rat snakes mating

it was shoot at sight. didn't get a second chance.
Canon SX20IS f 5.0, 1/200, ISO 200 little cropped on the left of the image.

Nice image.Observation of snakes is a fascinating arena.Hope you have equipped yourself reading some good books on Indian snakes so that you could identify venomous snakes from a distance and are conversant about their behaviour.

The vertical twining is usually a ritual combat between male rat snakes.As far as I know they may mate on trees or on land.They lie down for sometime on such occasion.

I am so happy to learn about your interest.Thanks for sharing.SaktiWild

thanks sakthi sir,
snakes have always been my interest. never like to miss tv shows involving snakes :001_smile:

prasanth:

Quite fascinating to see rat snakes mate in water. Have never seen such behaviour. Where did you click this? Thanks for sharing.

Nice to see two male rat snakes in water. It might be quite a sighting. I remember sighting similar behavior but that was on land. You can see the image here -
http://www.indiawilds.com/forums/sho...ghlight=snakes

How long was the sighting? Thanks for sharing.

thanks,

Murugan Anantharaman it was on my own backyard pond :)

Mrudul i could sight for only a few minutes & soon they broke off. may be they were fighting for some time before i got there. immediately after i shot this pic they broke off and one of them went on to catch a frog :laugh:

prasanth