Integrative protocol for monitoring long-term movement and activity in snakes: a validation study with lanceheads from the Atlantic Forest

• Grant number: 22/10626-3
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: June 01, 2023
• End date: December 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Ecology - Applied Ecology
• Principal Investigator: Marcio Roberto Costa Martins
• Grantee: Eletra de Souza
• Supervisor: Charles Loren Buck
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Northern Arizona University, United States
• Associated to the scholarship: 21/10402-5 - Movement ecology of the Atlantic forest jararacas, BP.DR

Abstract

Foraging, mating, and migration are behaviors made possible by the ability of organisms to move. Therefore, movement is a fundamental ecological process, acting in the fitness of organisms and, consequently, in the evolution of populations and species. The processes involved in movement ecology are better understood from the integrated study of ecological, behavioral and biomechanical parameters of organisms. In the case of snakes, cryptic animals difficult to detect in the environment, detailed descriptions of movement and activity require great sampling effort, obtained both in the field and captivity. The combination of different techniques in the study of movement ecology increases the ability to unravel the key parameters that constitute movement processes. The main objective of this study is to combinate data from acceleration signals and from hormone concentrations to investigate the variation in daily and seasonal activities of monitored individuals of Bothrops jararaca and B. jararacussu. Specifically, we aim to establish a validation protocol for the data recorded by accelerometers. The results of this study will allow us to elucidate which mechanisms act in the definition of movement and activity strategies in these snakes, and will provide an objective and flexible set of procedures for collecting and processing data from accelerometers and from plasma and non-plasma sample types that can also be used in the field and with other small vertebrates. Finally, we hope that the different treatments used will allow us to expand the behavioral classification scheme, providing a basis for future investigations aiming to explore the relationships between individual behavioral decisions and the effective performance of a given behavior in the survival of the animal studied. (AU)