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Keywords
- Demökologie (1)
- Population Ecology (1)
- Sinonatrix (1)
- Taiwan (1)
- Wassernattern (1)
Since November 1997, we started to focus on the population ecology of two sympatric Sinonatrix snakes in the Chutzuhu swamp, northern Taiwan. At the same time we also examined some specimens from Senckenberg Natural History Museum, Frankfurt am Main and accumulated field data of some observation made on S. percarinata suriki from Fushan botanical garden, Sanping and Gaoshu, Taiwan. According to the specimens examined, we suspect that the close phylogeny of S. percarinata suriki may come from two ancestors, northeast Taiwan population closest to Fujien or Zehjiang and the southwest population closest to Guandong or Vietnam. This pattern was also represented in some molecular phylogeny studies of freshwater fish in Taiwan. There were 22,462 trap-nights, taken from the Chutzuhu swamp, during the period November 1999 to September 2001 and 361 snakes were collected, comprising five species and 617 snake-times. The population sizes were based on the Lincoln-Peterson index and were estimated to be 988-±326 in S. annularis and 129-±78 in S. percarinata suriki. Movement and home range data showed S. annularis is a restricted activity water snake and S. percarinata suriki possesses great mobility in spatial patterns, but movement ability seems to be influenced by the size of the aquatic environment. S. annularis is live-bearing, on average 8.19 neonates and this principally occurs in September; S. percarinata suriki lays 6-24 eggs, but due to insufficient observations no conclusions can be drawn. It must be noted that oviposition was also noted in September. The reproductive mode may reflect on thermal requirement differences of the two sympatric snakes. S. annularis tended to be a fish (98%) eater and S. percarinata suriki take 50% fish and 50% frogs in their diet. Middle to high ground cover marshland appears to be the favorite microhabitat of S. annularis, and S. percarinata suriki seems prefer open creeks and ditches. The population condition of S. annularis in the Chutzuhu swamp seems to be rapidly deteriorating and this trend is also reflected in the BCI declines, low proportion stomach contents and diseases of S. annularis. Water seems to be the major influencing factor and strongly correlates with the conservation strategy. Conservation proposals for S. annularis in the Chutzuhu swamp will be formulated. During this study period we also developed an efficient technique for snake morphological data accumulation and image database, with the aid of the following devices, PC notebook and scanner, which is adapted for practical field studies. We also want to propose a component system for the establishment of a fundamental snake population databases (FPDS) for long-term snake ecological studies and monitoring herein.