Speaker 1: Welcome to brain Stuff, a production of I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Hey brain Stuff, Lauren bog Obam here. You may have
Speaker 1: heard about the birds and the bees, and the flowers
Speaker 1: and the trees, But what about the snakes. How do
Speaker 1: snakes mate? Some species, including a few very big ones,
Speaker 1: can actually procreate without having sex. That's called parthenogenesis, and
Speaker 1: it's one of the many reproductive oddities will be exploring today.
Speaker 1: To answer this question, we've got to make like a
Speaker 1: black mamba, one of the fastest living snakes, by the way,
Speaker 1: and cover a lot of ground. Welcome to the wild,
Speaker 1: weird world of dual penises, delayed fertilization, mama python incubators,
Speaker 1: and springtime mating balls. Okay, let's start with getting together.
Speaker 1: When snakes flick their tongues, they're picking up airborne chemical
Speaker 1: signatures like the pheromone trails made by singles in their area.
Speaker 1: Male garter snakes, how snakes, and racers have all been
Speaker 1: observed trailing mature female snakes with this technique. The strategy
Speaker 1: doesn't always work. Sea snakes, for example, can easily lose
Speaker 1: track of a would be partner under water. Besides, pheromone
Speaker 1: trails naturally degrade with the passage of time, but when
Speaker 1: partners do meet, the courtship rituals can take on many forms.
Speaker 1: Paper about this subject describes chin rubbing, tail quivering, and
Speaker 1: coital neck biting. In numerous species, male snakes compete and
Speaker 1: wrestle with each other for access to female snakes. For
Speaker 1: North American rat snakes, this can take on the form
Speaker 1: of each combatant rearing up and then trying to pin
Speaker 1: his rival's head to the ground. No snake has longer fangs,
Speaker 1: and the gaboon viper, whose venom dispensing teeth can grow
Speaker 1: over two inches or five centimeters in length. Come breeding season,
Speaker 1: the male snakes not only wrestle aggressively strike at one another. However,
Speaker 1: the snakes do this with closed mouths, keeping those infamous
Speaker 1: fangs at bay. When it comes to actual intercourse. Two
Speaker 1: as a couple, but three or more isn't an unexpected crowd.
Speaker 1: A species like garter snakes, copper heads, and anacondas all
Speaker 1: form the occasional mating ball or breeding ball. These are
Speaker 1: writhing heaps created when several males all swarm over a
Speaker 1: single female in an attempt to mate. More than a
Speaker 1: dozen participants may be involved. The reproductive organs of both
Speaker 1: sexes are housed in the cloaca, which is a multi
Speaker 1: purpose orifice located on the underside of a snake's tail.
Speaker 1: List serves as the excretory opening for the digestive system
Speaker 1: and for urine as well as the opening to the
Speaker 1: reproductive organs instant. Only male snakes and lizards have two
Speaker 1: penises apiece. These reptiles are endowed with a paired sex
Speaker 1: organ called the hemy penis. There's a right hemmy penis
Speaker 1: and a left hemmy penis, each connected to one of
Speaker 1: the testicles. Only one penis is used during any given
Speaker 1: instance of intercourse, but that doesn't mean it's counterpart, never
Speaker 1: seasoning action. The second could very well come into play
Speaker 1: if the male finds himself a second mate shortly afterward.
Speaker 1: The hemy penis are often covered in little spikes or hooks.
Speaker 1: These may enable the males to prolong sexual intercourse or
Speaker 1: to do a better job of hanging on to their partners,
Speaker 1: doing it not always an easy feat for lugless animals.
Speaker 1: Also to improve his chances of siring offspring, a male
Speaker 1: red sided garter snake, for example, will clog his partner's
Speaker 1: cloaca by secreting a thick gelatinous plug temporary barrier. The
Speaker 1: plug keeps his sperm from spilling out, and it blocks
Speaker 1: rival males from leaving their sperm behind. A Meanwhile, female
Speaker 1: snakes can using pockets of folded tissue, keep sperm isolated
Speaker 1: but still liable inside their bodies for very long periods
Speaker 1: of time, proactively choosing when to let them fertilize her eggs.
Speaker 1: In two thousand five, a western diamond back rattlesnake who
Speaker 1: had been living alone in captivity, rendered herself pregnant and
Speaker 1: gave birth to a litter of offspring. To accomplish this,
Speaker 1: the mother reptile used sperm should held onto for about
Speaker 1: six years. Sometimes male snakes aren't needed for reproduction at all.
Speaker 1: This has been observed in the green anaconda, which is
Speaker 1: the world's heaviest snake, weighing upward of four hundred and
Speaker 1: forty pounds that's two hundred kilos. Genetic testing reveals the
Speaker 1: female green anaconda can practice parthena genesis, impregnating themselves with
Speaker 1: no male contact whatsoever. And Burmese pythons, those extra large
Speaker 1: snakes that have become notorious in recent years for successfully
Speaker 1: invading the Florida Everglades might be able to pull off
Speaker 1: the same feat. Here's a difference between pythons and anacondas
Speaker 1: though the former lay eggs while the ladder give birth
Speaker 1: to live young. Other live bearing serpents include rattlesnakes and
Speaker 1: garter snakes. Upon laying a fresh batch of eggs, a
Speaker 1: mother python will wrap her body around it. That loving
Speaker 1: squeeze keeps the clutch from losing too much water and
Speaker 1: promotes healthy yolk development. Very frequently, the devoted parent remains
Speaker 1: coiled until the eggs hatch, and king cobra mothers painstakingly
Speaker 1: build nests for their eggs out of sticks and bamboo leaves,
Speaker 1: a unique behavior among snakes. The finished nests can be
Speaker 1: as big as four feet over one meter in diameter.
Speaker 1: Egg Sitting is one thing, but it's pretty rare for
Speaker 1: snakes to take care of their actual babies. Female pit
Speaker 1: vipers thus deserve special recognition. Multiple species of these venomous
Speaker 1: reptiles are now known to watch over their newborn progeny
Speaker 1: for several days after the little snakes first come into
Speaker 1: the world. Today's episode is based on the article ever
Speaker 1: wondered how Snake's mate on how stuff Works dot Com,
Speaker 1: written by Mark Mancini. Brain Stuff is production of by
Speaker 1: Heart Radio in partnership with how stuff Works dot Com,
Speaker 1: and it's produced by Tyler Klang. Before more podcasts in
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