Something i never thought i'd see

still smiling :)

thanks VickyS. To be honest patience wasn't necessary...the time absolutely flew by. It wasn't like watching a typical freshly emerged sedentary snake, although that can still be fun, there was always something going on and it was absolutely fascinating really. 

Great thread, Tom you have great patience and photography skills and also thanks for Will's input.

Hi Tim

in the absence of experts like Tony Phelps I will humbly(!) do my best to answer a few of your Qs based purely on my experience of this kind of thing:

1 - I think it's rare for the same male to indulge in combat again - the hierarchy is worked out very quickly amongst the resident males and only if a new one picks up the pheromone stream of the female will there be more conflict.  This spring at my favourite site there were several combats on the same day and then it all went quiet, with each successful male paired up with a female (more or less).  I think they are very good at remembering who has won and lost in their patch, once the fighting is done another male is sometimes tolerated quite close by, especially if the winner is actually physically attached to the female (there's not much he can do, but nor can the rival - stalemate!)

2 - The male 'mate guards' for a few days, typically, but then goes off in search of another female (typically, again).  He has to choose between securing the paternity of 'his' litter or spreading his genes elsewhere, a classic evolutionary conundrum.  Given that most litters apparently have multiple paternity, the latter strategy seems to be commonplace.  With the rapid advances in sequencing DNA it ought to be easier to get more quantitative data on the degree of multiple paternity within and between litters.

3- gravid females tend to be more likely to stay near the hibernaculum, but it depends on the site and what it provides in the way of food, shelter etc.  In my local population I think there are three types of female at this time of year - ready to mate, already gravid from the previous season (but I need a portable ultrasound to confirm this hypothesis) and non-breeders taking a year off - the latter are most likely to disperse widely to grassy areas with high mammal populations to feed up and come back into condition for next year.

Just based on my experience of course, as I say

Cheers

Will

thanks suzi and will. the pics are terrible quality really but it's what they capture that's important. I was actually filming when the dance started but i couldn't get them in focus so i decided to switch to photos but in my panic to do it quickly my mind went blank and i forgot how to switch lol. i was fumbling with the buttons and missing the action so gave up for a bit to watch so i didn't miss too much but remembered in time to get a few shots, although again cos i was flustered i forgot how to switch from single shots to continuous lol.