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male or female |
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tim hamlett
Senior Member Joined: 17 Dec 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1062 |
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Posted: 30 Mar 2012 at 11:59pm |
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AGILIS
Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1689 |
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hi Tim Nice one going by the colour I would say male but I have seen fatties that must heve been femaless in the past with darker colouration keith
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LOCAL ICYNICAL CELTIC ECO WARRIOR AND FAILED DRUID
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will
Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1830 |
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Hi Tim
agree with Keith, male, (as yet unshed) |
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sussexecology
Senior Member Joined: 30 Sep 2010 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 411 |
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Looks like a male to me. But you never know it could be a female; reptiles will catch you out sometimes If you wanted me to put a bet on it, I would say 99% certain it was a male. Hope that helps. SE Reptile Ecologist Edited by sussexecology - 31 Mar 2012 at 5:03pm |
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GemmaJF
Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Location: Essex Status: Offline Points: 4359 |
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100% certain that is a pre-slough male here Tim.
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GemmaJF
Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Location: Essex Status: Offline Points: 4359 |
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Probably worth a recap of the pointers
Main dorsal stripe Black - male Side blotches well defined - male Tail tapers gently - male Background colour dark brown - most of them look like that pre-slough, he's probably actually grey under that winter coat and that is where the confusion comes from at this time of year as the background colour is typically female. But never from my observations with so much contrast to the dorsal stripe or side blotches. It was TP put me straight on this a few years back when I posted an almost identical animal thinking it was female, it was huge for a male but he was right, within a week it had sloughed and there was no doubt from what he was getting up to that Tony was right.
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tim hamlett
Senior Member Joined: 17 Dec 2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1062 |
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thank you
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GemmaJF
Admin Group Joined: 25 Jan 2003 Location: Essex Status: Offline Points: 4359 |
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Your welcome, lovely animal btw
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will
Senior Member Joined: 27 Feb 2007 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 1830 |
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Another distinguishing feature I find useful in the field is the black above white pattern on the supralabial scales (above the mouth); in females it's chocolate brown or lighter with white above; see the pair below for comparison. This black against white pattern persists even in pre-slough males at this time of year, when the general colour shows less contrast.
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