HTTPS://JOURNALS.KU.EDU/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF & AMPHIBIANSREPTILES • VOL &15, AMPHIBIANS NO 4 • DEC 2008 • 28(1):157–158189 • APR 2021

IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATUREPredation ARTICLES on a Common Wolfsnake, . Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: LycodonOn the Road to aulicusUnderstanding the Ecology (),and Conservation of the Midwest’s Giant Serpent ...... by anJoshua M. KapferIndian 190 . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: Roller,A Hypothetical Excursion ...... benghalensis (),Robert W. Henderson 198 RESEARCH ARTICLES in. The the Texas Horned Sathyamangalam Lizard in Central and Western Texas ...... Emily Henry, JasonTiger Brewer, Krista Mougey, Reserve, and Gad Perry 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida ...... TamilBrian J. Camposano, Kenneth Nadu, L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212 CONSERVATION ALERT . World’s Mammals in Crisis ...... Sreedharan Nair and Chinnasamy Ramesh ...... 220 . More Than Mammals ...... 223 . The “DowWildlife Jones Institute Index” of of Biodiversity India, Chandrabani, ...... Dehradun-248002, Uttarakhand, India ([email protected])...... 225

HUSBANDRY Photographs by the senior author. . Captive Care of the Central Netted Dragon ...... Shannon Plummer 226

PROFILE he Common. WolfsnakeKraig Adler: A Lifetime ( Promoting aucilusHerpetology), ...... which is juliflora) and native Bush Michael Plum L. Treglia(Caraissa 234 spinarum), picked Twidely distributedCOMMENTARY across southern Asia, is active at night up its prey, and landed on the unpaved road (Fig. 1). The and often forages among. The Turtles rocks Have andBeen Watchingon walls Me and...... other rough struggled, constricted the Eric beakGangloff of 238the roller, and tried to surfaces in which holes and crevices are used as diurnal refugia BOOK REVIEW (Whitaker and Captain 2004). Adults grow to a maximum . Threatened Amphibians of the World edited by S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, length of about 92 cmR. (Vyas Berridge, and P. Ramani, Patel and 1995). B.E. Young ...... Robert Powell 243 The (Coracias benghalensis) ranges from across CONSERVATION the entire Indian RESEARCH Subcontinent REPORTS: (BirdLife Summaries of Published Conservation Research Reports ...... 245 International 2016). NATURAL Indian HISTORY Rollers RESEARCH prey primarily REPORTS on: smallSummaries of Published Reports on Natural History ...... 247  NEWBRIEFS ...... 248 insects, mostly on theEDITORIAL ground INFORMATION and particularly ...... during evening ...... 251 hours, but also will FOCUS capture ON flying CONSERVATION insects (Ali: and A Project Ripley You Can2001; Support ...... 252 Sivakumaran and Thiyagesan 2003; Asokan et al. 2009). On the morning of 17 March 2019, while tracking radio- tagged Indian Pythons (Python molurus) in the Mangalapatti Beat of the Sathyamangalam TigerFront Reserve Cover. Shannon (STR) Plummer. in Tamil Back Cover. Michael Kern Nadu, India (11.581687°N, 76.906151°E),Totat et velleseque we audant encountered mo Totat et velleseque audant mo estibus inveliquo velique rerchil estibus inveliquo velique rerchil an Indian Roller feeding on a snake.erspienimus, The STR quos accullabo. is part Ilibusof the erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus Segur Plateau (elev. 209–1,950 m autasl) dolor at theapicto confluence invere pe dolum of the aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque fugiatis maionsequat eumque Western and Eastern Ghats. moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- At 1008 h, the Indian Roller emergedma derrovitae from voluptam, thorny as quos road - Fig.tur 1. ma An derrovitae Indian voluptam, Roller (Coracias as benghalensis) had captured a Common side scrub comprised mostly of invasiveaccullabo. Mesquite ( Wolfsnake (Lycodon aucilus) before landing on the road.

Fig. 2. A Common Wolfsnake (Lycodon aucilus) struggling to escape from an Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis).

Copyright is held by the authors. Articles in R&A are made available under a 157 Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 2332-4961 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. VISHNU AND RAMESH REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 28(1):157–158 • APR 2021

Fig. 3. When the Common Wolfsnake (Lycodon aucilus) ceased moving, the Indian Roller (Coracias benghalensis) swallowed it before flying away. bite the (Fig. 2). The roller pecked the snake and jumped Mudumalai Tiger Reserves for granting permission to survey on it multiple times. Finally, as the snake’s movements ceased, the area as well as timely help during fieldwork. Our deepest the roller swallowed it (Fig. 3) and flew away. This entire gratitude to the Dean and the Director at the Wildlife Institute episode lasted just 7 min. We identified the approximately of India, Dehradun, for their support and encouragement. 20-cm long prey as a Common Wolfsnake by studying the photographs taken during the feeding event. Literature Cited Biddulph (1937) reported an Indian Roller eating Ali, S. and S.D. Ripley. 2001. Handbook of the of India and . Volume an unidentified snake and Soud et al. (2010) described a 5. Larks to the Grey Hypocolius. Oxford University Press, , India. Asokan, S., A.M.S. Ali, and R. Manikannan. 2009. Preliminary investigations Common Wolfsnake taken by a White-throated on diet and breeding biology of the Indian Roller Coracias benghalensis in (Halcyon smyrnensis) in a forested area on the a portion of Cauvery Delta, , India. World Journal of Zoology 4: University campus. This, however, is the first record of an 263–269. Biddulph, C.H. 1937. The Southern Indian Roller or Blue Jay [Coracias benghalen- Indian Roller feeding on a Common Wolfsnake. sis indica (Linn.)] killing a small snake. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 39: 865. Acknowledgements BirdLife International. 2016. Coracias benghalensis. The IUCN Red List of Threatened Research grant DST-SERB (EMR/2016/003963) by the 2016: e.T22725914A94905872. https://dx.doi.org/10.2305/IUCN. UK.2016-3.RLTS.T22725914A94905872.en. Government of India provided funding for the fieldwork Sivakumaran, N. and K. Thiyagesan. 2003. Population, diurnal activity patterns during which we made the observation described above. and feeding ecology of the Indian Roller Coracias benghalensis (Linnaeus, That research was approved by the Ministry of Environment, 1758). Zoos’ Print Journal 18: 1091–1095. Soud, R., M. Kripaljyoti, and G. Abhik. 2010. Predation by White-throated Forests and Climate Change, Government of India, and the Kingfisher Halcyon smyrnensis on Common wolf Snake Tamil Nadu Forest Department (No. WL5(A) /17699/2017; (Linnaeus). NeBIO 1: 53–54. Permit No. 82/2017). Our heartfelt thanks to the Principal Vyas, R. and B.H. Patel. 1995. Length record of the common wolf snake (Lycodon Chief Conservator of Forests and Chief Wildlife Warden, aulicus) from Bharuch, Gujarat. Journal of the Bombay Natural History Society 92: 271. Tamil Nadu, Field Directors, Chief Conservator of Forests, Whitaker, R. and A. Captain. 2004. of India. The Field Guide. Draco Books, and District Forest Officers of the Sathyamangalam and Chennai, India.

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