Reproductive Potential
If data in Fig. 5 are representative of a natural population and if 61 per cent of the females are sexually mature, the reproductive potential can be estimated as follows: assuming a cohort of 1000 cottonmouths contains 530 females, 61 per cent of the females (323 individuals) probably are adults. If 42 per cent of these females produce 6.5 young per female in any season (Tables 8 and 9), 136 females will produce 884 young. But if 50 per cent of the adult females are reproductive (as would be assumed if reproduction is biennial), 1050 young will be produced. Actually the number of young required per year to sustain a population is unknown, because mortality rates at any age are unknown.
Fig. 5. Composition of a group of cottonmouths examined in this study. Individuals less than 450 millimeters in snout-vent length are considered as immature. Specimens from 200 to 249 millimeters in length are included in the 200-millimeter class, etc.