Hello all,

Has anyone ever heard of cobras reproducing parthenogenetically? I have a colleague that works at a reptile sanctuary. They have a female albino N. kaouthia that layed some eggs a few months back. They decided to incubate them, even though the snake had never been with a male. A week ago perfect neonate albino cobras hatched out! I have heard of this happening with multiple species of live bearing snakes. As well as some lizards, but never an egg laying snake. Any thoughts?

Thanks,
Clint

Just ask about the gender of the offspring Nice to know...

Can the life history of that female really seriously be tracked down from juvenile or at least subadult state until a couple o' weeks before the deposition of eggs?
Should have been in posession of that "snake sanctuary" most of it's lifetime then, yes?
Further question is about your statement "even though the snake had never been with a male"- how long back is "never" - really never?
And like Fabian said - you gotta sex these youngsters - easy done by popping!

Very interesting, but i don't believe it as long as it's not seriously proven.

And a last question: Has that been published anywhere or are these people going to publish it? If not, why not? Quite suspiciously if i hear from a sensation like that casually on a discussion board - even it's on famous VenomLand *LOL*

Best regards
Peter

"Life is always finding a way"?

Can snakes "store" sperm for a long time? This would be my first question ...

Yes, they can, Guenter.
That's the reason for my question "how long is never?"

Cheers
Peter

Okay, thanks Clint!
Please keep us updated.

Cheers
Peter

I know how far some cobras can spit venom, but sperm ...

Just kiddin' - really interesting. Looking forward to the paper.

Seems very interesting to me, I have never heard off such thing with cobra's. Keep us posted!

The santuary where the cobra resides just got genetic work done on the neos! They are all boys by the way.

what sanctuary? and is there any more news.....................

Hello Günter,

"Can snakes "store" sperm for a long time? This would be my first question ..." - like Peter wrote, yes they can (or fertilized eggs).
The maximum time I could experience was in a Elaphe dione from Siberia. After "her" male had died I kept her alone for 5 years as I did not want to breed her with one of her sons. She laid eggs for 5 more years until she died at age 25. There were fertilized eggs in each clutch but less with each year. Her last clutch consisted of 12 eggs, 3 of them fertilized bringing good babies.
This was certainly not parthenogenesis as all babies that hatched looked like all those that she had had with the male for many years before, many of them looking more like the father than the mother. Males and females were in about equal numbers.

Clint: It would be nice if you could keep us informed about this subject. This sounds very interesting though unusual, also looking at the gender of the offspring.

Cheers,
Rainer

I would say why not? If a Komodo dragon can do it, why not a cobra.
A friend of mine here in The Netherlands (Peet S) had an almost fully developed young with a Crotalus, have to look it up wich species. Never been with a male.

Sperm storage, that's a very cool feature of snakes. A mate of mine had a pair Bothrops venezualensis that kept producing offspring 3 years after the male died. But now I even have a cooler story. I have a jumping pitviper that is without a male for at least 5 years and she looks gravid, really gravid. I never knew that this could happen after so many years.

Cheers, Ro.

Very cool stories Rainer and Ro. I have heard of Crotalus horridus reproducing parthenogentically.

As I said in my previous posts. This cobra has never been with another snake. She was raised as a hatchling.

Clint

The cobra came to PHS on 2/15/2005 as a neonate approximately 2 months old. It was seized by Az. Game and Fish and delivered to my home and always kept in a separate cage. It was the first cobra brought to PHS. The last 3 years she has clutched as many as 28 eggs and the last one we decided to incubate some of the good looking eggs. 4 hatched and 4 did not but these had fully developed snakes in them. All of them were sexed by a vet and were confirmed as males. Blood has been drawn from the female, "Ernie", and tissue samples from all the babies were harvested by Todd Driggers, DVM and sent to the University of Nevada Reno where Chris Feldman, Phd will be running a full DNA sequence in September of this year at no charge to PHS. Once that is done publication will take place. UI understand some of the skepticism but never being with another snake means NEVER in this case.

Russ