As each female emerges in the spring, she is immediately mobbed by dozens of males. Naturalists commonly explain the wintering concentrations and mating balls as clever schemes evolved to maximize reproduction with minimum expenditure of energy. This article accepts this theme uncritically. While the garter snake strategy has some advantages in terms of getting male and female together, things may have gone too far. For example, one communal den was flooded, killing 10,000 snakes.
Predators have a field day when emergence occurs.
The point here is that blind application of the theory of evolution may mask other natural strategies. William R. Corliss Other Sites of Interest SIS . Catastrophism, archaeoastronomy, ancient history, mythology and astronomy. Free resource for people thinking about working at home. ABC Dating and Personals .