Snake of the Meadows (little something I wrote...)

[Comrade Tortoise]

Snake of the Meadows
Environmental Determinants of Life History Strategies in Garter Snakes

Benjamin Allen
Graduate Student
University of Texas at Arlington
Biol 5310


The genus Thamnophis is a monophyletic clade (Alfaro and Arnold, 2001) of aquatic to semi-terrestrial snakes in the subfamily Natricinae, nested within the (probably paraphyletic) squamate family Colubridae. Garter snakes have been the subject of extensive ecological study including predator-prey dynamics (Mullin et al., 2004, Kiesecker et al., 1996, Drummond et al., 1983), chemoreception (Mullin et al., 2004), and are particularly amenable to studies of life history. Due to their propensity to gather in large breeding and hibernation aggregates with high site fidelity, and their ease of maintenance in the lab. This particular group has been chosen because of the ecological relevance of their life history trait values on the communities in which they live.

Snakes often occupy a middle-position in food webs, acting as both predator and prey. This makes their reproductive energetics particularly important because their life history traits and populations can have cascading effects on entire communities of organisms. This makes them important for those concerned not only with evolutionary and ecological questions, but also for those concerned with conservation of native communities. Garter snakes are interesting to me because of my interest in their role as a predator on non-native amphibians within their range (Stebbins, 2005), particularly as a driving force in the evolution of anti-predator behavior, and the effects these interactions between predator and prey can have on entire ecological communities.

As a focus I have decided to examine patterns of energetic investment in growth, reproduction, and body maintenance in garter snakes. I am giving particular attention to the effects of temperature and mortality regimes, and food availability have on reproductive strategies and growth rates in garter snakes. However in order to understand these processes it is also desirable to know whether garter snakes are income or capital breeders, and I include this in my analysis as well.

In order to investigate these issues, a search through web of science was run using the key words “Thamnophisâ€