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Xenosaurus Tzacualtipantecus. the Zacualtipán Knob-Scaled Lizard Is Endemic to the Sierra Madre Oriental of Eastern Mexico
Xenosaurus tzacualtipantecus. The Zacualtipán knob-scaled lizard is endemic to the Sierra Madre Oriental of eastern Mexico. This medium-large lizard (female holotype measures 188 mm in total length) is known only from the vicinity of the type locality in eastern Hidalgo, at an elevation of 1,900 m in pine-oak forest, and a nearby locality at 2,000 m in northern Veracruz (Woolrich- Piña and Smith 2012). Xenosaurus tzacualtipantecus is thought to belong to the northern clade of the genus, which also contains X. newmanorum and X. platyceps (Bhullar 2011). As with its congeners, X. tzacualtipantecus is an inhabitant of crevices in limestone rocks. This species consumes beetles and lepidopteran larvae and gives birth to living young. The habitat of this lizard in the vicinity of the type locality is being deforested, and people in nearby towns have created an open garbage dump in this area. We determined its EVS as 17, in the middle of the high vulnerability category (see text for explanation), and its status by the IUCN and SEMAR- NAT presently are undetermined. This newly described endemic species is one of nine known species in the monogeneric family Xenosauridae, which is endemic to northern Mesoamerica (Mexico from Tamaulipas to Chiapas and into the montane portions of Alta Verapaz, Guatemala). All but one of these nine species is endemic to Mexico. Photo by Christian Berriozabal-Islas. amphibian-reptile-conservation.org 01 June 2013 | Volume 7 | Number 1 | e61 Copyright: © 2013 Wilson et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Com- mons Attribution–NonCommercial–NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License, which permits unrestricted use for non-com- Amphibian & Reptile Conservation 7(1): 1–47. -
Crotalus Cerastes (Hallowell, 1854) (Squamata, Viperidae)
Herpetology Notes, volume 9: 55-58 (2016) (published online on 17 February 2016) Arboreal behaviours of Crotalus cerastes (Hallowell, 1854) (Squamata, Viperidae) Andrew D. Walde1,*, Andrea Currylow2, Angela M. Walde1 and Joel Strong3 Crotalus cerastes (Hallowell, 1854) is a small study area has no uninterrupted sandy areas outside of horned rattlesnake that ranges throughout most of the ephemeral washes, and no dune-like habitats. It is in deserts of southwestern United States, and south into this scrub-like habitat that we made three observations northern Mexico (Ernst and Ernst, 2003). This species of the previously undocumented arboreal behaviour of is considered to be a psammophilous (sand-dune) C. cerastes. specialist, typically inhabiting loose sand habitats and On 7 April 2005 at 1618h, we observed an adult C. dune blowouts (Ernst and Ernst, 2003). Although C. cerastes coiled in an A. dumosa shrub approximately 25 cerastes is primarily a nocturnal snake, it is known to cm above the ground (Fig. 1 A). The air temperature be active diurnally in the spring, and to bask in early was 21 °C and ground temperature was 27 °C. The morning or late afternoon (Ernst and Ernst, 2003). snake did not attempt to flee at our approach, but did This rattlesnake species exhibits a unique style of reposition slightly in the branches. A second observation locomotion known as sidewinding, from which it occurred on 18 April 2005 at 1036h, when we observed derives its common name, Sidewinder. Sidewinding is another adult C. cerastes extending the anterior third of believed to be an adaptation to efficiently move in loose its body beyond the top of an A. -
(Crotalus Oreganus Helleri) Hunting Behavior Through Community Science
diversity Article Quantifying Southern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus helleri) Hunting Behavior through Community Science Emily R. Urquidi * and Breanna J. Putman Department of Biology, California State University San Bernardino, 5500 University Parkway, San Bernardino, CA 92407, USA; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] Abstract: It is increasingly important to study animal behaviors as these are the first responses organisms mount against environmental changes. Rattlesnakes, in particular, are threatened by habitat loss and human activity, and require costly tracking by researchers to quantify the behaviors of wild individuals. Here, we show how photo-vouchered observations submitted by community members can be used to study cryptic predators like rattlesnakes. We utilized two platforms, iNaturalist and HerpMapper, to study the hunting behaviors of wild Southern Pacific Rattlesnakes. From 220 observation photos, we quantified the direction of the hunting coil (i.e., “handedness”), microhabitat use, timing of observations, and age of the snake. With these data, we looked at whether snakes exhibited an ontogenetic shift in behaviors. We found no age differences in coil direction. However, there was a difference in the microhabitats used by juveniles and adults while hunting. We also found that juveniles were most commonly observed during the spring, while adults were more consistently observed throughout the year. Overall, our study shows the potential of using Citation: Urquidi, E.R.; Putman, B.J. community science to study the behaviors of cryptic predators. Quantifying Southern Pacific Rattlesnake (Crotalus oreganus helleri) Keywords: citizen science; conservation; ontogeny; behavioral lateralization; snakes Hunting Behavior through Community Science. Diversity 2021, 13, 349. https://doi.org/10.3390/ d13080349 1. -
Crotalus Willardi Obscurus) in the Sky-Islands of Southwestern North America
RESEARCH ARTICLE Nowhere to Go but Up: Impacts of Climate Change on Demographics of a Short-Range Endemic (Crotalus willardi obscurus) in the Sky-Islands of Southwestern North America Mark A. Davis1¤a*, Marlis R. Douglas2, Colleen T. Webb1, Michael L. Collyer3, Andrew T. Holycross4, Charles W. Painter5, Larry K. Kamees6¤b, Michael E. Douglas2 1 Department of Biology, Colorado State University, Ft. Collins, Colorado, United States of America, 2 Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States of America, 3 Department of Biology, Western Kentucky University, Bowling Green, Kentucky, United States of America, 4 School of Life Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona, United States of America, 5 New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, Santa Fe, New Mexico, United States of America, 6 Department of Biology, University of Texas-El Paso, El Paso, Texas, United States of America ¤a Current Address: Illinois Natural History Survey, University of Illinois, Champaign, Illinois, United States of America OPEN ACCESS ¤b Current Address: Department of Biological Sciences, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas, United States of America Citation: Davis MA, Douglas MR, Webb CT, Collyer * [email protected] ML, Holycross AT, Painter CW, et al. (2015) Nowhere to Go but Up: Impacts of Climate Change on Demographics of a Short-Range Endemic (Crotalus willardi obscurus) in the Sky-Islands of Southwestern Abstract North America. PLoS ONE 10(6): e0131067. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0131067 Biodiversity elements with narrow niches and restricted distributions (i.e., ‘short range endemics,’ SREs) are particularly vulnerable to climate change. The New Mexico Ridge- Editor: Ulrich Joger, State Natural History Museum, GERMANY nosed Rattlesnake (Crotalus willardi obscurus, CWO), an SRE listed under the U.S. -