Movements, Mating, and Dispersal of Red-Sided Gartersnakes (<i>Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis</i>) from a Communal Den in Manitoba
Bibliographic record
Abstract
We studied the spring emergence of red-sided gartersnakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) from a large communal den in Manitoba to clarify the context in which courtship and mating occur. In particular, is the mating system in such a massive aggregation (> 20,000 snakes) substantially different from that at smaller dens? Radio-tracked female snakes stayed near the den for a few days postemergence, apparently waiting until they recovered locomotor ability after the long hibernation period, before setting out for their summer ranges. Females dispersed from the den in all directions, rather than following distinct migration corridors. Male snakes moved frequently and spent much of their time far from the den in surrounding woodland. Most males remained near the den for only a small proportion of the entire mating season, apparently because of high rates of energy expenditure during mate-searching and courtship. Courting groups contained from 1–62 males and were largest close to the den. Most courting and mating occurred in groups of less than five males, often more than 20 m from the den. These small group sizes resulted from the females' dispersal prior to mating. Larger groups did not induce female cooperation (mating) more quickly than small groups. Despite the spectacular aggregations of courting snakes within the den, most reproductive activity in this population (as in other gartersnake populations) occurs in small groups, widely dispersed over a broad area.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".