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IRCFREPTILES&HIBIANS•22(4):153–155•DEC2015
Effects of Drought on Two Small Kansas Snakes
Eli, John, and Ben Haines-Eitzen1,JustinandDavidLee2, and George R. Pisani3
1Ithaca, New York2Pennington, New Jersey
3KansasBiologicalSurvey,UniversityofKansas,Lawrence,KS66047-3759([email protected])
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IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • VOL15, NO 4 • DEC 2008 189TABLE OF CONTENTS
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
F E A T U R E A R T I C L E S
Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: On the Road to Understanding the Ecology and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...................... Joshua M. Kapfer 190
The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: A Hypothetical Excursion ............................................................................................................................Robert W. Henderson 198
R E S E A R C H A R T I C L E S
The Texas Horned Lizard in Central and Western Texas ....................... Emily Henry, Jason Brewer, Krista Mougey, and Gad Perry 204 The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida
.............................................Brian J. Camposano, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212
C O N S E R V A T I O N A L E R T
World’s Mammals in Crisis ............................................................................................................................................................. 220 More Than Mammals ...................................................................................................................................................................... 223 The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ........................................................................................................................................... 225
H U S B A N D R Y
Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ....................................................................................................... Shannon Plummer 226
P R O F I L E
Kraig Adler: A Lifetime Promoting Herpetology ................................................................................................ Michael L. Treglia 234
C O M M E N T A R Y
The Turtles Have Been Watching Me ........................................................................................................................ Eric Gangloff 238
B O O K R E V I E W
Threatened Amphibians of the World edited by S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, R. Berridge, P. Ramani, and B.E. Young .............................................................................................................. Robert Powell 243
CONSERVATION RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Conservation Research Reports ................................. 245 NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ................................. 247 NEWBRIEFS ...................................................................................................................................................................................... 248 EDITORIAL INFORMATION ..................................................................................................................................................... 251 FOCUS ON CONSERVATION: A Project You Can Support ............................................................................................... 252
Front Cover. Shannon Plummer.Totat et velleseque audant mo estibus inveliquo velique rerchil erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos accullabo.
Back Cover. Michael KernTotat et velleseque audant mo
estibus inveliquo velique rerchil erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus
aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque
moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia-tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as
IRC
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REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSC O N S E R V AT I O N A N D N AT U R A L H I S T O R Y
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Effectsofdroughtonprey-specialistsnakespeciesaresel-domdocumented.Thefewpertinentstudiesthathave
beenpublished(Seigeletal.1995;SperryandWeatherhead2008;Willsonetal.2006)suggestthatalackofsuitablepreyleadstoreducedorgreatlycontractedpopulations.Willsonetal.(2006)expandedthestudyofSeigeletal.(1995)andshowed that interspecificdifferences indrought responserangedfromnoeffect(generalistspecies)tolocalextirpation(certainspecialists). TheRed-belliedSnake(Storeria occipitomaculata)andtheWesternSmoothEarthsnake(Virginia valeriae elegans)aresubjectsoflong-termstudiesbyGRP(PisaniandBusby2011;Busbyetal.2014)attheRiceTractnearLawrence,Kansas(38.81019N,-95.17755W;WGS84).Thetract(Fig.1)istraversedbyseveraltransectsofshelterstationsusingwood,tin,andcarpetshelters.Bothspecies,whicharespecial-istpredators,wereseverelyimpactedbytheregionaldroughtthataffectedthesitefrommid-2011toSeptember2013. Virginia valeriae(Fig.2)waslastcapturedatthesiteinearlyApril2011andwasnotobservedagainuntilSeptember
2013followingsubstantialrainfall.Atthattime,severaladultswereobservedatastationoccupiedbyalargeant(Formica subsericea)nest.Thecaptureofseveralindividualsimmedi-atelyafterprecipitationresumedissuggestiveofon-sitesur-vival.Thenesthasservedasahibernaculumforseveralsmallsnakespecies,andV. valeriaemighthavebeenabletosurvivewithinthedeeprecessesofthenest(Pisani2009). Storeria occipitomaculatawas last capturedon1May2012(male,278mmtotallength,mass4.0g);thespecieswasnotrecordedfromsheltertransectsatthetractthroughthedurationof2012andsubsequentyears.Observationsofslugsandsnails(preferredpreyofS. occipitomaculata at this site)similarlydeclinedduringthedrought.DespiteabundantmoistureintheareabeginninginMarch2014,S. occipito-maculatawasnotrecordedfromtheRiceTract.Snailandslugpopulationsdidreboundinspring2014,andsitecondi-tionswereagainfavorableforthespecies. On3August2015,wecapturedaverypale-coloredmaleS. occipitomaculata(263mmtotallength,mass4.5g;Figs.3and4)fromtheeasternsideoftheRiceTract.SubsequentvisitsbyGRPhaveyieldedoneadditionalRed-belliedSnake(female,dark-graycolormorph,281mmtotallength,mass7.0g).Wecannotbecertain,butbelieveittobehighlylikelythattheindividualwecapturedinAugustemigratedfromabout800mwestofthemainstudysite.Thatareacontainsasmallpondthatretainedatleastsomemoistureandsup-portedapopulationofS. occipitomaculata throughout the droughtperiod(GRP,unpubl.data). Sperry andWeatherhead (2008) estimated time torecoveryofalocalpopulationofElaphe [Pantherophis] obso-letainTexasas“substantiallymorethanayear”followingthedrought-basedreductionofsmall-mammalprey.Thatestimatewasbasedonreproductionandsurvivalofsnakesattheirstudysite.WetentativelyinferfromourS. occipito-maculatacapturethatrecoveryofthisspeciesatthissitewilldependinitiallyondispersalfromtherefugesitefollowedbylocalreproduction.Fig. 1. Lowland habitat in the Rice Tract near Lawrence, Kansas.
PhotographbyGeorgePisani.
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IRCFREPTILES&HIBIANS•22(4):153–155•DEC2015HAINES-EITZEN ET AL.
Fig. 2.AWesternSmoothEarthsnake(Virginia valeriae elegans)inSeptember2013atanactiveantnest(antsweredormant).PhotographbyMichaelZerwekh.
Fig. 3.Averypale-coloredmaleRed-belliedSnake(Storieria occipitomaculata)collectedinAugust2015attheRiceTractnearLawrence,Kansas. PhotographbyJustinLee.
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HAINES-EITZEN ET AL. IRCFREPTILES&HIBIANS•22(4):153–155•DEC2015
Literature CitedBusby,W.H.,G.R.Pisani,E.T.Peterson,andN.Barve.2014.Ecologicalstudiesof
theSmoothEarthSnakeandRedbellySnake,andnichemodelingofforestspeciesineasternKansas.Open-fileReportNo.179,KansasDepartmentofWildlife,ParksandTourism,Topeka.
Pisani,G.R.2009.Useofanactiveantnestasahibernaculumbysmallsnakespe-cies. Transactions Kansas Academy of Sciences112:113–118.
Pisani,G.R.andW.R.Busby.2011.EcologyoftheSmoothEarthSnake(Virginia valeriae) andRedbellySnake (Storeria occipitomaculata) innortheasternKansas.Open-fileReportNo.172,KansasDepartmentofWildlife,ParksandTourism,Topeka.
Seigel,R.A.,J.W.Gibbons,andT.K.Lynch.1995.Temporalchangesinreptilepopulations:Effectsofaseveredroughtonaquaticsnakes.Herpetologica 51:424–434.
Sperry,J.H.andP.J.Weatherhead.2008.Prey-mediatedeffectsofdroughtoncon-ditionandsurvivalofaterrestrialsnake.Ecology89:2770–2776.
Willson,J.D.,C.T.Winne,M.E.Dorcas,andJ.W.Gibbons.2006.Post-droughtresponsesofsemi-aquaticsnakesinhabitinganisolatedwetland:Insightsondifferentstrategiesforpersistenceinadynamichabitat.Wetlands26:1071–1078.Fig. 4.Venterofthepale-coloredS. occipitomaculataillustratedinFig.3.
PhotographbyJustinLee.
