The life-cycle of copperhead snakes

Copperhead Snakes do not lay eggs. Unlike most other snakes the eggs are hatched within the female body. Thus the copperhead snake is viviparous such as many other snakes (e.g. garter snakes and water snakes).

Young snakes are born from August through September. Usually, a litter is not more than 3-8 snakes. The largest litter recorded¹ is 12 - which is unusually many. Even so, some people postulate that a litter of 20 snakes is possible².

A characteristic of young copperheads are that they have a yellowish or greenish tip on their tail (picture 1). After a couple of years the tip of the tail gets the same color as the rest of the body.

Picture 1. A juvenile copperhead snake with a yellowish tail tip

The life span of copperhead snakes is probably up to 20 years. Some sources say 18 years and some say that copperheads can get up to 25 years.

Diet

Young copperheads prey on small reptiles and amphibians such as lizards and frogs. During the first years invertebrates are eaten as a protein rich supplement to the diet. The tail may serve as an attractor to e.g. frogs while the snake is still young; frogs probably believe that the colored tail is an invertebrate.
Small mice are also welcomed in the diet of a juvenile copperhead snake.

As they grow older a larger and larger fraction of their diet is small rodents. Especially mice are an important feed source of adult copperheads.

Mating

Female copperhead snakes are reaches sexual maturity when they are about 4 years old. Males probably also reach maturity around the same age. However, the exact age of when sexual maturity is reached in males remains to be investigated in detail³.

When the snakes emerge from their dens in early winter they begin to seek out females they can mate. The mating season is from February to April and the mating itself lasts from 3 to 8 hours and the transfer of sperm happens when the male everts one of its two sex-organs into the female cloaca. In return the female only mates with one male during a season; luckily the sperm can be stored for many months.

The gestation period is approximately 3. However, it has been reported that snakes can mate i autumn and give birth to young i early spring. In those cases the gestation period is longer.

Shedding Skin

The copperhead snake shed its skin one to three times a year. The shed itself is longer than the snake. Juvenile copperhead snakes will shed their skin more often than older snakes because of their rapid growth. Also, any skin infection or injury will make the copperhead shed its skin more often.

Over wintering

Copperhead snakes over winter together in dens.

References

1. Moski, H. A Large Litter of Copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix mokeson) Copeia, Vol. 1954(1) pp. 67
2. Missouri Copperheads
3. Ernst, C. & R. Barbour. Snakes of North America (1989)

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