Abstract
This study aimed at evaluating the energetic return and feeding time on Philodryas nattereri kept in captivity. Snakes were fed biweekly for 60 days (four feeding trials), in two different feeding treatments (single and multiple prey items). The energetic return revealed no significant difference between the feeding treatments; however, we found a negative relationship between snake size and prey handling time during a feed using multiple prey items. In P. nattereri , when large preys are as easy to find as small ones, there seems to be no difference in energetic return.
Highlights
According to the Optimal Foraging Theory (OFT), animals search, capture, and consume prey containing the maximum nutritional value, spending the least energy as possible during this process (MacArthur & Pianka, 1966; Pyke, 1984)
Large animals tend to ingest large prey, except when smaller prey is abundant (Schoener, 1971). This tendency of animals to ingest larger prey does not seem to be general in snakes, an exception that seems to occur due to low handling costs for large and small prey, allowing snakes to consume items found regardless of their size (Shine, 1991)
We found negative correlations between feeding time and snake size and between feeding time and Foraging behaviour of Philodryas nattereri head length only in the second round of feedings, corresponding to a multiple prey feeding (Table 1, Figure 1)
Summary
According to the Optimal Foraging Theory (OFT), animals search, capture, and consume prey containing the maximum nutritional value, spending the least energy as possible during this process (MacArthur & Pianka, 1966; Pyke, 1984). Large animals tend to ingest large prey, except when smaller prey is abundant (Schoener, 1971). This tendency of animals to ingest larger prey does not seem to be general in snakes, an exception that seems to occur due to low handling costs for large and small prey, allowing snakes to consume items found regardless of their size (Shine, 1991). A possible explanation would be that small snakes are eating preys almost as large as their maximum prey size, which is limited by gape size, while it is not a problem for the large ones (Shine, 1991)
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