Thermal Biology of Reproduction in Female Eastern Foxsnakes (Elaphe gloydi)

Although females of oviparous snake species presumably would benefit by modifying their thermoregulatory behavior while gravid, few studies have investigated whether gravid females actually thermoregulate differently than nongravid conspecifics in the field. To this end, we recorded body temperatures (Tbs) from female Eastern Foxsnakes (Elaphe gloydi) housed in a large seminatural enclosure using temperature-sensitive radio-transmitters. Contrary to our expectations, gravid females did not maintain higher or less variable Tbs than nongravid females. We suspect that the thermal environment available to gravid females at our site may render further increases in thermoregulatory effort, beyond that of nongravid females, unnecessary and potentially detrimental, given possible costs of thermoregulation.