Fine-scale hormonal patterns associated with birth and maternal care in the cottonmouth ( Agkistrodon piscivorus ), a North American pitviper snake

Highlights • We examined the effect of neonate presence on maternal steroid hormones in a pitviper. • Maternal corticosterone spiked on the day that neonates completed their first shed. • This spike was not observed in mothers that had neonates removed at birth. • In free-ranging pitvipers, maternal attendance of young terminates once neonates shed. • Corticosterone might mediate the termination of parental behavior in pitvipers.