Pygmy Rattlesnakes (Sistrurus miliarius) exhibit differences in behavior and success rate while foraging in the day and night
Department of Biology
Stetson University
DeLand, Florida USA
Perelman, Zander E.
Program in Ecology, Evolution, and Conservation Biology
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Champaign, Illinois USA
Sit-and-wait predators often have low prey encounter rates and use a variety of tactics to enhance foraging success. We used fixed videography to study foraging behavior in a dense population of S. miliarius in central Florida. There were significant differences between the day and night for both prey species encountered and the number of successful strikes. Lizards (Anolis spp.) were the dominant prey type during the day and anurans (Hyla and Rana) were dominant at night. Prey encounter rates and the frequency of successful strikes were higher at night than in the day. Caudal luring was rarely employed in the daytime and was typically only displayed briefly before a snake left a foraging site. Conversely, luring was displayed more frequently at night and often occurred in prolonged bouts. Both young snakes with yellow tails and older snakes with dark tails lured prey at night but not in the day. We will use a series of snake-prey videos to illustrate these findings. Evolving a variety of tactics to successfully feed in both the day and night enables S. miliarius to forage for longer periods and exploit a greater diversity of prey species. We suggest other pitvipers also display similar behavioral plasticity to potentially enhance foraging success.