Death of a Juvenile False Coral Snake, Oxyrhopus Guibei

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Death of a Juvenile False Coral Snake, Oxyrhopus Guibei Herpetology Notes, volume 8: 153-154 (2015) (published online on 10 April 2015) Death of a juvenile false coral snake, Oxyrhopus guibei (Hoge & Romano, 1977) (Serpentes: Dipsadidae), after ingesting a tropical house gecko, Hemidactylus mabouia (Moreau de Jonnès, 1818) (Sauria: Gekkonidae) Rodrigo Samuel Bueno Gavira1,*, Ailton Fabrício-Neto2 and Denis Vieira Andrade1 Some snakes have the ability to feed on comparatively At 1430 h on 04 July 2013, we collected a live large prey (Gavira and Andrade, 2013), which, in some juvenile false coral snake, O. guibei (body mass after cases, may exceed their own body masses (Greene, prey removal: 5.25 g, total length 28.7 cm), on the grass 1983, 1992; Secor and Diamond, 1997). Following prey next to a food warehouse, in the municipality of Rio ingestion, snakes must complete digestion before the Claro, São Paulo State, southeast Brazil (22.23314°S, prey begins to putrefy inside their gut due to bacterial 47.34286°W; 620 m a.s.l.). The snake had a bloated action (Pough et al., 2003). mid-body (Figure 1A) and attempted to regurgitate Oxyrhopus guibei Hoge and Romano, 1977 is a several times, but ended up deceasing about three hours terrestrial South American false coral snake, occurring after capture. in Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina (Hoge and Upon dissection, we found that the snake had ingested, Romano, 1977; Zaher and Caramaschi, 1992). This headfirst, a tropical house gecko, Hemidactylus species has crepuscular-nocturnal activity, inhabiting mabouya (Figure 1B). The prey, even though partially forest edges, open habitats, and urban areas (Sazima digested (note the absence of the gecko’s head and and Abe, 1991). Oxyrhopus guibei feeds mainly on anterior limbs in Figure 1B), still represented ca. 72% of rodents and small lizards (Andrade and Silvano, 1996; the snake’s body mass and 45% of its total length. Both França et al., 2008; Alencar et al., 2009; Barbo et al., voucher specimens were deposited in the Herpetological 2011), and is also known for preying on considerably Collection of the Instituto Butantan, São Paulo, SP large prey, sometimes even exceeding its ingestion (IBSP 86169). capacity (Sazima and Martins, 1990). Herein, we report Snake deaths presumably related to the inability to an episode of feeding-related mortality of a juvenile O. digest oversized prey have been previously reported guibei following the consumption of an adult tropical (e.g. Leavitt, 2010; Cavalcanti et al., 2012; Arsovski house gecko, Hemidactylus mabouia Moreau de Jonnès, et al., 2014), including in a congeneric species, O. 1818. petolarius Linnaeus, 1758 (Nogueira et al., 2013). Hence, some snakes’ misevaluation of their ability to capture, ingest (see Sazima and Martins, 1990), and digest comparatively oversized prey, mainly by naive individuals, may prove highly maladaptive. Acknowledgement. We are grateful to Jonathan Forte de Castro for 1 Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Departamento de field and handling assistance and to Valdir José Germano, for collection Zoologia, Instituto de Biociências. Avenida 24-A, 1.515, management. Financial support was provided by the Fundação de CEP 13506-900, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil. Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP; to RSBG and 2 Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP), Departamento de to DVA) and Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Ecologia, Instituto de Biociências. Avenida 24-A, 1.515, Tecnológico (CNPq; to AFN and to DVA). Collecting permit was CEP 13506-900, Rio Claro, SP, Brazil. issued by Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Natural Renewable * Corresponding author: [email protected] Resources (IBAMA; process number 22028-1). 154 Rodrigo Samuel Bueno Gavira et al. Figure 1. A) The bloated body of a freshly dead juvenile Oxyrhopus guibei after ingesting a house gecko; B) Juvenile O. guibei with its stomach contents, a partially digested Hemidactylus mabouia. References Leavitt, D.J. (2010): Sistrurus catenatus edwardsii (Desert Massasauga). Diet, Prey Size, and Feeding Related Mortality. Alencar, L.R.V., Galdino, C.A.B., Nascimento, L.B. (2009): Herpetological Review 41: 98. Oxyrhopus guibei: Diet. Herpetological Review 3: 357-358. Nogueira, C.H.O., Figueiredo-de-Andrade, C.A., Freitas, N.N. Andrade, R.O., Silvano, R.A.M. (1996): Feeding behavior and (2013): Death of a juvenile snake Oxyrhopus petolarius diet of the Oxyrhopus guibei Hoge & Romano (Serpentes, (Linnaeus, 1758) after eating an adult house gecko Hemidactylus Colubridae). Revista Brasileira de Zoologia 13(1): 143-150. mabouia (Moreau de Jonnès, 1818). Herpetology Notes 6: 39- Arsovski, D., Ajtić, R., Golubović, A., Trajčeska, I., Đorđević, S., 43. Anđelković, M., Bonnet, X., Tomović, L. (2014): Two fangs Pough, F.H., Andrews, R.M., Cadle, J.E., Crump, M.L., Savitsky, good, a hundred legs better: juvenile viper devoured by an adult A.H., Wells, K.D. (2003): Herpetology, 3rd Edition. New centipede it had ingested. Ecologica Montenegrina 1: 6-8. Jersey, Prentice-Hall. Barbo, F.E., Marques, O.A.V., Sawaya, R.J. (2011): Diversity, Sazima, I., Abe, A.S. (1991): Habits of five Brazilian snakes with natural history, and distribution of snakes in the municipality of coral-snake pattern, including a summary of defensive tactics. São Paulo. South American Journal of Herpetology 6(3): 135- Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment 26(3): 159- 160. 164. Cavalcanti, L.B.Q., Santos-Protázio, A., Albuquerque, R.L., Pedro, Sazima, I., Martins, M. (1990): Presas grandes e serpentes jovens: C.K.B., Mesquita, D.O. (2012): Death of a coral snake Micrurus Quando os olhos são maiores que a boca. Memórias do Instituto ibiboboca (Merrem, 1820) (Elapidae) due to failed predation Butantan 52(3): 73-79. on bigger prey: a cat-eyed night snake Leptodeira annulata Secor, S.M., Diamond, J. (1997): Effects of meal size on (Linnaeus, 1758) (Dipsadidae). Herpetology Notes 5: 129-131. postprandial responses in juvenile Burmese pythons (Python França, F.G.R., Mesquita, D.O, Nogueira, C.C., Araújo, A.F.B. molurus). American Journal of Physiology 272(3): 902-912. (2008): Phylogeny and ecology determine morphological Zaher, H., Caramaschi, U. (1992): Sur le statut taxinomique structure in a snake assemblage in the central Brazilian Cerrado. d’Oxyrhopus trigeminus et O. guibei (Serpentes, Xenodontinae). Copeia 2008(1): 23-38. Bulletin du Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle 14(3-4): 805- Gavira, R.S.B., Andrade, D.V. (2013): Meal size effects on 827. the postprandial metabolic response of Bothrops alternatus (Serpentes: Viperidae). Zoologia 30: 291-295. Greene, H.W. (1983): Dietary correlates of the origin and radiation of snakes. American Zoologist 23: 431-441. Greene, H.W. (1992): The ecological and behavioral context for pitvipers’ evolution. In: Biology of the Pitvipers, p. 107-117. Campbell, J.A., Brodie, E.D., Eds., Selva Tyler, Texas. Hoge, A.R., Romano, A.R.W.D.L. (1977): Description of a new Accepted by Zoltán Nagy subspecies of Oxyrhopus Wagler (Serpentes, Colubridae). Memórias do Instituto Butantan 40/41: 55-62. Death of a juvenile false-coral snake, after ingesting a Tropical house gecko XX.
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