Search

Terrestrial habitats around wetlands are important in wetland conservation because many vertebrate animals use them during part of their life cycle. There is relatively little information concerning terrestrial habitat use by aquatic snakes adjacent to wetlands. Radiotelemetry was used to study the spatial ecology and terrestrial habitat use of Nerodia e. erythrogaster in the upper coastal plain of northern South Carolina. Snakes used terrestrial habitats extensively during the summer and fall. Use of both wetlands and southern mixed hardwood forest were significantly greater than predicted by habitat availability within the snakes' home ranges. Agricultural fields were used significantly less than predicted. A distance of 344 m from wetlands is necessary to encompass 95% of the terrestrial localities documented in this study. Home range estimates based on 95% fixed kernels were significantly larger than those calculated using the 95% minimum convex polygon methods. Home range estimates for this ...

streets, I had my first glance of Professor Edward Drinker Cope. He stood opposite me, placidly smoking a cigar, and appeared very erect as he awaited transportation at Nineteenth Street. James Eggleston Richardson, then a young Jessup student at the Academy and working over the mineral collection, pointed out Cope to me and talked of his great works in natural history, especially paleontology. He told me in some detail of the many new forms of vertebrate animals, both living and extinct, which Cope had described in various publications. Although I was well impressed by Richardson's comments, it was not until some time later that the full force of Cope's personality, aptitudes, and kindly regard for his colleagues were registered upon me. Those were exalted times for me; I was but 17 years old when I first saw Cope. In the years that followed, I encountered him many times, especially during his frequent visits to the Academy. Although most of those visits were of short duration, the contacts left an indelible impression on me. The Zoological Gardens in Philadelphia were continually losing various small reptiles, birds, and mammals which died in captivity. Members of our staff were required to visit the Gardens, act as errand boys, and bring the dead specimens back to the Academy. On one occasion I went over to secure a dead mammal. On my return, Cope met me at the door of the Academy and, seeing that the animal was partly unwrapped, asked me about it. I told him it had been identified as a vulpine phalanger at the Gardens where I had seen it or another like it on exhibit. It was an Aus

FLOWER, S. S. 1925. Contributions to our knowledge of the duration of life in vertebrate animals. II. Batrachians. Proc. Zool. Soc. London: 269-89. 1936. Further notes on the duration of life in animals. II. Amphibia. Proc. Zool. Soc. London: 369-94. FORCE, EDITH R. 1933. The age of attainment of sexual maturity of the leopard frog, Rana pipiens (Schreber), in northern Michigan. COPEIA (3): 128-31. HAMILTON, W. J., JR. 1934. The rate of growth of the toad (Bufo americanus americanus Holbrook) under natural conditions. COPEIA (2): 88-90. 1948. The food and feeding behavior of the green frog, Rana clamitans Latreille, in New York State. COPEIA (3): 203-7. RANEY, EDWARD C., AND WILLIAM MARCUS INGRAM. 1941. Growth of tagged frogs (Rana catesbeiana Shaw and Rana clamitans Daudin) under natural conditions. Amer. Midi. Nat., 26 (1): 201-6. AND ERNEST A. LACHNER. 1947. Studies on the growth of tagged toads (Bufo terrestris americanus Holbrook). COPEIA (2): 113-16. TING, HAN-PO. 1951. Duration of the tadpole stage of the green frog, Rana clamitans. COPEIA (1): 82. WRIGHT, ALBERT HAZEN. 1914. Life-histories of the Anura of Ithaca, New York. Carnegie Inst. Washington, Pub. 197: 1-98. 1920. Frogs: their natural history and utilization. U. S. Bureau of Fisheries, Doc. 888: 1-44. 1932. Life-histories of the frogs of Okefinokee Swamp, Georgia. Macmillan, New York: 1-497. AND ANNA ALLEN WRIGHT. 1949. Handbook of frogs and toads. Comstock Pub. Co., New York: 1-640.

methodes of collecting and preserving vertebrate animals , methodes of collecting and preserving vertebrate animals , مرکز فناوری اطلاعات و اطلاع رسانی کشاورزی

LONGEVITY OF Lampropeltis triangulum amaura.-Information as to the life span of snakes, especially of the smaller forms, accumulates slowly. Major S. S. Flower has summarized all the records known to him of life span of vertebrate animals in a useful set of papers published in the Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London (1925-1937). Of the harmless snakes listed, a garter snake was credited with 11 years and a pilot blacksnake with 14 years, these being the longest periods that individuals of these American species were known to have lived. In general 20 to 29 years was the life span of the longest lived large snakes. Pope (1937: 28) points out that the records seem to indicate that pythons live longer than the smaller snakes, but that this may be because the smaller snakes are more easily replaced and hence do not receive the care afforded the larger pythons and boas. However, Pope cites a note by Schumann of a European leopard snake that lived in the Sofia Zoo for 25 years, the longest known life span for any snake. As the leopard snake (Elaphe situla) is seldom more than a yard in length, Pope concludes that a generalization on the relationship between long life span and size of species is unwarranted for snakes. No records are given for the very small species and it is therefore of interest to report on two specimens of Lampropeltis triangulum amaura in my collection, one of which died on July 22, 1944, after 12 years in captivity. The second snake, which has lived for 9 years in the same portable cage (12" x 15" x 12") with the first one, is still in excellent condition. Notes on the life history and habits of these relatively rare "scarlet king snakes" were reported some years ago (COPEIA, 1940: 165). At that time it was stated that from the size of these two snakes when captured (14 inches and 10 inches respectively) and of several others that have been in my possession, it was inferred that the older snake was two years old when captured and the younger, one year old. Based on these conservative assumptions, the snake that died may have been 14 years old and the second is now thought to be 10 years old. Both snakes, as reported previously, are females. The older specimen was 231/2 inches long at time of death, having gained only 212 inches in 5 years. It was quite slender (about one-half inch in diameter) but not emaciated, and had fed regularly on Anolis to the last week. For a year and a half (since March, 1943) this snake had shown no visible tongue motions whatever. When this was first noticed it was believed that death would soon follow but there appeared to be no change in feeding habits or in health and condition up to the end. Especially noticeable was the ease and regularity of moulting, as remarked in the previous article. The gentle, quiet disposition of this snake throughout its long captivity was in direct contrast to that of the surviving cage mate, which is nervous and irritable and resents handling.