Spatial ecology of copperhead snakes (Agkistrodon contortrix) in response to urban park trails

Carrasco-Harris, Malle F.; Bowman, Dale; Reichling, Steve; Cole, Jon C.

doi:10.1093/jue/juaa007

Cited by 4 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 48 publications

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“…Mean DTR did not affect our RT and ACT response variables when controlling for sex, indicating that at an annual time scale, the distance to roads does not significantly contribute to variation in individual movement patterns. Similar studies have found that human disturbance does not significantly change the spatial movement patterns of snakes (Shepard et al, 2008b;Lomas et al, 2019;Carrasco-Harris et al, 2020), likely due to the presence of contiguous habitat adjacent to the disturbance (Nordberg et al, 2021). Although roads are prominent features at our study site, there is sufficient unfragmented habitat alongside of the roads that likely serves as a buffer to any long-term shifts in movement behavior and space use of C. horridus (Figure 3).…”

Section: Effect Of Roads On Annual Rt and Act Movement Measuressupporting

confidence: 70%

Scale-dependent effects of roadways on the movement behavior of a large-bodied pit viper (Crotalus horridus)

Tipton

Vázquez-Diosdado²,

DeSantis³

2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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Roadways are among the most widespread and disruptive anthropogenic land use features that influence the behavior and movement of wildlife. Negative impacts of roadways have been well documented, but the behavioral impact of roadways on smaller, cryptic species has yet to be thoroughly examined. Using a novel integration of radio telemetry and tri-axial accelerometry, we evaluated the effects of roadways on the movement behavior of 26 adult Timber Rattlesnakes (Crotalus horridus) at coarse and fine time scales in central Georgia between June 2020 and November 2021. To interpret the effect of roads at a coarse time scale, we modeled the effect of mean annual distance to roadways (DTR) on annual measures of movement and space use by C. horridus using both radio telemetry and accelerometry derived metrics (RT and ACT metrics). To explore the fine-scale impact of roadways, we quantified RT and ACT metrics during confirmed road interactions (i.e., instances when individual snakes crossed a road or encountered a road but did not cross) and compared these instances to the RT and ACT metrics calculated across the remainder of the active season within this subset of snakes. Relating the annual RT and ACT metrics to DTR revealed no significant associations at a coarse time scale. However, the evaluation of C. horridus movement behavior during punctuated road encounters revealed that snakes increased RT and ACT metrics during the road interactions compared to metrics calculated across the remainder of the active season. This might indicate that the abundance of contiguous habitat adjacent to roadways at our study site is serving as an adequate buffer to any long-term shifts in movement behavior, but the potential hidden cost of increasing movement when snakes encounter roads could have negative implications for populations that encounter roads more frequently, even in the absence of significant direct road mortality. Overall, integrating radio telemetry and accelerometry and adopting a scale-dependent approach to quantifying movement allowed for a more detailed evaluation of the response of C. horridus to roadways. This approach holds promise for detecting and interpreting previously overlooked short-term alterations in snake movement behavior with potentially significant fitness consequences.

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Section: Effect Of Roads On Annual Rt and Act Movement Measuressupporting

confidence: 70%

Scale-dependent effects of roadways on the movement behavior of a large-bodied pit viper (Crotalus horridus)

Tipton

Vázquez-Diosdado²,

DeSantis³

2023

Front. Ecol. Evol.

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“…Among them, accidental encounters with snakes in urban areas are a major challenge, which ultimately results in the increased competition between snakes and humans for resources like food and space 5 . Unfortunately, very less is known about the impact of anthropogenic disturbance on reptiles, especially snakes within the urban matrix 6 .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Spatial and temporal assessment of snake encounters in urban Delhi, India

Barhadiya,

Purkayastha,

Saha

et al. 2024

Sci Rep

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Delhi, the capital city of India is, highly urbanized and surrounded by remnant forest, farms, ridges, and other green areas experience regular snake encounters in and around residential, institutional, and industrial areas. A total of 41 months of sampling from January 2019 to May 2022 was conducted wherein we, studied the snake assemblage in Delhi to determine the species composition, encounter frequency, seasonal activity patterns, and probable encounter sites in an urban setup. We documented 372 individuals belonging to 15 species from seven families out of 23 species found in Delhi. Snakes were found inside forests, public parks, homes, drain networks, streets, office buildings, and even in school-college buildings. The most recorded species being Ptyas mucosa (37.37%, n = 139), Naja naja (19.62%, n = 73), and Lycodon aulicus (13.44%, n = 50). The highest numbers of incidents were reported in the month of July (22.04%, n = 82) and August (19.89%, n = 74) during the peak monsoon season, for identifying high encounter sites, we used a geostatistical modeling tool, Ordinary kriging to identify places having more snake occurrences. We further used a statistical spatial method called average nearest neighbor distance to detect the pattern distribution of snake species. Spatial interpolation done through Ordinary kriging highlighted two areas having concentrated snake encounters. The results of the average nearest neighbor distance analysis showed three species having clustered and two species having dispersed distribution. The incidence of snake encounters was found to be highly seasonal and appeared to be associated mainly with monthly rainfall, temperature, and humidity. The findings of this study on snakes’ distribution patterns provide valuable insights into the conservation of these species. Understanding their habitat preferences and spatial distribution is crucial for the implementation of effective conservation strategies.

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Canal structure influences watersnake assemblage structure in an urban environment

Ljustina

Crother

Doody

et al. 2022

Preprint

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The precise manner in which vertebrate species utilize urban environments remains to be explored in a variety of taxa, with snakes in particular being poorly studied. Watersnakes (Genus: Nerodia) are semiaquatic snakes found throughout the eastern United States and are known to occur in urban systems. Four species of watersnake are commonly found in freshwater environments in southeastern Louisiana: Mississippi Green Watersnake, Plain-bellied Watersnake, Southern Watersnake, and Diamond-backed Watersnake. Plain-bellied Watersnake and Southern Watersnake preferentially feed on anurans, while Mississippi Green Watersnake and Diamond-backed Watersnake tend to be more piscivorous in their feeding habits. Water depth is important in structuring anuran and fish community structure, with shallower water bodies typically supporting higher anuran abundance and richness, and deeper waters supporting more fishes. We examined watersnakes in canal transects of varying depth in Kenner, Louisiana to test the hypotheses that species that feed on anurans would be more abundant in shallower canals, while species that preferentially feed on fishes would be more abundant in deeper canals. We found significant correlation between watersnake assemblage and anuran/fish community structure, with the Plain-bellied Watersnake most abundant in the shallowest canal transects, Mississippi Green Watersnake most abundant in transects of intermediate depth, and Diamond-backed Watersnake most abundant in the shallow transects. The former two species largely followed the hypothesized trends, while the Diamond-backed Watersnake did not.

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Spatial ecology of copperhead snakes (Agkistrodon contortrix) in response to urban park trails

Cited by 4 publications

References 48 publications

Scale-dependent effects of roadways on the movement behavior of a large-bodied pit viper (Crotalus horridus)

Scale-dependent effects of roadways on the movement behavior of a large-bodied pit viper (Crotalus horridus)

Spatial and temporal assessment of snake encounters in urban Delhi, India

Canal structure influences watersnake assemblage structure in an urban environment

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