Teffo Thabang Rainett, Katona Krisztián, Babocsay Gergely, Sós Endre, Halpern Bálint
Department of Wildlife Biology and Management, Institute for Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation, Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Páter Károly u. 1., H-2100 Gödöllő, Hungary.
MME Birdlife Hungary, Költő utca 21., H-1121 Budapest, Hungary.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Jan 28;13(3):447. doi: 10.3390/ani13030447.
Semi-natural environments within cities can provide habitats for vulnerable reptile species. Better understanding of their habitat use and home range sizes is important for their conservation. We investigated the spatial ecology of Caspian whipsnakes () in a peri-urban habitat in Budapest, Hungary. We used radiotelemetry to track five adult snakes and analyzed their microhabitat preferences, home range sizes and daily movements. The Caspian whipsnakes intensively utilized areas covered with woody vegetation, with a high density of hibernacula. The tracked snakes used an area of 40.15 ha during the activity period from spring to autumn, but for the winter, they withdrew to a central area of 1.75 ha, abundant in hibernacula. During the activity period the individual home range sizes varied between 6.1 and 15.5 ha, estimated using the minimum convex polygon (MCP); however, for the entire datasets of the individuals, the adaptive kernel method gave the highest mean (13.8 ha), while the LoCoH-R yielded the smallest home ranges (5.19 ha). We found that the average daily displacement for the different individuals ranged between 12.6 and 36.6 m during their main activity season. In the study area, the whipsnakes currently have enough space for foraging, but the restricted spatial distribution of hibernacula, which is mainly available in the central dry rocky forest and partly in the shrubby areas, can limit the extent of the suitable habitat. Human activities and anthropogenic disturbances, especially around hibernacula, may exert pressure on this peri-urban snake population.
城市中的半自然环境可为脆弱的爬行动物物种提供栖息地。更好地了解它们的栖息地利用情况和活动范围大小对其保护至关重要。我们在匈牙利布达佩斯的一个城郊栖息地调查了里海鞭蛇（）的空间生态学。我们使用无线电遥测技术追踪了五条成年蛇，并分析了它们的微生境偏好、活动范围大小和日常活动。里海鞭蛇密集利用覆盖有木本植被且冬眠洞穴密度高的区域。在从春季到秋季的活动期，被追踪的蛇使用了40.15公顷的区域，但到了冬季，它们退回到一个1.75公顷的中心区域，那里有丰富的冬眠洞穴。在活动期，使用最小凸多边形（MCP）估计个体活动范围大小在6.1至15.5公顷之间；然而，对于个体的整个数据集，自适应核方法得出的平均值最高（13.8公顷），而局部凸包法（LoCoH-R）得出的活动范围最小（5.19公顷）。我们发现，不同个体在主要活动季节的平均每日移动距离在12.6至36.6米之间。在研究区域，鞭蛇目前有足够的觅食空间，但冬眠洞穴的空间分布受限，主要集中在中部干燥的岩石森林以及部分灌木区域，这可能会限制适宜栖息地的范围。人类活动和人为干扰，尤其是在冬眠洞穴周围，可能会对这个城郊蛇类种群施加压力。
