March 25th 2010 – 9.00 AM: radix male basking.

My outdoor terrarium, March 25th, 2010

March 24th and 25th 2010 both were very warm days of the year.

March 24th the sun was less bright, but…

March 25th the sun was bright and we may have hit the 20 ºC.

March 25th 2010 – 11.48 AM: pickeringii female basking.

At 8 AM the sun was already up, no clouds in the sky. Both pickeringii males and my radix male were out in the open basking in the pale first rays of sunshine entering the terrarium.

From 9 AM-11.30 AM I was away but the sun was shining constantly.
It felt really like spring and temperatures rose to 18 ºC.

March 25th 2010 – 11.50 AM: pickeringii male is trying to pick up scent (see text).

Upon return at 11.30 AM I had a big surprise. I saw my large pickeringii female basking in the sun and the dark male was trying to mate. Either the female was not in the mood or I scared her but she soon disappeared.

The male reacted very excited and started to look for her. But she was out of sight.

By carefully examining the soil with his tongue he managed to follow her scent trail, just as described in literature and after a few minutes he had found her again and the mating attempts continued.

March 25th 2010 – 11.52 AM: pickeringii male found his female and tries to mate.

March 25th 2010 – 11.52 AM: mating behaviour.

The escaping of the female and the male catching up happened several times.

Only the dark male was interested, the light pickeringii male simply continued basking.

Beside the radix males 2 of the 3 radix females were active.

March 25th 2010 – 11.54 AM: T.radix male checks out the female.

March 25th 2010 – 11.54 AM: First activity second T.radix female.

So the 1st activity of the second female radix.

The radix male did not attempt to make, although for a brief moment he crawled over her back.

March 25th 2010 – 11.59 AM: mating behaviour pickeringii couple.

March 25th 2010 – 12.01 PM: happy couple basking.

At noon I had to leave, so maybe more snakes became active in the afternoon.

So far I am missing one female of radix.

And the entire sipedon group has not shown itself.

Quietly wait and see whether they survives the harsh winter also.