Snake Stores Sperm for 5 years before giving birth

A rare case of a snake giving birth after being in captivity for five years has led geneticists to confirm for the first time that reptiles can store sperm for several years.

According to New Scientist magazine, the female rattlesnake was in a private collection in Florida and had no contact with other snakes during that time. But late last year, it gave birth to 19 snakelets.

To study the phenomenon, Warren Booth of North Carolina State University in Raleigh took DNA samples from the mother and her young.

Booth studies "virgin birth," in which a female produces young without any contribution from a male.

But in this case the snakelets carried genes that their mother didn't, so she must have mated before being captured and stored the sperm, he concluded.

Booth told New Scientist he suspects other reptiles can store sperm even longer.

"How long is anyone's guess," he said.

It's becoming clear that snakes have unconventional ways of reproducing, including virgin birth and long-term sperm storage, added William Holt of the Institute of Zoology in London, England, though so far no one knows how they do it.
www.torontosun.com/2011/10/24/snake-stores-sperm-5-years-gives-birth

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