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I am already over 70. A couple of years ago I was on vacation in the Krasnodar Territory – on a farm, 100 kilometers from the regional center.
A small rivulet ran behind the garden. Early in the morning I went fishing. I dropped my fishing rod and looked at the float. I looked – a snake was floating by the float. I began to watch her. Slightly downstream, about three meters from me, on the bank lay a pallet from under bricks, one edge of it sank into the water.
The snake swam up to the pallet and crawled onto it. I look – and there are more than a dozen other snakes coiled into a rope as thick as a man’s hand at the elbow. This glossy ball of reptiles rolled from side to side, shining with multi-colored paints. I forgot about fishing, stood and watched this terrifying action like a bewitched one.
The snake dance lasted half an hour, then, as if on command, they parted and fanned out along the shore in different directions. Only then did I remember about my cell phone with a camera. Then for several days I ran to the same place in the morning to take an interesting picture, but nothing of the kind happened again.
I learned from the locals that I had witnessed a snake wedding. It is rare for anyone to succeed – snakes try to arrange their orgies secretly from people. Serpentine teeming mystery!
How snakes mate
Later, I learned that such “orgies” occur in nature during the height of the mating season, when snakes begin to mate.
For example, a female snake ready to mate attracts 15-25 males. They do not fight with each other, do not show aggression. But everyone tries to prevent the female from mating with any of the rivals. It happens that several hundred males gather around the female! During the wedding ritual, a real tournament takes place.
Why is that? After reaching the goal, the winner locks the female’s cloaca and it is inaccessible to another until the offspring are hatched.
😉 Did you learn anything new from the article “The Serpent’s Wedding: An Eyewitness Story”? If you had to observe this phenomenon in nature, write in the comments. Subscribe to the newsletter for new articles. Fill in only two lines at the top right: name and e-mail. In the subject, I recommend the story “Snake Love”.