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Full-Text Articles in Life Sciences
Managed Areas As Ecological Traps For Snakes In An Exotic Plant-Invaded Landscape, Evin Carter, Bruce Kingsbury
Managed Areas As Ecological Traps For Snakes In An Exotic Plant-Invaded Landscape, Evin Carter, Bruce Kingsbury
Bruce A Kingsbury Ph.D.
Areas such as wildlife refuges or parks offer important opportunities for the protection of imperiled wildlife. Unfortunately, conflicting practices and objectives with respect to natural resource management and general property management can potentially lead to negative outcomes such as the decline or extirpation local flora or fauna. Here, we provide direct evidence of the impacts of property management and restoration activities on a population of Northern Copperheads ( Agkistrodon contortrix mokasen ) in southern Indiana, showing that several managed habitats can and do attract Northern Copperheads and simultaneously place them at greater risk of injury and/or mortality. At the same …
Impacts Of Invasive Plants On Resource Selection And Thermoregulation By A North American Pitviper (Agkistrodon Contortrix Mokasen), Evin Carter, Bruce Kingsbury
Impacts Of Invasive Plants On Resource Selection And Thermoregulation By A North American Pitviper (Agkistrodon Contortrix Mokasen), Evin Carter, Bruce Kingsbury
Bruce A Kingsbury Ph.D.
Invasive plants have been identified as a potential factor in the decline of many forms of wildlife. Nevertheless, there is a paucity of clear evidence regarding causative mechanisms. We therefore investigated the effects of nonnative invasive plants on resource selection and thermoregulation by 22 radio-tagged Northern Copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix mokasen) in southern Indiana. Copperheads exhibited clear avoidance of most invasive plant species at multiple spatial scales, with exotic shrubs having the greatest influence on copperhead habitat selection. Avoidance appears to be at least partially attributable to limited thermoregulatory opportunities within exotic plant-dominated habitats relative to native habitats, with exotic shrub …