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University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
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Litter, Color Variation, And Sex Effects On Feeding And Anti-Predator Behavior In Individual Thamnophis Sirtalis, Jennifer F. Porter, Gordon M. Burghardt
Litter, Color Variation, And Sex Effects On Feeding And Anti-Predator Behavior In Individual Thamnophis Sirtalis, Jennifer F. Porter, Gordon M. Burghardt
Faculty Publications and Other Works -- Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
There are stark coloration differences within single populations of Thamnophis sirtalis such as the Isle Royale population. While these red color patterns cause the snakes to stand out, it is unsure if it is for some defensive purpose such as aposematic coloring. To see if this or other genetic factors, sex, and relatedness with litters, could influence behavior anti-predator and feeding tests were performed on 38 captive-born neonate T. sirtalis. The feeding experiment recorded the latency of feeding from placement of the piece of night crawler to food capture. The anti-predator experiment recorded reactions to a probe touching each snake …