On the banks of the Chilliwack River
They were everywhere! I have never seen so many snakes in one location. It prompted me to educate myself a bit on these common creatures called Garter Snakes.
Their life span in the wild is only two years but they are prolific, not only in existing numbers and territory, but in the number of offspring they produce. It is not uncommon for a female to produce up to 80 live young. This is not surprising when I learned that a 'mating ball' can consist of 25 males to one female and the female can store the male sperm for up to two years before her eggs are fertilized.
When they come out of hibernation, they give off powerful pheromones. Oddly enough, the male can give off both male and female pheromones, causing some confusion. The snake tangle in the photo above has at least three snakes. If one of them looks confused, you now know why.
2 comments:
There once was a snake named Jake,
Who made a disastrous mistake.
His fermones went wrong
He sent Yin and not Yong,
And that's how he lost his sweet cupcake.
Ok, so I spelled pheromones wrong. Bad spelling is my trademark.
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