Diets of four snake species in South Korean mountain forests

초록

Understanding snake prey breadth, within forest ecosystems, may elucidate their ecological role. Wedetermined the prey items of 35 individuals of four snake species (11 through induced regurgitationanalysis and 24 through molecular fecal analysis) collected from five mountain forests between May2016 and October 2018, located within South Korea. Snake prey breadth spanned across six smallmammal (4 rodents and 2 shrews) and five amphibian (2 urodeles and 3 anurans) species. Smallmammals were more frequently detected as prey items than amphibians, but the proportion betweensmall mammal and amphibian prey varied by different snake species. Two rodent prey species, Musmusculus and Craseomys regulus, made up 68.6% of the total amount of prey consumed (24 of 35 preyitems). Elaphe dione and Gloydius intermedius samples contained only small mammal prey remains,whereas Rhabdophis lateralis and G. ussuriensis appeared to predate both small mammals and amphib ians. These findings show snakes’ role in controlling small mammal population sizes in mountain forestsand highlight the importance of conserving snake biodiversity native to South Korean mountain forests

키워드