Northern Watersnakes Mating

Here are pictures of Northern Watersnakes mating. (They are a subspecies of the Common Watersnake.) Generally speaking the females will grow larger than the males. I'm assuming these snake tangles all have 1 female and 1+ males.

Ultimately all this romance should lead to the females giving birth to little snakelets; Northern Watersnake females don't lay eggs but practice ovoviviparity. Though these snake babies get to meet their mother, that's generally the end of the relationship; the mother doesn't actively raise her young.

In this first picture I was initially wondering if this was just one (long) snake, but eventually noticed two heads in there.

April 14, 2021 at Great Swamp
Photo 121032715, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

This seemed to be the most populated coil, with 4 different snakes tangled together.

April 14, 2021 at Great Swamp
Photo 121033742, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

Here's another pair, much less spread out.

April 14, 2021 at Great Swamp
Photo 121034225, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)

And here are 3 snakes together.

April 14, 2021 at Great Swamp
Photo 121034577, (c) jpviolette, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC)


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