Snake catcher finds three pythons and 75 eggs in one compost bin

[Gocntry]

And they say snakes don't cohabitate

And 35 eggs were incubated and safely released into the wild...... Good Job!!!

https://www.9news.com.au/national/qu...7-596cdead6771

"
When Mr Lockett discovered them, the snakes were visibility underweight due to not eating for around 60 days – the length of time it takes for females snakes to hatch the eggs.

The first and second snake had 20 eggs each however all had hatched.

The third snake still had 35 eggs in the clutch allowing Mr Lockett to remove them and transport them to an incubator where the babies will be hatched and safely released back into the wild."

[Bogertophis]

Wow, talk about adapting to life with humans...that's pretty cool they shared the compost too. If I lived there I'd probably get a few more composters...

IMO, those snakes are likely to remember and return in subsequent years (maybe not the next year, many wild snakes aren't up to yearly reproduction) and others
might just follow them (or their scent trails).

[Reinz]

That is an amazing story.

My guess is that the 3 females were willing to share that hatching site because it offered the best hatching conditions, i.e. best chance of survival. When compost decomposes it generates heat. This means these females did not have burn as many calories raising the egg temperature by shivering their bodies.

[Bogertophis]

It's actually a wonder that the compost didn't get TOO hot, but maybe they stayed out of the middle? & if it wasn't turned...? Anyway, it worked for them!

[richardhind1972]

I saw this story on my news app yesterday and thought it was so cool.
People often find grass snake eggs in compost areas, as our weather in the uk is so up and down and at least this way its quite a stable continuous heat, natural incubator. Don't know how they would do them normally, pretty clever really
In fact a BBC TV program called gardeners world, "monty Don " the presenter shown the eggs off from his own composter a few times on the TV program

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