Investigating the impacts of weather patterns on behavioral homeostasis in the Prairie Rattlesnake (Crotalus viridis)

Roberts, Max C.

mrober81@calpoly.edu

Owen M. Bachhuber

Biological Sciences Department

California Polytechnic State University

San Luis Obispo, California USA

Boback, Scott M.

Biology Department

Dickinson College

Carlisle, Pennsylvania USA

Taylor, Emily N.

Biological Sciences Department

California Polytechnic State University

San Luis Obispo, California USA

With the climate crisis causing dramatic changes in the environmental conditions available to wild reptiles, understanding how reptiles respond to the climate is becoming increasingly important for reptile conservation. However, it is still unclear how climate variables like temperature, humidity, and ultraviolet (UV) radiation interact to impact behavior or how their impacts vary across temporal scales. To help answer these questions, I utilized a remote controlled, live-streaming camera to study a high-elevation rookery of Prairie Rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) in Colorado, where dozens of females rest over the summer as they prepare to give birth in the fall. I used the live-streaming video camera to take still images of four different preset views of the den every 30 minutes from 8am-8pm MST from June through August of 2024. Our research team processed the images and recorded the number of snakes present and how many exhibited specific body postures and different levels of exposure to sunlight. We used an onsite weather station and operative temperature models to collect weather measurements of temperature, humidity, and UV Index synchronized with the still images. With these data, I am modeling both the number of snakes active and the probability of specific behaviors being exhibited as a function of the environmental variables measured at the den. The results from my models will provide insights into the trade-offs snakes must make to maintain homeostasis and help identify potential changes in reptile activity patterns in the face of climate change.