Department of Biological Sciences, Saint Anselm College, 100 Saint Anselm Drive, Manchester, NH 03102, USA.
Integr Comp Biol. 2020 Aug 1;60(2):476-486. doi: 10.1093/icb/icaa020.
In response to the growing number of amphibian and reptiles species in decline, many conservation managers have implemented captive breeding and headstarting programs in an effort to restore these populations. However, many of these programs suffer from low survival success, and it is often unclear as to why some individuals do not survive after reintroduction. Here I document changes to head morphology in the eastern garter snake, Thamnophis sirtalis, in response to time spent in captivity. Thamnophis raised on three diet treatments all differed in head size from wild individuals, and head size differed between the three treatments. Overall, head size was smaller in all three diet treatments than in wild snakes, potentially limiting the available prey for the captive garter snakes. Allometric patterns of growth in head size were also different for each diet treatment. Several potential implications of these changes in morphology are discussed, and what these changes may mean for other species that are part of headstarting and reintroduction programs.
为了应对不断减少的两栖类和爬行类物种数量，许多保护管理者已经实施了圈养繁殖和预先放归计划，以努力恢复这些种群。然而，这些计划中的许多都面临着低成活率的问题，而且往往不清楚为什么有些个体在重新引入后无法存活。在这里，我记录了东部束带蛇（Thamnophis sirtalis）在圈养环境下头部形态的变化。在三种不同的饮食处理中饲养的束带蛇的头部大小均与野生个体不同，而且三种处理之间的头部大小也存在差异。总的来说，所有三种饮食处理组的头部大小都小于野生蛇，这可能限制了圈养束带蛇的可用猎物。头部大小的生长也因饮食处理而异。讨论了这些形态变化的几种潜在影响，以及这些变化对于其他作为预先放归和再引入计划一部分的物种可能意味着什么。
