Thoughts on an early wild breeding season

[guidofatherof5]

March in Iowa is usually a cold/snowy month. This year March as been very warm and dry. I still think Winter isn't done but the forecast for at least the week ahead shows no signs of Winter returning. I have seen male and female radixes out so I guess breeding must be taking place.
That's a month earlier then normal. That means babies are going to be born earlier. I'm guessing this is a good thing since they are usually born in the heat of the Summer. This may give more of them a chance to make it and give the babies an extra month to grow before brumation.
I hope that if Winter does return it won't kill off many of the snakes that have left their dens.
If the weather does change I will be watching for any wayward snakes that need a room until the weather warms up again.
I would like to hear some other thoughts on the possible problems or benefits to an early breeding season.
http://www.thamnophis.com/thamphotos/data//500/medium/forcast1.jpg

[BUSHSNAKE]

Theres only one mother brother and shes been doing this long before we came and long after we are gone...the polar bears, its messing with the polar bears tho!

[Didymus20X6]

Global warming. Either that, or Summer and Autumn gave Winter a miss and went straight on into Spring.

[ConcinusMan]

Well, when it happens around here and the snakes come out and breed (early or not) then the weather goes back to cold and wet for a month or two afterward, they have a hard time gestating properly. Lots of stillborns / dead litters, and low numbers of adults getting gravid at all.

[Selkielass]

Butlers have been seen mooving in mid March before. I've only seen the one snake, & he was right on top of what I suspect is a brumation site. He is fat and very healthy so I suspect many adults will have come thru iñ prime condition.
how this will play out over the summer will be interesting. I believe early babies will thrive if there is pplenty of rain. I theorize that dry late summers cause high infant mortality in Butlers. They seem to be more vulnerable to low humidity than larger species.

[ConcinusMan]

Hot and/or very dry late summer conditions = scarce food supply, especially for the smallest individuals. It's rather difficult to find small slugs, earthworms, amphibians when conditions are very dry and/or hot.

[infernalis]

I have seen reason for concern here in NY Steve, wildlife is in full breeding mode, I just hope we don't get another freeze, or a lot of eggs are doomed.

[Selkielass]

I wasc cleaning up the garden yesterday & I am quite concerned- the soil was way too dry for this time of year and plants are way too far into budding. Fewer worms than i expected. We had hail later in the afternoon. The cold is going to return and freeze theearly growth.

[Hollis_Steed]

I think it's very confusing for the snakes in northern Utah. we have had beautiful, warm spring sunshine with the garters coming out and in full breeding mode, then this morning we wake up to snow on the ground! with the mild winter this year it did help many of the smaller garters from last years births to make it through. I found two beautiful little (5-6 inches) wandering garters sunning themselves earlier last week. I do believe, as has been said, that it may allow for more snakes to gear up and make it through next winter.

[EasternGirl]

I haven't seen any easterns around here yet. Maybe they are getting smart and figuring out that the Delaware weather is just too darn unpredictable this time of year to come out yet.

[guidofatherof5]

This coming Tuesday morning they are calling for temps on the low 30's.
I think the garters will be fine as this isn't going to be a prolonged freeze.

[ConcinusMan]

Somehow I think they will manage. Garter snakes have survived on this planet how long now? Well, I'll bet it's long enough that this isn't their first spring freeze. Sounds like they're all still staying near the dens. I'm sure they have enough sense to come in out of the cold. The really smart ones will just go to Steve's house. :D

With the weather we're having in western WA and OR, I think it's going to be another very low reproduction year. Record rainfall and low temperatures are putting a serious damper on the breeding season.:(

Same thing happened last year. Very few females got gravid at all and summer weather lasted barely long enough to incubate offspring for those that did. We're talking barely 80 days active period before they were forced back underground.

[Stefan-A]

Somehow I think they will manage. Garter snakes have survived on this planet how long now?
Since at least the Middle Miocene, 10-15 Ma. If I'm reading my book right, the earliest vertebrae that can be identified as belonging to a Thamnophis species have been found in layers that date that far back.

At that point in time, what would become the orangutan lineage was just splitting off from our own.

[ConcinusMan]

So yeah, a while.:rolleyes: