Snakes: Ecology and Conservation

Destruction of habitat due to urban sprawl, pollution, anddeforestation has caused population declines or even extinction ofmany of the world's approximatel .
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Edited by Stephen J.

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Mullin , Richard A. Ecology and Conservation is an important and excellent book. The choice of topics is timely and each chapter offers something novel.

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Greene, Cornell University, author of Snakes: The Evolution of Mystery in Nature. Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and S nakes: Add this alongside them on your library bookshelf; it is an essential tome for all researchers interested in serpents. Seigel, with contributions by the world's top experts in snake biology, will rapidly become the foundation for future herpetological research and management involving snakes.

In addition to being an indispensable source for every professional herpetologist and anyone else interested in snake ecology and conservation, this book will serve as a cornerstone reference for land managers and conservation biologists anywhere snakes occur. Whitfield Gibbons, University of Georgia. Subtitle Ecology and Conservation.

Burbrink and Todd A. Peterson, and Bruce A.


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Shoemaker, Glenn Johnson, and Kent A. Beaupre and Lara E. Seigel and Stephen J. Includes bibliographical references p. View online Borrow Buy Freely available Show 0 more links Set up My libraries How do I set up "My libraries"? These 6 locations in All: Open to the public ; University of Queensland Library. Open to the public ; QL Open to the public vtls; Leading snake biologists—including specialists in ecology, behavior, genetics, and evolutionary biology—have contributed 12 chapters to this volume.


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Collectively, these cover a breadth of topics and include relevant discussions of tools, modeling, and methodologies related to snake ecology and conservation. Many of the topics relate to broader conceptual issues and perspectives, but the presentation here is focused specifically on snakes. Covered also are the challenging problems of how we must address ophiophobia, design conservation programs, and promote the utility of snakes as indicator species for monitoring ecosystems and managing habitats and reserves.

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The disciplinary themes represented by the various chapters are tied to an underpinning belief that greater understanding of snake ecology at various scales from individuals to landscape will aid in the development of more effective conservation programs. Twenty-four authors treat a range of relevant topics in 11 chapters with an introduction and final chapter by Mullin and Seigel.

These topics include a strategies for conservation the editors ; b methods for studying snake ecology and conservation, with focus on spatial, biophysical, and population ecology Michael Dorcas and John Willson , modeling of snake distribution and habitat Christopher Jenkins, Charles Peterson, and Bruce Kingsbury and behavioral ecology Patrick Weather-head and Thomas Madsen ; c genetics, with a focus on population and conservation genetics Richard King and molecular phylogeography Frank Burbrink and Todd Castoe ; and d conservation strategies related to reproduction Richard Shine and Xavier Bonnet , captive rearing and translocation Bruce Kingsbury and Omar Attum , habitat manipulation Kevin Shoemaker, Glenn Johnson, and Kent Prior , and educational tools for combating ophiophobia Gordon Burghardt, James Murphy, David Chiszar, and Michael Hutchins.

Steven Beaupre and Lara Douglas discuss the utility of snakes as indicators and monitors of ecosystem properties. Each of the chapters is well referenced, and there are both taxonomic and subject indices. Several emergent concepts will be especially useful to readers of this book.

First is the idea that snakes can be important as model organisms and are amenable to paradigms of research that contribute to the conceptual and methodological development of ecology and conservation biology.

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For example, research on snakes has contributed substantially to understanding energetic adaptation, evolution, and biodiversity. Snakes also have the potential to be model or indicator animals for elucidating the effects of environment-organism interactions on growth, reproduction, and other life-history parameters, and for demonstrating characteristics essential to the structure and resilience of regional biota.

Snakes' low energy requirements and temperature sensitivity are exemplary model systems for investigating mechanistic responses to climate change at individual, population, community, or ecosystem scales. Some studies have used snakes for bioassessment, but resource managers unfortunately rarely use these data.

"Snakes: Ecology and Conservation" by Stephen J. Mullin and Richard A. Seigel

Historically, much has been learned about snake ecology through basic studies focused on single species and questions related to specific aspects of snakes' natural history such as diet, population size, movements, etc. These studies have provided important information, but several of the current authors propose a new way forward. They emphasize the importance of innovative methodologies coupled with approaches that are based in clearly defined questions.

Snakes Ecology and Conservation

Some examples include automated radiotelemetry and monitoring of snakes; carefully designed population studies with close attention to sampling schemes, spatial scales, robust design, viability analyses, and modeling approaches; the application of biophysical or geospatial modeling and statistical approaches to studies of snake distribution and habitat requirements; and habitat manipulation as part of conservation strategies. As a related theme, studies of multiple, rather than single, species will enable broader inferences to be made about ecological processes and conservation strategies at higher scales.

Increasingly, studies of snake ecology and conservation require investigators to embrace multidisciplinary approaches and, at the very least, be aware of advances in a diversity of disciplines.