My son and I are currently on vacation in New Mexico and went out herping yesterday in the volcanic area west of Albuquerque.

We saw numerous collareds and caught several to check them out before releasing them. Out of the ten or so caught, all appeared to be young males (either juveniles from last summer's hatch or yearlings) with no adults of either sex or any females at all to be seen or caught. Last summer, we collected 3 babies from the same area that also all turned out to be males. We are new to field herping in the Southwest so we were very curious as to why this would occur. Do wild collareds segregate themselves according to sex and age group? I am amazed that no adults or females would be out at this time of year. I have been told by herpers that this should be the breeding season due to the cooler than normal spring that they experienced down here. Any ideas or observations?

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