You Can’t Bask With Us: Do Garter Snake Cliques Exist?

If you are like me on the Internet browsing your chosen social media in the springtime, you may have seen a video or picture of a whole bunch of garter snakes that formed a ball-like structure. Turns out that these are “mating balls” AKA a whole bunch of males that are attempting to get a chance to breed one female. You might think, “Hey, that’s really strange. I thought snakes were supposed to be solitary creatures.”, which is not right or wrong. Like most sexually-reproducing animals, you need to meet at least one other animal of the opposite sex to reproduce with, but why are there so many males with one female garter snake? Turns out, it helps conserve the body heat that allows mating to occur in the spring. If you are reading this blog, you are also probably somewhat knowledgeable in reptiles (specifically snakes) and know you aren’t really supposed to cohabitate any reptiles, but then you read care guides for garter snakes (insert shameless plug here), that encourage you to house several together that are the same gender and size. Why are garter snakes the exception? Do they care who they are housed with? Those are some of the questions I had when I got into owning garter snakes and using my Environmental Science background, I may have some answers for you!

There have been several studies published throughout the years looking into the uniqueness of garter snake sociability. One study done by Skinner et al. found that wild Butler’s Garter Snakes (Thamnophis butleri) have some interesting relationships. To start, they found that female garter snakes tend to become more social while they age, but it is the opposite for males. Researchers also found that snakes that were a part of some social network tended to be healthier than snakes that were not found with or near others. Unfortunately, this is not proven and is just a correlation (Remember kids, correlation does not mean causation!) suggesting that the snakes are more socially tolerant because they have a competitive advantage over those individuals that are not. It is well documented individuals with worse body condition avoid those with better condition is a strategy commonly found in nature. Individuals with poorer body conditions might be more likely to have a disease or parasites and are avoided by healthier individuals. Another fun note is that they found that garter snakes might also group up depending on age. The researchers found that young snakes were more likely to be caught at one of the sampling areas compared to the other areas.

Now, for the piece de resistance, a fascinating article I found by Skinner and Miller focused on juvenile Eastern Garter Snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis) and how they prefer certain snakes over others. They took 40 captive born snakes and separated them into 4 groups of 10 with 4 hides in each of the aquariums. Twice a day, the researchers would move around the snakes and displace them from their current location and then observe their patterns once they were released back into their tanks. They observed that the snakes actively sought out social interactions preferring to be with larger groups and associate with specific individuals or groups. The researchers also showed that the social patterns of the snakes were influenced by individual personalities and age. Basically, they formed cliques!

Now let me tell you, it was incredibly difficult for me to not go down the rabbit hole known as garter snake social behaviors. I am so glad that there are people doing active research.There is so much more research to be done on these funny little noodles. They may not be as big as other exotic snakes and reptiles, but by God are they really freaking unique and that makes me love them even more. What else would you like to learn/know about garter snakes? I love learning and researching (It gives me an excuse to look at more fun articles that don’t relate to my day job.), so feel free to contact us with future blog ideas!

Social networks reveal sex- and age-patterned social structure in Butler’s gartersnakes (Thamnophis butleri) - PMC

Aggregation and social interaction in garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis sirtalis)

See example news article here! Gartersnakes in Ohio: Mating ball of Gartersnakes