VIDEO: Snake Laying Eggs on Camera

Have you ever wondered how snakes breed?

Well, 70% of them lay eggs, while the rest actually give birth.

Oviparous snakes lay eggs that hatch outside of the mother after a period of development.

In most cases, the embryos develop mainly outside of the mother’s body.

Watch the video below to see a snake laying eggs in its lair.

According to Wikipedia, although a wide range of reproductive modes are used by snakes, all snakes employ internal fertilization. This is accomplished by means of paired, forked hemipenes, which are stored, inverted, in the male’s tail. The hemipenes are often grooved, hooked, or spined in order to grip the walls of the female’s cloaca.

Most species of snakes lay eggs which they abandon shortly after laying. However, a few species (such as the king cobra) actually construct nests and stay in the vicinity of the hatchlings after incubation.

Most pythons coil around their egg-clutches and remain with them until they hatch. A female python will not leave the eggs, except to occasionally bask in the sun or drink water. She will even “shiver” to generate heat to incubate the eggs.

Some species of snake are ovoviviparous and retain the eggs within their bodies until they are almost ready to hatch.

Recently, it has been confirmed that several species of snake are fully viviparous, such as the boa constrictor and green anaconda, nourishing their young through a placenta as well as a yolk sac, which is highly unusual among reptiles, or anything else outside of requiem sharks or placental mammals. Retention of eggs and live birth are most often associated with colder environments.

Sexual selection in snakes is demonstrated by the three thousand species that each use different tactics in acquiring mates.

Ritual combat between males for the females they want to mate with includes topping, a behavior exhibited by most viperids in which one male will twist around the vertically elevated fore body of its opponent and forcing it downward. It is common for neck biting to occur while the snakes are entwined.

Parthenogenesis is a natural form of reproduction in which growth and development of embryos occur without fertilization. Agkistrodon contortrix (copperhead) and Agkistrodon piscivorus (cotton mouth) can reproduce by facultative parthenogenesis. That is, they are capable of switching from a sexual mode of reproduction to an asexual mode.

The type of parthenogenesis that likely occurs is automixis with terminal fusion, a process in which two terminal products from the same meiosis fuse to form a diploid zygote.

This process leads to genome wide homozygosity, expression of deleterious recessive alleles and often to developmental abnormalities. Both captive-born and wild-born A. contortrix and A. piscivorus appear to be capable of this form of parthenogenesis.

Reproduction in squamate reptiles is almost exclusively sexual. Males ordinarily have a ZZ pair of sex determining chromosomes, and females a ZW pair. However, the Colombian Rainbow boa, Epicrates maurus can also reproduce by facultative parthenogenesis resulting in production of WW female progeny. The WW females are likely produced by terminal automixis.