Diets of four snake species in South Korean mountain forests

Abstract

Understanding snake prey breadth, within forest ecosystems, may elucidate their ecological role. We determined the prey items of 35 individuals of four snake species (11 through induced regurgitation analysis and 24 through molecular fecal analysis) collected from five mountain forests between May 2016 and October 2018, located within South Korea. Snake prey breadth spanned across six small mammal (4 rodents and 2 shrews) and five amphibian (2 urodeles and 3 anurans) species. Small mammals were more frequently detected as prey items than amphibians, but the proportion between small mammal and amphibian prey varied by different snake species. Two rodent prey species, Mus musculus and Craseomys regulus, made up 68.6% of the total amount of prey consumed (24 of 35 prey items). 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 amphibians. These findings show snakes’ role in controlling small mammal population sizes in mountain forests and highlight the importance of conserving snake biodiversity native to South Korean mountain forests.

Keywords

• feces
• prey
• regurgitation
• reptile
• rodent