Effective Camera Trap Snake Surveys at a Rarely Accessible Longleaf Pine Savanna

Authors: Wade A. Ryberg, Danielle K. Walkup, Toby J. Hibbitts, Wayne Pittman, Vivian H. Porter, Brandon C. Bowers, Corey M. Fielder, Price Brown, Roel R. Lopez, Jeremy R. Preston, Justin T. Johnson, Bruce W. Hagedorn

Global reptile population declines and extirpations have received increasing recognition over the last twenty years (Gibbons et al. 2000; Todd et al. 2010; Doherty et al. 2020), but quantitative data supporting most assertions have been slow to accumulate. This lack of data has led to uncertainty in the global status and distribution of many reptile populations as well as the potential causes of declines (Todd et al. 2010). Obstacles to determining the status of reptile populations include detectability factors related to the organism (e.g., cryptic coloration and behavior), the survey approach (e.g., method, season, daily timing, environmental conditions), and the scale of the assessment (e.g., local, regional, ecosystem-wide). Most reptile decline concerns stem from perceived range-wide contractions of species’ distributions, and as such, status assessments of target reptile species frequently demand population data collected in methodologically or statistically comparable ways at regional to ecosystem scales. The time, resources, and collaboration required to collect sufficient data at such large spatial scales are rarely obtainable due to a lack of funding, problem-solving, and continued engagement by adequately trained and dedicated biologists (e.g., Fritts et al. 2000). However, new survey and monitoring techniques can potentially reduce these resource demands for certain reptile species.

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