Natural history of a snake assemblage alongside a river in south-eastern Brazil

Abstract

Natural history data on snakes collected in situ are scarce because of the great sampling effort required to record individuals with methods that do not interfere with their activities (e.g. visual surveys). We collected data on relative abundance and natural history, including records of ingested prey, microhabitat use, and behaviour of a snake assemblage along transects marked alongside a river in south-eastern Brazil. We recorded eight species from two families, Viperidae and Dipsadidae using visual searches over 12 months. We quantified available microhabitats in the sampled transects and used electivity indices to determine preferred microhabitats for the pit viper Bothrops moojeni, the most frequent species. Several species of snakes use riverside habitats where they can find food and suitable microhabitats, even in areas that are not pristine, adding to the importance of preserving the remaining riverside vegetation and habitat structure in such areas.

Keywords:

• Bothrops moojeni
• snakes
• natural history
• diet
• microhabitat

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to A.M. Linares, L.B. Nascimento, E.R. Wild, M. Martins, and an anonymous reviewer for helpful suggestions on previous versions of this manuscript, to the Instituto Brasileiro do Meio Ambiente e dos Recursos Naturais Renováveis (Ibama) for the permit, and to Fapemig (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais) for financial support. A Research Productivity grant (301077/2010-0) was provided to P.C. Eterovick by CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico).