Garter Snakes Have Massive Mating Parties
If you want to attend a courtship party, then head out and find some garter snakes. Manitoba has the largest gathering of snakes in the world, and it turns out it’s a big mating party. Each snake has multiple partners. The males emerge from their lairs underground. When the larger female shows up, the males turn into a giant mating ball. The female is surrounded by 100 males, who try to mate with her at the same time. They also have another, sneakier tactic, where they produce female pheromones to fool other males into trying to mate with them. This tangle has been described. It turns out that one generation of snakes can have several different fathers, all the result of the giant mating ball (Colorado).