Reproduction
The California King is an oviparous internal fertilization animal, meaning it lays eggs as opposed to giving live birth like some other snakes. Courtship for this kingsnake begins in the spring and involves the males competing for available females. Their mating ritual begins by the male snake vibrating uncontrollably. Eggs are laid between May and August which is generally 42–63 days after mating; in preparation the female will have chosen a suitable location. The typical clutch size is five to twelve eggs with an average of nine, though clutches of 20 or more eggs are known. The hatchlings usually emerge another 40–65 days later, and are approximately eight to thirteen inches in length. Adult Lampropeltis getula are 30 - 85 inches (76 - 216 cm). California Kingsnakes do not reach that size, seldom exceeding 48 inches. Most commonly found at 2.5 - 3.5 feet in length.
Read more about this topic: California Kingsnake
Famous quotes containing the word reproduction:
“The chief function of the city is to convert power into form, energy into culture, dead matter into the living symbols of art, biological reproduction into social creativity.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)
“Although Samuel had a depraved imagination—perhaps even because of this—love, for him, was less a matter of the senses than of the intellect. It was, above all, admiration and appetite for beauty; he considered reproduction a flaw of love, and pregnancy a form of insanity. He wrote on one occasion: “Angels are hermaphrodite and sterile.””
—Charles Baudelaire (1821–1867)
“The atmosphere parents wish to create when talking with children about birth and reproduction is warm, honest, and reassuring, one that tells children they are free to ask questions as often as they need to, and you will answer them as lovingly as you know how.”
—Joanna Cole (20th century)