Seasonal, daily activity, and habitat use by three sympatric pit vipers (Serpentes, Viperidae) from southern Brazil

Abstract

Viperid snakes are widely distributed in the South America and the greater distribution range of the family is found at the Crotalinae subfamily. Despite the abundance of this snakes along their geographic distribution, some ecological aspects remain unknown, principally at subtropical areas. In the present study, we evaluated the activity (daily and seasonal) and the use of the habitat by Bothrops diporus, B. jararaca and B. jararacussu, in an Atlantic Forest area at southern Brazil. We observed higher incidence of viperid snakes during the months with higher temperatures, while no snakes were found during the months with lower temperatures. The data suggest the minimum temperature as environmental variable with the greatest influence on the seasonal activity of this species. Considering the daily activity, we observed a tendency of snakes to avoid the warmest hours. Bothrops jararacussu tend to avoid open areas, being registered only inside and at the edges of the forest. We compared our results with previous studies realized at tropical areas and we suggest the observed seasonal activity as an evolutive response, despite the influence of the different environmental variables, according to the occurence region.

Diversidade local e influência da sazonalidade sobre taxocenoses de anfíbios e répteis na Reserva Extrativista Chico Mendes, Acre, Brasil

“…2). Estes resultados corroboram o fato de muitas espécies de répteis serem mais ativas em meses quentes e úmidos, quando há uma disponibilidade maior de nichos térmicos permitindo que atinjam temperaturas compatíveis com suas atividades (Nicholson et al, 2005;Andrade & Abe, 2007;Rocha et al, 2014). A dependência de ambientes úmidos e a vulnerabilidade a baixas umidades são situações conhecidas para diversas espécies de répteis (Colli, 1991;Daltry et al, 1998;Nicholson et al, 2005;Huey et al, 2009;Carlson et al, 2014).…”

“…Em lagartos e serpentes, por exemplo, a umidade pode afetar os níveis hormonais (Summers & Norman, 1988), o período reprodutivo (Colli, 1991;Bernarde & Abe, 2006), as taxas de perda de água por evaporação através da pele (Daltry et al, 1998;Nicholson et al, 2005) e o comportamento durante períodos de troca de pele (Carlson et al, 2014). No caso das serpentes, muitas espécies também aumentam suas atividades durante períodos chuvosos devido à maior disponibilidade de presas, como os anfíbios anuros (Oliveira & Martins, 2001;Bernarde & Abe, 2006;Hartmann et al, 2009;Rocha et al, 2014).…”

“…A influência de fatores climáticos é conhecida tanto para anfíbios (Oda et al, 2009;São Pedro & Feio, 2010;Kopp et al, 2010;Ferreira et al, 2012;Venâncio et al, 2014), quanto para répteis (Colli, 1991;Vitt et al, 1995;Daltry et al, 1998;Nicholson et al, 2005;Vitt et al, 2008;Huey et al, 2009;Carlson et al, 2014). De forma geral, ambos os grupos são sensíveis às grandes variações nas condições climáticas, sendo estas limitantes principalmente em relação às estratégias reprodutivas (Vitt et al, 1994;Duellman, 1999;Hatano et al, 2002;Bernarde & Abe, 2006;Both et al, 2008;Canavero et al, 2009) e de forrageio (Bernarde & Abe, 2006;Huey et al, 2009;Hartmann et al, 2009), podendo variar entre regiões (Menin et al, 2008;Heatwole & Sexton, 2012;Rocha et al, 2014), entre espécies e entre o sexo e fases ontogenéticas (Nicholson et al, 2005;Bernarde & Abe, 2006;Menin et al, 2008;Cole et al, 2014).…”

Vulnerabilities in snakebites in Sao Paulo, Brazil

“…This species is agile, rises easily in bushes and low roofs, has high adaptive capacity, thrives in urban and wild environments, and present crepuscular and nocturnal activities. 13 , 21 , 24 , 26 All patients with clinical manifestations or laboratory abnormalities, or both, because of snakebites ought to receive the antivenom as soon as possible, but many of them receive the antivenom too late. Generally, patients who suffer from this accidents present vulnerabilities that have not been investigated by previous studies, especially when the empirical material come from the patient’s point of view.…”

Combined venomics, venom gland transcriptomics, bioactivities, and antivenomics of two Bothrops jararaca populations from geographic isolated regions within the Brazilian Atlantic rainforest

“…58 This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Omics Evolutionary Ecolog. Bothrops jararaca (Wied-Neuwied, 1824) is a well-studied semi- 66 arboreal venomous pit viper species endemic to southern Brazil (S 67 Bahia, Espirito Santo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, São Paulo, Paraná, 68 Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul), northeastern Paraguay, and north- 69 ern Argentina (Misiones), where it occurs in deciduous tropical forests 70 and semitropical upland forests, from near sea level to over 1000 m 71 altitude [1][2][3][4] (Fig. 1).…”