Male Combat

[spazhime]

So I got to see something absolutely incredible yesterday. I took Thresh and Rhea out for some ‘brother’ pictures. I believe the scent of Leliana was still on the floor from when I had her out earlier that day. I had gotten my camera out for photos, and they began a male combat dance. Now I only snapped a few pictures for educational purposes, then separated them immediately after. While they can’t actually hurt each other this way (it is essentially just wrestling) it is a stressful situation to be in. In the wild, male snakes will do this dance and whomever wears out first leaves, and the winner gets to mate with the female. They can dance for hours on end until one finally gives up. They were probably only doing this for about thirty seconds before I put them back in their cages to relax. Neither of them acted like they were stressed when I picked them up, so it did no harm. I figured it would be a good education opportunity
Because of the possibility of stress, they will not be put into a situation that could cause this again. Which means no more group photos with these two involved