Ever Wondered How Snakes Mate?

It's no secret that snakes flick their tongues a lot. Doing so lets the reptiles pick up airborne chemical signatures, like thepheromone trailsmade by singles in their area. Malegarter snakes, house snakes and racers, to name a few, have all been observed "trailing" mature females with this technique.

The strategy doesn't always work.Sea snakes, which — go figure — live out their lives as marine animals, can easilylose trackof a would-be partner underwater. Besides, pheromone trails naturallydegradewith the passage of time.

When partners meet, the courtship rituals can take on many forms. A 2014 paper about this subject,publishedin the journal PLOS One, describes such foreplay antics as "chin-rubbing," "tail quivering" and "coital neck biting."

In numerous snake species, the males wrestle each other to gain access to females. For North American rat snakes, that can take the form of each combatant rearing up and then trying topin his rival's headto the ground.

No snake has longer fangs than the Gaboon viper, whose venom-dispensing teeth can grow over 2 inches (or 5 centimeters) in length. Come breeding season, their males not only wrestle but aggressively strike at one another. However, the snakes do thiswith closed mouths,让那些infamous fangs at bay.

When it comes to actual intercourse, two's a couple, but three or more is a crowd.

Garter snakes,copperheadsandanacondasall form the occasional "mating ball" or "breeding ball." We'd love to tell you this is some kind of elegant dance. But it's not; mating balls are writhing heaps created when several males all swarm over the same female in an attempt to get her pregnant. More than a dozen participants may be involved.

The reproductive organs of both sexes are housed in thecloaca, an orifice whose slit-shaped opening is located underneath the tail.

Incidentally, male snakes and lizardshave two penises apiece. The reptiles are endowed with a paired sex organ calledthe hemipenes; there's a right hemipenis and a left hemipenis, each connected to one of the testicles.

Only one penis is used during the act of sex. But that doesn't mean its counterpart never sees any action. Penis No. 2 could very wellcome into playif the male finds himself a second mate shortly after coitus.

Snake schlongs are often covered in little spikes or hooks. These may enable the males to prolong sexual intercourse, or do a better job of hanging onto their partners while in the throes of passion. (Not always an easy feat for legless animals.)

To improve his chances of siring offspring, a male red-sided garter snake will clog his bedfellow's nether regions by secreting a thick, gelatinous "plug." A temporary barrier, the plug keeps his sperm from spilling out, and it blocks rival males from leavingtheirsperm behind.

Rest assured, female snakes have some tricks of their own.

Usingpockets of folded tissue, a snake of the fairer sex can keep sperm isolated — but still viable — inside her body for very long periods, proactively choosing when to let them fertilize her eggs.

In 2005, a western diamondback rattlesnake who'd been living alone in captivity rendered herself pregnant and gave birth to a litter of offspring. To accomplish this, the mother reptile used sperm she'd held on to forroughly six years!

Sometimes, males aren't needed for reproduction at all. Another snaky superlative belongs to the green anaconda; it's the world's heaviest snake, weighing upward of 440 pounds (200 kilograms).Genetic testingreveals that females of the species can practice parthenogenesis, impregnating themselves with no male contact whatsoever.

Burmese pythons — those extra-large snakes who've become notorious in recent years forsuccessfully invadingthe Florida Everglades — might be able to pull offthe same feat.

Here's a key difference between pythons and anacondas: The former lay eggs while the latter give birth to live young. Other live-bearing serpents include rattlesnakes and garter snakes.

Upon laying a fresh batch of eggs, a mother pythonwill wrap her bodyaround it. That loving squeeze keeps the clutch from losing too much water — and promotes healthy yolk development. Very frequently, the devoted parentremains coileduntil the eggs hatch.

Egg-sitting is one thing, but it's pretty rare for snakes to take care of their actual babies. Femalepit vipersthus deserve special recognition.Multiple speciesof these venomous reptiles are now known to watch over their newborn progeny for several days after the little snakes first come into the world.