Does short-term provisioning of resources to prey result in behavioral shifts by rattlesnakes?

Abstract

Intentional provisioning of food and water at specific locations, commonly bird feeders and bird baths, may alter bird and mammal abundance, distribution, and recruitment; yet no studies have examined the indirect effects of resource supplementation on terrestrial reptilian mesopredators such as rattlesnakes. In the southwestern deserts of North America, anecdotal evidence suggests provisioning birds with food and water attracts rattlesnakes to exurban yards, either indirectly by increasing prey availability or directly through attraction to water. We conducted the first experimental test of this hypothesis by providing bird seed, water, or bird seed and water at 2 national monuments in Arizona, USA, and followed the responses of adult western diamond-backed rattlesnakes (Crotalus atrox) equipped with radiotransmitters, and endothermic prey species, primarily rodents, birds, and lagomorphs. We found differing responses among prey taxa to supplemental food and water provisioning: rodents showed no response to any treatment, birds responded to food treatments, and lagomorphs responded to water treatments. Overall, spatial responses by adult rattlesnakes were weak, but several subjects appeared to respond to individual treatment grids. We did not find evidence of a direct response by rattlesnakes to supplemental water. Overall, we found little support for the prevalent belief that food and water sources at provisioning stations increase local concentrations of rattlesnakes; we provide several explanations for this counter-intuitive result. Ó 2015 The Wildlife Society.

Diversity amphibians and reptiles at Sungai Kerteh mangrove forest, Terengganu, Malaysia

“…The highly saline environment makes it difficult for amphibians with highly permeable skin to thrive there (Hopkins and Brodie 2015), hence inhibiting dispersion and limiting diversity. This limited diversity and abundance of amphibians could also affect the abundance and diversity of reptiles as reptiles are also predators of amphibians and could drastically decline in population size when in shortage of food (Nowak et al 2015). Snakes, for example, are not able to survive with limited food (Shine and Koenig 2001) and the prey items carried by larger snakes were significantly more numerous and diverse than those carried by smaller snakes (Wolfe et al 2018).…”

Rattlesnake migrations and the implications of thermal landscapes

“…Animals may migrate in search of resources such as prey, mates or other suitable habitat conditions. Several studies link altered spatial behaviours to prey availability [23,82], whereas others indicate limited support for this effect [61,78]. In Wyoming, the movement of male rattlesnakes has been attributed to mate-searching [24].…”