Marking the un-markable: visible implant elastomer in wild juvenile snakes

Tom Major; Devlan R. Alkins; Lauren Jeffrey; Wolfgang Wüster

doi:10.33256/hj30.3.173176

Marking the un-markable: visible implant elastomer in wild juvenile snakes

Tom Major, Devlan R. Alkins, Lauren Jeffrey, Wolfgang Wüster

School of Environmental & Natural Sciences

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Abstract

Marking individuals is a key component of many ecological studies, but with some animals, such as juvenile snakes, it has proven problematic because of size constraints. This impedes our understanding of their habits in the wild. We marked juvenile Aesculapian snakes (Zamenis longissimus) in North Wales with visible implant elastomer (VIE), and recaptured them the following season. Our results demonstrate that the use of VIE is an effective marking method for small snakes, negating the need for tissue removal when marking. We suggest it represents a promising development in the ecological study of snakes, and is especially useful in species that undergo ontogenetic pattern changes.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	173-176
Number of pages	4
Journal	Herpetological Journal
Volume	30
Issue number	3
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.33256/hj30.3.173176
Publication status	Published - 1 Jul 2020

Keywords

Capture-mark-recapture
ecology
tagging
fluorescent
ontogenetic change

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30-3-173-176Final published version, 2.07 MBLicence: Unspecified

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AU - Alkins, Devlan R.

AU - Jeffrey, Lauren

AU - Wüster, Wolfgang

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N2 - Marking individuals is a key component of many ecological studies, but with some animals, such as juvenile snakes, it has proven problematic because of size constraints. This impedes our understanding of their habits in the wild. We marked juvenile Aesculapian snakes (Zamenis longissimus) in North Wales with visible implant elastomer (VIE), and recaptured them the following season. Our results demonstrate that the use of VIE is an effective marking method for small snakes, negating the need for tissue removal when marking. We suggest it represents a promising development in the ecological study of snakes, and is especially useful in species that undergo ontogenetic pattern changes.

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KW - Capture-mark-recapture

KW - ecology

KW - tagging

KW - fluorescent

KW - ontogenetic change

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JF - Herpetological Journal

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Marking the un-markable: visible implant elastomer in wild juvenile snakes

Abstract

Keywords

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