VIDEO: writhing carpet of 75,000 snakes
Canadian hamlet Narcisse are treated each year for a miracle of nature.
Garter Snakes enjoy a hibernation lasting about eight months. They hide than in their underground burrows of limestone. As spring bursts tumble reptiles out of their burrows to reproduce.
'If I have lived underground for eight months, I would have to pull a Big Mac,' said Bob Mason, who as a biologist studying the garter snakes in Narcisse. 'Not these snakes. The first thing is sex is on the agenda. '
The males leave first their burrows and they wait impatiently until the females arrive trickle a few weeks later. 'As soon as they enter the 'floor', the females are buried under the males,' says the local forester Doug Collicut. In this sea of snakes females are hard to find, despite being three to four times larger than a male. 'Try to find a string of spaghetti in a large colander, while the spaghetti strands still moving,' Bob Mason describes the situation.
Through the smell vropuwtjes are highlighted. The closest male leaves a smelly plug in the back of the female, which other males are warned to withdraw. A few days later the female will be fertilized. Incidentally save a female sperm for up to seven years to pass to fertilization.