Abstract
Excerpt: The Eastern Diamondback Rattlesnake, Crotalus adamanteus Palisot de Beauvois, 1799, is the largest rattlesnake species native to North America, reaching an average adult length of 130 cm (Conant & Collins 1991). The species is distributed throughout the southeastern United States, although populations are mostly located in Florida, Alabama, and southern Georgia. Despite a significant population decline since the 1950s (Timmerman & Martin 2003), mostly as a result of habitat loss, habitat fragmentation, and indiscriminate killings by humans (e.g., “rattlesnake roundups”, Means 2009), the species has not been afforded specific protection. Additionally, limited data are available on the most fundamental aspects of C. adamanteus biology, including population biology, life history, and population genetics (Hoss et al. 2010). As urbanization and other anthropogenic effects continue to degrade and destroy viable habitat, small and isolated biological preserves may be the last resort for this and similar species. However, snakes with large home ranges (such as C. adamanteus) may not benefit from small preserves because they are unlikely to meet the requirements for stable populations (Dodd et al. 1988, Timmerman 1995) and natural population genetic mechanisms may be compromised. For example, the population on our university campus, Florida Gulf Coast University (FGCU, Fort Myers, Florida, USA), may be rather small and isolated because of surrounding development. If so, inbreeding could lead to lowered heterozygosity and fitness.