The Study of Some Biological Characters of the Male Natrix tessellata (Ophidia: Colubridae) in Sari County, Mazandaran Province

Natrix tessellata is a water-dependent species, many of which live near rivers rich in fish. This research has accomplished about N.tessellata population of Sari city in Mazandaran province, from 4th April till 6th November (2012) collected 57 male specimens from 4 sites (Abbandankash the fishpond, Tajan river, rice paddies of Sari city environs, National forest of Zaare), also they gathered by hand for the study about them reproduction, dietary conditions, metric and meristic traid as diurnal patrols. It occurs the dice snakes in the altitude of 30 meters (upper sea level) till 700 meters in the rice paddies around of Zaare national forest ranges. So the recently results shown that their length is between 34-68 cm, and tail length is 11-16 cm, and in the meristic traits researching the ventral scales were 169-183 and sub caudal scales were 60-78 and dorsal scales were 19 in the all of specimens. Vernal activity occurs in the spring season that weather would become warm and would rise during 9 am till 19 pm, but in the summer their morning activity is from 8 am till 13 pm, and evening from 17 pm till 20 pm also never seen nocturnal activities during this research. The sperm numbers beginning of spermatogenesis middle of June (almost 5th) and reach the maximum gradually middle of August and September.