Animals

The March of the Red Crab
A Moth Find a New Home
Suicidal Birds
A leopard and A cheetah
The Spectacular Hornbill
The Antelope with an extraordinary nose
Masquerading Males
Tiny But Powerful
Electric Fishes
Paternal Care
Hairless Cat
Passionate Parrot
Calling Out To Mother
Hot Wheels
Discs On Their Wings
Two-humped Camels
Frozen Frog
Silken Chambers
Earth Pig
Swordsman of the Sea
The Ostrich Trick
Electrifying Meal
Bizarre Turtle
Grey Whales
The Flying Lemur
The Winged Fishing Creature
Llamas
A Different Sort of a Parrot
The Tailless Cat
The Ancestor Of The Rhino
Acquisitive Wood Rats
The Butterflyfish
The Amazing Jumper
The Largest Deer
The Devil’s Coach-Horse
The Porcupine With A Prehensile Tail
The Irritating Fencing
The Acrobatic Otter
The Busy Termite Colony
Superb Mimics
The Canary
Snow Monkey
Jumping Spiders
Glass Lizard
Beetle Rhino
The World’s Smallest Bear
Hygienic Ants
Flat as a Pancake
The Carpet Shark
The Centipede Walk

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Masquerading Males

Manitoba in Canada is renowned for having the largest concentration of snakes in the world. The snakes are non-poisonous garter snakes. Garter snakes hibernate underground in immense clusters each containing upto a thousand individuals. The snakes emerge after eight months, in early spring, to mate. When a female makes an appearance, the males immediately engulf her in a giant ‘mating ball’.
Among the females, there may be a male snake mimicking a female, what biologists call a ‘she-male’! So good is the disguise, that other males go into the usual frenzy, only to be fooled. Why do some male garter snakes behave in this way? Earlier, scientists believed that the ‘she-males’ did it to escape fighting with larger males or to gain easier access to the females. Now U.S.

and Australian scientists have proved that since it is very cold underground, the male garter snakes emerge famished, weak and lethargic. They fall easy prey to birds like crows and magpies. The males who masquerade as females merely want to warm themselves up in the safety of the mating ball and escape the attention of predators till they are strong enough to make a run for it if attacked.

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Last updated on :11/14/2006

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Bob The Monkey: No i'm a better monkey.

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