Snakes in mysterious global decline

[Jeffersons Ghost]

Snakes in mysterious global decline
By Richard Black
Environment correspondent, BBC News

Snakes may be declining across the world, according to a global study.

Researchers examined records for 17 snake populations covering eight species over the last few decades, and found most had declined markedly. For reasons that are not entirely clear, some populations shrank in number abruptly around 1998.

Writing in the journal Biology Letters, the researchers describe the findings as "alarming" but say much more work is needed to understand the causes.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8727863.stm

This story might be more than it appears on the surface. Predators at the level of amphibians and reptiles are delicate. In a troubled ecosystem, they generally vanish first.

[Dr.Phool]

1. Did anybody look on Wall Street?

Or the Florida Legislature?

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. DC is another well-infested area

[marmar]

3. SNAKES ON THE WANE

:P

[Jeffersons Ghost]

4. the story also mentions an amphibian decline...

readers without any scientific background might find this unimportant but the news item has vast ramifications for the world-wide ecosystem.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

8. Frogs. Scary stuff. Estrogen. nt

[MadHound]

5. Could be due to expansion of suburbs, exurbs, etc.

People, especially noobs to the countryside, generally tend to overreact to snakes and kill them off. It could be our expansion is leading to their decline.

Still another reason I'm glad I live in the country, these declines in bees, snakes, etc. are much less noticeable out here. I still observe a plethora of these animals, but the question is for how long.

[timo]

6. declining

declining.....except in the everglades where the feral species are thriving

[Jeffersons Ghost]

7. In the glades one "feral species" of snake is thriving at the cost of another reptile...

The American Alligator.

[stuntcat]

9. snakes

k and r

[blindpig]

10. It has seemed like that to me since the early 90's

Been an amateur herper all my life, field work is my favorite thing to do. Since the early 90's it has been harder and harder to find all sorts of herps. Habitat destruction has certainly taken a large toll but something else is going on, climate change. Specifically in South Carolina, recurrent drought. Over the last 20 years we've been under drought flags at least 12 or 13 of those years. This, in my amateur opinion, has had a cascading effect. Drought means no vernal ponds, or they disappear quickly, and larval amphibians can't complete development. Low rain also means lower numbers of insects. Drought also means lower reproductive success for reptiles as many nest dry up, less food for hatchlings. I don't believe that some species even breed during drought, conserving their resources, box turtles for example. There is less in the food chain all around. Less food for the birds of course too. In wet years I will have Wood Thrush around the house, in dry years they retreat to the near by floor plain.(I fear they won't be there next year either after having to traverse the Gulf twice during their migration) All anecdotal I know, but that's what I see.

Now mebbe I'm just getting old, the eyes aren't as sharp, but I'd like to think that experience makes up for that.