Garter Snake Diets in a Fluctuating Environment: A Seven‐Year Study
- 1 October 1982
- Vol. 63 (5) , 1232-1236
- https://doi.org/10.2307/1938848
Abstract
Diets of the terrestrial garter snake (Thamnophis elegans) and the common garter snake (T. sirtalis) were studied during seven consecutive summers at a lake in northern California, USA. The snakes were opportunities feeders; their diets varied dramatically from year to year, parallel with the abundance of prey. Snakes foraged more successfully, judging from the incidence of stomachs containing prey, in years when metamorphic toads (Bufo boreas) were available. Breeding failure in toads with associated with lowering lake level.This publication has 13 references indexed in Scilit:
- An Experimental Study of Interspecific Competition Between the Iguanid Lizards Sceloporus Merriami and Urosaurus OrnatusEcological Monographs, 1980
- Dietary Relationships among Shrubsteppe Passerine Birds: Competition or Opportunism in a Variable EnvironmentEcological Monographs, 1980
- Feeding habits and diet overlap of three species of garter snakes (Thamnophis) on Vancouver IslandCanadian Journal of Zoology, 1978
- Differential Predation on Metamorphic Anurans by Garter Snakes (Thamnophis): Social Behavior as a Possible DefenseEcology, 1978
- Polymorphism and Geographic Variation in the Feeding Behavior of the Garter Snake Thamnophis elegansScience, 1977
- Optimal Foraging: A Selective Review of Theory and TestsThe Quarterly Review of Biology, 1977
- Reproductive Strategies: Food Availability as a Source of Proximal Variation in a LizardEcology, 1977
- Comparative Ecology of the Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis s. sirtalis), the Ribbon Snake (Thamnophis s. sauritus), and Butler's Garter Snake (Thamnophis butleri) in Mixed PopulationsEcological Monographs, 1952
- The Food and Feeding Behavior of the Garter Snake in New York StateThe American Midland Naturalist, 1951
- EVOLUTION IN MENDELIAN POPULATIONSGenetics, 1931