A Snake Community at Espigão Do Oeste, Rondônia, Southwestern Amazon, Brazil

Serpentes de uma paisagem urbana-rural nos Andes centrais da Colômbia: composição de espécies, distribuição e história natural

“…Results of the coefficient of biogeographic resemblance (CBR) between sites indicate generally low species similarity between them (mean 0.25; see Table 3), which can show high beta diversity reflected in the geographic replacement of species; however, the CBR values are affected by the largest number of species in areas such as Pacurita (tropical Wet Forest) and Yotoco (subAndean Wet Forest), which increases the denominator of the factor and decreases the similarity between localities. Therefore, these results are much lower compared to those obtained in different areas of the Amazon (mean 0.65; Bernarde and Abe 2006), and are even lower than those obtained by Duellman (1990) when he compared forests of Central and South America (mean 0.36). For Manizales specifically, the localities more similar in snake composition corresponds to two Andean areas: (1) Bosque de Yotoco Forestal Reserve, which is a sub-Andean forest area located on the eastern flank of the Cordillera Occidental, between 1200-1700 m elevation (Vargas-Salinas et al 2011), and (2) Selva de Florencia Natural National Park, which is geographically close to Manizales (ca.…”

“…Therefore, making comparisons of species diversity is extremely complicated when related to dissimilar environmental areas, and when different sampling methods have been used (Feisinger 2001). Additionally, this problem can be much more pronounced in snakes, as these are relatively difficult to find, because they usually occur in low densities, most species are cryptic, and many have secretive habits (Sazima and Manzani 1995, Martins and Oliveira 1998, Bernarde and Abe 2006, Sawaya et al 2008. In Manizales, however, it is almost certain that the richness of snakes is greater than that reported here, considering that large areas of natural habitats have not been adequately sampled, and that an intensive effort of collection has not been made.…”

“…Moreover, the composition of Neotropical snakes in different environments presents variations in the patterns of geographical distribution of the species, coexisting in the same habitat species with large and small distributions, representing different biogeographic regions (see Duellman 1990 for a revision in Neotropical environments). Although research in recent decades has contributed substantially to knowledge about the ecology, distribution and natural history of Neotropical snakes (e.g., Dixon and Soini 1977, Duellman 1978, Rodríguez and Cadle 1990, Zimmerman and Rodrigues 1990, Strüssmann and Sazima 1993, Martins and Oliveira 1998, Bernarde and Abe 2006, there still exist information gaps for most natural areas of the Neotropics, and even more for those anthropogenically modified environments such as urban and rural landscapes.…”

The island rule in the Brazilian frog Phyllodytes luteolus (Anura: Hylidae): incipient gigantism?

“…Amphibians are prey for many predators (DUELLMAN & TRUEB 1994), including snakes (BERNARDE & ABE 2006, BERNARDE 2012 and birds. While we did not search for potential predators, only a few species of vertebrates, including the lizard Tropidurus torquatus (Wied, 1820), the african gecko Hemidactylus mabouia (Moreau de Jonnès, 1818), the black rat Rattus rattus (Linnaeus, 1758), and marine birds were found on the island.…”

Efficiency of snake sampling methods in the Brazilian semiarid region

“…The OE method is often criticized because it is hard to standardize, as it is not subject to strict planning. Nevertheless, this sampling technique has been useful and used by a large number of researchers in different neotropical biomes (see Martins and Oliveira 1998, Bernarde and Abe 2006, zanella and Cechin 2006, Winck et al 2007, Sawaya et al 2008, Hartmann et al 2009a, b, Araujo et al 2010). …”