The influence of body condition and prey availability on female breeding success in the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca Laurenti)

Abstract

A study of individually marked smooth snakes Coronella austriaca was carried out in Wareham Forest, southern England between 1992 and 2001. On average, approximately one-third of potential breeding females reproduced each year and within this group, the proportion breeding was positively correlated with snout-vent length (SVL). Successful breeders had a higher than average body condition at the start of the breeding year compared with unsuccessful breeders. The density of gravid females was positively correlated with prey density in the breeding year but not in the year preceding it. No significant relationships were found between the density of non-breeding females and prey density in either the breeding year or the preceding year. Although most breeding females did not produce young in consecutive years, a small proportion did. There was a weak positive relationship between clutch size and female SVL. This study suggests that the potential for female smooth snakes to breed is provided by stored energy reserves but that this potential is regulated by prey availability in the breeding year.

Inbreeding, body condition, and heterozygosity-fitness correlations in isolated populations of the endangered eastern massasauga rattlesnake (Sistrurus c. catenatus)

“…Geographic variation in fitness-related traits such as condition could be due to local adaptation resulting from genetic differences (Bronikowski and Arnold 1999) or plasticity in response to local environmental conditions (Madsen and Shine 2008). Although these populations show the high degree of genetic structure required for local adaptation to be maintained , we feel that environmental influences are likely more significant because of the repeated demonstration that ecological factors such as prey availability have a significant influence body condition in snakes (Gregory 2006;Reading 2004;Taylor et al 2005;Madsen and Shine 2008;Sperry and Weatherhead 2008). This conclusion is also supported by the observation that populations that are geographically very close to one another (e.g.…”

“…In terms of variation in prey, there is evidence for variation in abundance and diversity of small mammals at each population that could influence snake diet (Reading 2004;Sperry and Weatherhead 2008). Specifically, analysis of diet using stable isotope techniques show evidence for among-population level variation in diet in these snakes (Chiucchi JE, unpublished data).…”

Factors affecting variation in the reproductive investment of female treefrogs, Hyla intermedia

“…Some females may be genetically more efficient than others in converting external resources into metabolic energy or they may experience different environmental conditions, because of the spatial or seasonal heterogeneity of prey abundance (Kaplan, 1987;Madsen and Shine, 1999;Reading, 2004;Santos et al, 2005). Whatever the causes (genes, environment or gene-environment interaction), if resource variation is responsible for variation in fecundity, then we should expect, at the population level, patterns of co-variation largely inconsistent with those predicted by lifehistory tradeoffs, because females that have larger resources at their disposal may invest more both in growth and in reproduction than females with few resources (de Jong and van Noordwijk, 1992;Roff and Fairbairn, 2007).…”

Fine-scale population genetic structure and sex-biased dispersal in the smooth snake (Coronella austriaca) in southern England

“…Radio-tracking studies suggest C. austriaca to be sedentary in nature (Gent and Spellerberg, 1993), with adults becoming sexually mature at 4 years of age and potentially living in excess of 17 years (Reading, 2004b). Although widely distributed throughout continental Europe and areas of western Asia, C. austriaca populations in the United Kingdom are limited to lowland heathland habitats in Dorset, Hampshire and Surrey (Braithwaite et al, 1989).…”