Mating ball
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Mating balls are a brief gregarious structure resulting from a mating behaviour wherein a large number of individuals cluster together while mating. It has been observed in various kinds of animals including toads, bees and wasps, and snakes such as garter snakes and anacondas. Often the ball consists of a single female and many males; a particularly asymmetrical case is that of the red-sided garter snakes which form each spring some of the most populous mating balls observed, in which as many as a hundred males try to reproduce with a single female.[1]
As poikilotherms, reptiles and amphibians are susceptible to sluggishness from cold weather. This causes a sexual competition among the first individuals to emerge from brumation to successfully mate before competitors are fully active. Body contact between members of the ball conserves the group's heat to enable the activity of mating to continue. Mating ball behaviour has been observed in Thamnophis species, Cubophis vudii,[2] Natrix natrix, Bufo bufo, Bufo boreas, and other species. In the context of amphibians, mating balls are sometimes known as 'multiple amplexus'.
