PREDATION IN DIFFERENT PHENOTYPES OF VENOMOUS SNAKES IN ATLANTIC FOREST OF PARAÍBA, NORTHEAST BRAZIL
Palavras-chave:
Aposematism, Coloration, Elapidae, ViperidaeResumo
Studies about predation on snakes have been conducted under natural conditions using clay-model replicas that resemble different snake phenotypes. These replicas are excellent to assess the frequency of attacks by natural predators on color pattern or body morphology. The aim of this work was to assess predation rates on different phenotypes of venomous snakes in an area of Atlantic Forest of Northeast Brazil to verify antipredatory advantages of venomous snake phenotype comparing with harmless snakes. Several imprints were found in replicas, and birds were considered the main predators that attacked the snake clay-models. Our results showed that predators were able to discriminate phenotypes prior to attack and plain replicas were attacked more than venomous morphs. Also, coral snakes morph were more avoided than rattlesnake or pitviper morphs, indicating an advantage of the colorful phenotype of the extremely venomous coral compared with the snakes of the Viperidae family. We did not find differences in attacks directed to head or body portion of the replicas, and the antipredatory advantage of viperid snakes should work better with the combination of multiple strategies such as triangulation of the head, color patterns and aggressive behaviorDownloads
Referências
BRODIE, E. D., III. 1993 - Differential Avoidance of Coral Snake Banded Patterns by Free-Ranging Avian Predators in Costa Rica. Evolution 47(1): 227-235.
BRUGGER, K. E. 1989 - Red-tailed hawk dies with coral snake in talons. Copeia (2): 508-510.
BUASSO, C. M.; LEYNAUD, G. C. and CRUZ F. B. 2006 - Predation on snakes of Argentina: Effects of coloration and ring pattern on coral and false coral snakes. Studies on Neotropical Fauna and Environment 41(3): 183-188.
CAMPBELL, J. A. and LAMAR, W.W. 2004 - The Venomous Reptiles of the Western Hemisphere. Comstock Publishing Associates, Ithaca and London. 840 p.
CARDOSO, J. L. C.; FRANÇA, F. O. S.; WEN, F. H.; MALAQUE, C. M. S. and HADDAD JUNIOR, V. 2003 - Animais peçonhentos no Brasil: biologia, clínica e terapêutica dos acidentes. Sarvier, São Paulo. 468 p.
DELL’AGLIO, D. D.; TOMA, T. S. P.; MUELBERT, A. E.; SACCO, A. G. and TOZETTI, A. M. 2012 - Head triangulation as anti-predatory mechanism in snakes. Biota Neotropica 12(3): 315-318.
FRANÇA, F. G. R. 2008 - O mimetismo das serpentes corais em ambientes campestres, savânicos e florestais da América do Sul. Tese de Doutorado. Universidade de Brasília, Brasília. 153 p.
FRANÇA, R. C.; GERMANO, C. E. S. and FRANÇA, F. G. R. 2012 - Composition of a snake assemblage inhabiting an urbanized area in the Atlantic Forest of Paraíba State, Northeast Brazil. Biota Neotropica 12(3): 183-195.
GREENE, H. W. and MCDIARMID, R. W. 2005 - Wallace and Savage: Heroes, theories, and venomous snake mimicry; pp. 190208. In: DONNELLY, M.A.; CROTHER, B. I.; GUYER, C. E.; WAKE, M. H. and WHITE, M. E. (Eds.), Ecology and Evolution in the Tropics: A Herpetological Perspective. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
HARPER JR, G. R. and PFENNIG, D. W. 2008 - Mimicry on the edge: why do mimics vary in resemblance to their model in different parts of their geographical range? Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 274(1621): 1955-1961.
HARRELL, F. E., JR. 2011 - rms: Regression Modeling Strategies. R package version 3.3-0. Disponível em http://CRAN.R-project.org/package=rms. Acesso em: 13 agosto 2014.
HECKEL, J. O.; SISSON, D. C. and QULST, C. F. 1994 - Apparent Fatal Snakebite in Three Hawks. Journal of Wildlife Diseases 30(4): 616-619.
KUNO, E. 1987 - Principles of predator–prey interaction in theoretical, experimental, and natural population systems. Advances in Ecological Research 16: 249-337.
MADSEN, T. 1987 - Are juvenile grass snakes, Natrix natrix, aposematically colored? Oikos 48(3): 265-267.
GUIMARÃES, M. and SAWAYA, R. J. 2011 - Pretending to be venomous: is a snake's head shape a trustworthy signal to a predator? Journal of Tropical Ecology 27(4): 437439.
GUIMARÃES, M. and SAWAYA, R. J. 2012 - The snake headshape signal: a reply to Valkonen & Mappes. Journal of Tropical Ecology 28(1): 125126.
NISKANEN, M. and MAPPES, J. 2005 - Significance of the dorsal zigzag pattern of Vipera latastei gaditana against avian predators. Journal of Animal Ecology 74(6): 1091-1101.
PFENNIG D. W. and MULLEN S. P. 2010 - Mimics without models: causes and consequences of allopatry in Batesian mimicry. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 277(1694): 2577-2585.
R DEVELOPMENT CORE TEAM. 2010 - R: A language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna, Austria. Disponível em <http://www.R-project.org>. Acesso em: 13 agosto 2014.
REIS, N. L.; PERACHI, A. L.; PEDRO, W. A. and LIMA, I. P. 2006 - Mamíferos do Brasil. Universidade Estadual de Londrina, Londrina. 437 p.
RODRIGUES, F. H. G. 2005 - Bothrops neuwiedii pauloensis (jararaca-rabo-de-osso). Predation. Herpetological Review 36(1): 67-68.
ROZE, J. A. 1996 - Coral Snakes of the Americas: Biology, Identification, and Venoms. Krieger Publishing Company, Florida. 340 p.
RUXTON, G. D.; SHERRATT, T. N. and SPEED, M. P. 2004 - Avoiding Attack: The Evolutionary Ecology of Crypsis, Warning Signals and Mimicry. Oxford University Press, Oxford. 264 p.
STEVENS, M. and RUXTON, G. D. 2012 - Linking the evolution and form of warning coloration in nature. Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 279(1728): 417-426.
VALKONEN, J. K. and MAPPES, J. 2012 - Comments on Guimarães & Sawaya. Pretending to be venomous: is a snake's head shape a trustworthy signal to a predator? Journal of Tropical Ecology 28(1): 123124.
VALKONEN, JK; NOKELAINEN, O and MAPPES, J. 2011 - Antipredatory Function of Head Shape for Vipers and Their Mimics. PLoS ONE 6(7): e22272.
WÜSTER, W.; ALLUM, C. S. E.; BJARGARDOTTIR, I. B.; BAILEY, K. L.; DAWSON, K. J.; GUENIOUI, J.; LEWIS, J.; MCGURK, J.; MOORE, A. G.; NISKANEN, M. and POLLARD, C. P. 2004 - Do aposematism and Batesian mimicry require bright colours? A test, using European viper markings. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London Series B- Biological Sciences 271(1556): 2495-2499.
Downloads
Publicado
Edição
Seção
Licença
Os originais aceitos e publicados tornam-se propriedade da Revista Nordestina de Biologia, sendo vedada sua reprodução total ou parcial, sem a devida autorização da Comissão Editorial, exceto para uso de estudo e pesquisa, desde que citada a fonte.
