years regarding this, but as you mentioned, it is more commonly observed in the hobby section. This is probably due to the fact that many of the people writing in peer reviewed literature are not the types to keep many "pets" around (and I use the term pet loosely). In all honesty, it wouldn't surprise me to see it in any pitviper being that it has occured so many times (but it is always interesting and worth talking about whenever it happens). Just seems that it is hit or miss and sometimes a female in great condition throws babies even without fertilization.

Some of the better known examples of parthenogenesis in reptiles can be found in the Saurids. Cnemidophorus is the one genus that comes immediately to mind and is well documented to have many parthenogenetic species. It has also been shown to occur in gekkonids, and other taxa.

At the least, you have a very interesting snake (well, two of them I suppose). Enjoy them, and who knows, maybe the new one will someday throw you another clone.

Hey Ian, sorry we haven't been in touch! Hope all's going well!

Actually parthogenesis is more wide spread than people think. Just that it is noticed more by the private sector as we are the ones keeping more than one speciman, AND preferably keeping it alive! We had our female cumanensis give birth TWICE without the benefit of a male; second time was about 10 years after he passed, so sperm retention was probably not an option at that time. Generally sperm retention is only thought of in snakes who breed in the spring, ovulate in the fall, and have babies the following spring, or something like that.

I finally took that Herpetology class at the university and our professor said that this phenomenon was finally getting attention from academics as a group of slightly drunk herpers were sitting around at a symposium passing stories, and more than one came up with hearing about parthenogenesis in rattlesnakes. It was a EUREKA moment! Something else to study.

Now we thought our offspring were females, but never probed them (we still have them), and our professor said that normally the offspring are males. Be interesting to determine the sex of yours.

Parthenogenesis has its pluses in nature as the species can increase its numbers more rapidly, but the genetic pool is limited, so the possibility of long term survival (as opposed to quick extinction of the line) is lessened, but we're talking millennium here, not a few years, and there is the possibility of other genes being introduced later on by members of the opposite sex.

I just wanted to clarify a few of the things that have been brought up in response to parthenogenesis in snakes. First of all, the type of parthenogenesis here is completely different than that which occurs in lizards (formerly Cnemidophorus). The baby snakes are not clones of the mother. In fact, it is thought that it is almost impossible for female snakes to be produced, as I will explain later. The sex chromosomes in snakes are termed Z and W, and in this case the females have the differing lineup (ZW) whereas the males will display the paired ZZ condition. If eggs try to combine as WW, the egg will not be viable. During meiosis in the female snake, the original cell divides once after each chromosome pair line up in the middle of the cell, then retreating to either side. The sex chromosomes split, so each subsequent cell that is produced contains a duplicate copy of half of the female's original DNA (and either a Z or W sex chromosome). These cells then divide again, leaving a total of 4 germ cells each containing one half of the female's original DNA, and each germ cell containing one sex chromosome. In total, 2 germ cells are produced containing Z sex chromosomes, and 2 contain W sex chromosomes. One of the germ cells will contain most of the fluids from the original cell, and become the egg. The other three cells become what is known as a polar body and are generally reabsorbed in the female's reproductive tract. Sometimes, however, it is theorized that one of these polar bodies (typically the one that is produced alongside the egg) will be absorbed into the egg and fertilize it. Thus, this union would either end up with a sex chromosome combination of ZZ or WW (non-viable). The resulting offspring would be male! Also, this neonate would only contain ONE HALF of the female's original DNA, duplicated. I don't know if it is possible for the egg to combine with one of the polar bodies created from the other original half of the female's DNA - I suppose it could be possible? It is far more likely that the resulting offspring would be either males or essentially unfertilized ova (WW sex chromosome combinations that failed). Hope this clears things up for you RE: the parthenogenesis condition. Cool stuff anyway!

-Mike

I've never delved into the sex determination in snakes. Very interesting post.

On a side note, how does this differ from parthenogenesis in Aspidoscelis?

On my previous post about the babies that we have had born. 100% have been male, and 100% have looked just exactly like mommy. It is weird, but very interesting.

Jeremy

based on the currently 'accepted' theory regarding parthenogenesis in Crotalids.

That's really great to hear! I'm sorry that I don't have any light to shed on the subject, but I dropped a link to a Nature article you might like to take a look at. Anyway, it's good to hear that you still have your snakes and that they're reproducing, no matter what process they're using! I'd be interested to know whether a single baby is the norm when something like this happens...anyway, here's the link to the abstract.

Later,
Josh

PS, I still have the schleg, it's doing great!
Link

I don't know about all the stuff said in this thread...it is either a child of God or the Devil so we either need to worship it or kill it before it comes to power and ends the world. I would ask the thread below about the "snake churches"

I have heard of WC kraits laying viable eggs after 4-5 years of captivity without ever being in contact with a male (while captive). B. caeruleus, and B. candidus are the two I know about.
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CB

"I'm a truckin bassmole, and proud of it"

We have produced babies 7 times via this process. All were either CB babies or WC babies when recieved. Never put in a cage with another snake, and there is no way that they have ever bred. Listed below are the snakes, age, and locality.

Western Cottonmouth/ 6 years/ East Texas
Southern Copperhead/ 7 years/ Central Mississippi
Eastern Cottonmouth/ 12 years (produced 3 times this way @ 7(2 babies),9(3),11(2))/ North Florida
Mamushi/ 4 years (produced the last two years, and never bred)(age 3 produced 3 live, age 4 produced one dead)/ Zoo Stock

Don't know whey they do it, but it is pretty cool to go in and look in a cage where there should only be one snake, and find many more. I had the mamushi set up really cool in an elaborate set up, and almost did not see her babies last year (it almost sucked really bad). I do know that there have been verified accounts with Canebrakes, Timbers, Easterns, and Western Diamondbacks. Never heard of a confirmed account in ANY non venomous. Weird???

Thanks,
Jeremy

Very interesting. Generally the phenom is a response to a lack of mates and all young are of the opposite sex; males. See what your's is.

Alan Bosch
AlanBoschReptiles.com

xx

Hello, I have been breeding reptiles for many many years and have had three parthnogenetic events, all Cal kings, and yes all offspring were male. Of interest, all were full normal sized clutches.

I have a friend, Dr. Gordon Shuett, who wrote some papers of parthnogenetic occurences. I did not read the papers but did have long discussions with him.

Maybe, you can look them up. Congrats and good luck with that neonate. Cheers FR

I have a baby copperhead, born to a female 9 years old. There were 9 slugs, and 2 live babies. One baby was deformed, and had only one eye, it died 2 months later. The other baby is well over 12" long and growing fast. It's pattern has some spotting in it , unusual for copperheads in our area. This female that produced this baby has been in an aquarium alone for 9 years. Captured as a baby. Never bred. I was surprised to say the least. The saying is true "nature will find a way". 9 years seems to be a common denominater. Scott