Evidence for Philopatry and Homing in a New World Elapid Snake

Animal navigation allows individuals to efficiently find and use best available habitats. Despite the long history of research into well-studied taxa (e.g., pigeons, salmon, sea turtles), we know relatively little about squamate navigational abilities. Among snakes, documented philopatry (range main...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inbioRxiv
Main Authors Hall, Alexander S, Abigail M K V zquez-Quinto, Antonio Ram rez-Vel zquez, Smith, Eric N
Format Paper
LanguageEnglish
Published Cold Spring Harbor Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press 09.12.2016
Subjects
Elapidae
Homing behavior
Micrurus diastema apiatus
Navigation behavior
Philopatry
Rare species
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Summary:Animal navigation allows individuals to efficiently find and use best available habitats. Despite the long history of research into well-studied taxa (e.g., pigeons, salmon, sea turtles), we know relatively little about squamate navigational abilities. Among snakes, documented philopatry (range maintenance) in a non-colubrid species has been rare. In this study, we document the first example of philopatry and homing in a new world elapid snake, Micrurus apiatus. Our data come from the first multi-year mark-recapture study of this species at the open urban preserve Zool gico Regional Miguel lvarez del Toro, in Tuxtla Guti rrez, Chiapas, Mexico. We show that on average snakes returned to within 144 m of their last capture point. By releasing snakes in one location, we noted that recaptured individuals preferentially returned to their last capture location, compared to a distribution of random locations in the park. We conclude with a preliminary discussion of the evolution of snake homing and potential mechanisms.
DOI:10.1101/092833