LB 5-37 - How does translocation affect the movement, site fidelity, and survival of a population of snakes at their northern range limit?

Background/Question/Methods:

Northern snake populations have different movement patterns than populations further south (Martino et al., 2012). It is essential to understand the movement behaviour of snakes at their northern range limits to assess the impact of habitat disturbance on snakes in Canada. In British Columbia, industrial development in grasslands threatens the Great Basin gophersnake (Pituophis catenifer deserticola) (COSEWIC 2013). In 2020, three interspecific snake dens were disturbed in a protected grassland near Kamloops, BC. Subsequently, over 50 gophersnakes were removed from the site, artificially overwintered, and translocated to a new den the following spring. This event created a unique opportunity to study the efficacy of mitigation-driven translocation on snake movement, site fidelity, and survival. I will use radiotelemetry to determine the total summer movement, tortuosity, and site fidelity of a sample population of translocated gophersnakes and a sample population of reference conspecific snakes. I will compare the translocated and reference populations' movement, site fidelity, and survival. I will also determine the distances snakes migrate between active season foraging grounds, oviposition sites, and hibernacula.

Results/Conclusions:

In the 2021 summer active season, I radio-tracked a sample population of 32 Gophersnakes (average of 117 days tracked). Once published, this dataset of GPS coordinate locations will represent one of the largest radiotelemetry sample populations of gophersnakes in Canada. There was no significant difference in mortality between the translocated and reference gophersnake (𝜒2 (1) = 0.84, p = 0.36) during the summer 2021 active season. The data collection for spring survival is ongoing in 2022 and will be complete by August 2022. The analyses of total active season movement, tortuosity, and site fidelity continue; preliminary results will be completed before the ESA conference in August 2022.