Hydrophis Platurus) by the Head (Left) Before Swallowing It (Right)

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HTTPS://JOURNALS.KU.EDU/REPTILESANDAMPHIBIANSTABLE OF CONTENTS IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANSREPTILES • VOL15, & N AMPHIBIANSO 4 • DEC 2008 •189 28(1):94–95 • APR 2021

IRCF REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS CONSERVATION AND NATURAL HISTORY

TABLE OF CONTENTS

FEATURE AARTICLES Bare-throated Tiger Heron . Chasing Bullsnakes (Pituophis catenifer sayi) in Wisconsin: (TigrisomaOn the Road to Understanding the Ecologymexicanum and Conservation of the Midwest’s )Giant Preying Serpent ...... Joshua M.on Kapfer 190a . The Shared History of Treeboas (Corallus grenadensis) and Humans on Grenada: Yellow-belliedA Hypothetical Excursion ...... Seasnake (HydrophisRobert W. Hendersonplaturus 198 ) RESEARCH ARTICLES in. TheCorcovado Texas Horned Lizard in Central and WesternNational Texas ...... Emily Henry,Park, Jason Brewer, Krista Costa Mougey, and Gad Perry Rica 204 . The Knight Anole (Anolis equestris) in Florida ...... Brian J. Camposano, Kenneth L. Krysko, Kevin M. Enge, Ellen M. Donlan, and Michael Granatosky 212 Raby Nuñez Escalante1 and Gabriel Calvo Benavides2 CONSERVATION ALERT 1Sierpe de Osa, Puntarenas, Costa Rica ([email protected]) . World’s Mammals in Crisis ...... 2Bahía Drake, Puntarenas, Costa Rica ([email protected]) ...... 220 . More Than Mammals ...... 223 . The “Dow Jones Index” of Biodiversity ...... 225

HUSBANDRY he Yellow-bellied. Captive Seasnake Care of the Central (Hydrophis Netted Dragon platurus ...... ) is a western California southward Shannon to Plummer northern 226 Peru and the warm common species with the broadest distribution of any waters around Isla de Pascua, Chile (Campbell and Lamar T PROFILE snake; in the eastern Pacific, it ranges from extreme south- 2004; Wallach et al. 2014). This is the only truly pelagic sea- . Kraig Adler: A Lifetime Promoting Herpetology ...... Michael L. Treglia 234

COMMENTARY . The Turtles Have Been Watching Me ...... Eric Gangloff 238

BOOK REVIEW . Threatened Amphibians of the World edited by S.N. Stuart, M. Hoffmann, J.S. Chanson, N.A. Cox, R. Berridge, P. Ramani, and B.E. Young ...... Robert Powell 243

 CONSERVATION RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Conservation Research Reports ...... 245  NATURAL HISTORY RESEARCH REPORTS: Summaries of Published Reports on Natural History ...... 247  NEWBRIEFS ...... 248  EDITORIAL INFORMATION ...... 251  FOCUS ON CONSERVATION: A Project You Can Support ...... 252

Front Cover. Shannon Plummer. Back Cover. Michael Kern Totat et velleseque audant mo Totat et velleseque audant mo estibus inveliquo velique rerchil estibus inveliquo velique rerchil erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus erspienimus, quos accullabo. Ilibus aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum aut dolor apicto invere pe dolum fugiatis maionsequat eumque fugiatis maionsequat eumque moditia erere nonsedis ma sectiatur moditia erere nonsedis ma sectia- ma derrovitae voluptam, as quos tur ma derrovitae voluptam, as accullabo.

Fig. 1. A Bare-throated Tiger Heron (Tigrisoma mexicanum) grabbing a Yellow-headed Seasnake (Hydrophis platurus) by the head (left) before swallowing it (right). Notice the other avian predator, a Yellow-headed Caracara (Milvago chimachima), another species frequently encountered along the Pacific shore of Costa Rica. Photographs by Gabriel Calvo Benavides.

Copyright is held by the authors. Articles in R&A are made available under a 94 Reptiles & Amphibians ISSN 2332-4961 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license. NUÑEZ AND CALVO REPTILES & AMPHIBIANS • 28(1):94–95 • APR 2021 snake, with a life cycle occurring entirely in the water, where grasping its head, the bird began its meal (Fig. 1). The heron individuals often can be seen floating at the surface 1–20 m regurgitated the snake once but swallowed it a second time. from shore (Kropach 1975; Voris 1983; Campbell and Lamar We were unable to determine if the heron suffered any ill 2004). In Costa Rica, this species is encountered most fre- effects or regurgitated the snake after swallowing it the second quently in gulfs, bays, and other areas relatively near to the time. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report shore. At the beginning of the dry season, individuals some- of a Bare-throated Tiger Heron feeding on a Yellow-bellied times are stranded on the shore, a consequence of strong sea- Seasnake. sonal winds and ocean currents (Solórzano 2004; Solórzano and Kastiel 2015). Literature Cited Relatively few predation events on this species have been Caldwell, G.S. and R.W. Rubinoff. 1983. Avoidance of venomous sea snakes by documented (Heatwole 1975, 1999; Solórzano 2004), per- naïve herons and egrets. The Auk 100: 195–198. Campbell, J.A. and W.W. Lamar 2004. The Venomous Reptiles of the Western haps attributable to its aposematic coloration, toxic skin, and Hemisphere. Volume I. Comstock Publishing Associates, Cornell University a lack of palatability (Rubinoff and Kropach 1970; Kropach Press, Ithaca, New York, USA. 1975; Caldwell and Rubinoff 1983). However, wounds Duellman, W.E. 1961. The amphibians and reptiles of Michoacán, México. University of Kansas Publications, Museum of Natural History 15: 1–148. and scars found on seasnakes (Rubinoff and Kropach 1970; https://doi.org/10.5962/bhl.part.7287. Kropach 1973; Dunson in Heatwole 1975; Weldon and Heatwole, H. 1975. Predation on sea snakes, pp. 233–249. In: W.A. Dunson (ed.), Vallarino 1988; Sheehy et al. 2011) suggest that predation The Biology of Sea Snakes. University Park Press, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. attempts might not be that rare. Heatwole, H. 1999. Sea Snakes. Australian Natural History Series, University of New South Wales Press Ltd., Sidney, New South Wales, Australia. Known predators of H. platurus include crabs (likely Heatwole, H. and E.P. Finnie. 1980. Seal predation on a sea snake. Herpetofauna Ocypode spp.; partially eaten individuals have been reported 11: 24. protruding from crab holes), a pufferfish (probably Sphoeroides Kropach, C.N. 1973. A field study of the sea snake Pelamis platurus (Linnaeus) in annulatus), Tiger Sharks (Galeocerdo cuvier), a Leopard Seal the Gulf of Panama. Unpubl. Ph.D. Dissertation, City University of New York, New York, New York, USA. (Hydruga leptonyx), and possibly a young Galapagos Sea Lion Kropach, C.N. 1975. The Yellow-bellied Sea Snake, Pelamis, in the Eastern Pacific, (Zalophus wollebaeki) (Duellman 1961; Heatwole and Finnie pp. 185–213. In: W.A. Dunson (ed.), The Biology of Sea Snakes. University 1980; Reynolds and Pickwell 1984; Masunaga et al. 2008; Park Press. Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Masunaga, G., T. Kosuge, N. Asai, and H. Ota. 2008. Shark predation of sea snakes Sheehy et al. 2011). Of these, the pufferfish and seal subse- (Reptilia: Elapidae) in the shallow waters around the Yaeyama Islands of the quently regurgitated the snakes, and the sea lion was observed southern Ryukyus, Japan. Marine Biodiversity Records 1: e96. https://doi. vomiting but the body of a snake was not found. Birds also org/10.1017/S1755267207009700. Reynolds, R.P. and G.V. Pickwell. 1984. Records of the Yellowbellied Sea Snake are known predators of seasnakes (Heatwole 1999). A Lava (Pelamis platurus) from the Galápagos Islands. Copeia 1984: 786–789. https:// Gull (Larus fuliginosus) dropped a H. platurus onto a research doi.org/10.2307/1445170. vessel (Reynolds and Pickwell 1984) and Frigatebirds (Fregata Rubinoff, I. and C. Kropach. 1970. Differential reactions of Atlantic and Pacific magnificens) have been reported carrying snakes for a short predators to sea snakes. Nature 228: 1288–1290. Sheehy, C., III, J.B. Pfaller, H.B. Lillywhite, and H.F. Heatwole. 2011. Pelamis distance before dropping them into the water (Wetmore platura (Yellow-bellied Seasnake). Predation. Herpetological Review 42: 443. 1965; Sheehy et al. 2011). Predatory attacks also occur when Solórzano, A. 2004. Serpientes de Costa Rica: Distribución, Taxonomía e Historia snakes are stranded on beaches, a situation that makes them Natural/Snakes of Costa Rica: Distribution, Taxonomy, and Natural History. Instituto Nacional de Biodiversidad (INBio), Santo Domingo de Heredia, more vulnerable. A Wood Stork (Mycteria americana) and a Costa Rica. Common Black Hawk (Buteogallus anthracinus) are known Solórzano, A. and T. Kastiel. 2015. Hydrophis platurus. Predation by a Wood Stork to have taken a stranded H. platurus (Solórzano and Kastiel (Mycteria americana). Mesoamerican Herpetology 2: 121–123 2015; Solórzano and Sasa 2017). Solórzano, A. and M. Sasa. 2017. Hydrophis platurus. Predation by a Common Black-Hawk (Buteogallus anthracinus). Mesoamerican Herpetology 4: 431–433 Tide pools along the rocky beach at San Pedrillo, Voris, H.K. 1983. Pelamis platurus (Culebra de Mar, Pelagic Sea Snake), pp. 411– Corcovado National Park, support a variety of vertebrates 412. In: D.H. Janzen (ed.), Costa Rican Natural History. The University of and invertebrates that are most vulnerable during low tides. Chicago Press, Chicago, Illinois, USA. At 0847 h on 5 August 2019, GCB found a Yellow-bellied Wallach, V., K.L. Williams, and J. Boundy. 2014. Snakes of the World: A Catalogue of Living and Extinct Species. CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida, USA. Seasnake trapped in a pool. Unfortunately for the snake, an Weldon, P.J. and O. Vallarino. 1988. Wounds on the Yellow-bellied Sea Snake opportunistic Bare-throated Tiger Heron (Tigrisoma mexi- (Pelamis platurus) from Panamá: Evidence of would-be predators? Biotropica canum), one of many species of predatory birds that patrol 20: 174–176. Wetmore, A. 1965. The birds of the Republic of Panamá. Part 1.—Tinamidae this beach in search of a meal, captured the snake and beat it (Tinamous) to Rynchopidae (Skimmers). Smithsonian Miscellaneous against the rocks. Once the heron immobilized the snake by Collections 150(1): iv + 483 pp.