Thoughts on an early wild breeding season

[ConcinusMan]

Well, when it happens around here and the snakes come out and breed (early or not) then the weather goes back to cold and wet for a month or two afterward, they have a hard time gestating properly. Lots of stillborns / dead litters, and low numbers of adults getting gravid at all.

[Selkielass]

Butlers have been seen mooving in mid March before. I've only seen the one snake, & he was right on top of what I suspect is a brumation site. He is fat and very healthy so I suspect many adults will have come thru iñ prime condition.
how this will play out over the summer will be interesting. I believe early babies will thrive if there is pplenty of rain. I theorize that dry late summers cause high infant mortality in Butlers. They seem to be more vulnerable to low humidity than larger species.