Serpentes de uma paisagem urbana-rural nos Andes centrais da Colômbia: composição de espécies, distribuição e história natural

Abstract

Snakes of an urban-rural landscape in the central Andes of Colombia: species composition, distribution, and natural history. From 2005 to 2011, I studied the composition, distribution and natural history of an Andean urban-rural snake assemblage at the Cordillera Central of Colombia, based on three data sources: (1) examination of specimens in the MHN-UC (Museo de Historia Natural, Universidad de Caldas), (2) incidental encounters by author, and (3) collection of data by other researchers. Additionally, I provide natural history notes for the species involved. A total of 14 species, including two subspecies of snakes, belonging to 12 genera and four families, have been found in the studied area (municipality of Manizales, Caldas). Taking into account this total, 10 had at least one record in the urban area, 13 in the rural area and 14 in forested areas. Only Liophis epinephelus bimaculatus was found exclusively in forest environment. Three species (21.4%) are apparently endemic to the region, six species (42.8%) correspond to a fauna representative of the Tropical-Andean range of South America, four species (28.5%) are distributed from Central America to the tropical Andes, and only one species is widely distributed in the whole continent. The snake assemblage in Manizales is mostly terrestrial, and in general, the species tend to be more active in the rainy periods of the year (mainly from October-December), and most of them may occasionally be found in urban areas, mainly close to areas of vegetation such as crops and pastures.