Photo: Flickr/Fyn Kynd
Here's a fun fact to break out at your next cocktail party: male snakes have two complete sets of reproductive organs, one on the right side of their body, and another on the left. This includes two separate hemipenes, which are the snake equivalent to a penis that pop out of the body during sex. Here, scientists determined that although the right-side reproductive system of gartersnakes is significantly larger than the left, each is used about half the time in the wild, often alternating from one to the other. However, when things get hot (literally, as in hotter temperatures), the males tend use their right hemipenes. The authors propose this is because they are better able to get in the right position to use their "big boy". Which, although interesting, leaves us itching to know which side, if any, the Canadian gartersnake pit orgy males choose!
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