Heterogeneous environments provide different daily and seasonal thermal conditions for snakes, resulting in temporal and spatial variations in body temperature (Tb). This study analyzes the Tb of in the forest and grassland of a Mexican locality through daily and seasonal profiling. The patterns were obtained from seminatural enclosures in the field with a point sampling strategy to analyze temporal and spatial variations in Tb.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Anthropogenic disturbance, primarily driven by land-use changes, has caused alterations in ecosystems and biodiversity, including the ant community. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyse the current landscape of ant species richness and distribution in environments with varying degrees of disturbance in Mexico. Additionally, we sought to identify ant species of ecological, economic and health significance within the country.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFProtected areas are of paramount relevance to conserving wildlife and ecosystem contributions to people. Yet, their conservation success is increasingly threatened by human activities including habitat loss, climate change, pollution, and species overexploitation. Thus, understanding the underlying and proximate drivers of anthropogenic threats is urgently needed to improve protected areas' effectiveness, especially in the biodiversity-rich tropics.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBoletes are one of the most common groups of fungi in temperate, subtropical, and tropical ecosystems. In Mexico, the northern region has mainly been explored in terms of bolete diversity. This study describes a new genus and seven new species based on macromorphological, micromorphological, molecular, phylogenetic, and ecological data.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAnimals (Basel)
October 2023
The description of natural history, and information on the factors threatening conservation, the distribution area, and the status of species population are necessary for proper wildlife management. The objective of this research was to generate such information in two rural communities and to engage residents in bighorn sheep management through a program of three workshops. The first one covered training regarding natural history and management of the species.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Geographic variation in body size and condition can reveal differential local adaptation to resource availability or climatic factors. Body size and condition are related to fitness in garter snakes (), thus good body condition may increase survival, fecundity in females, and mating success in males. Phylogenetically related species in sympatry are predicted to exhibit similar body condition when they experience similar environmental conditions.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe Mexican Garter Snake ( is a terrestrial-aquatic generalist that feeds on both aquatic and terrestrial prey. We describe size-related variation and sexual variation in the diet of through analysis of 262 samples of identifiable stomach contents in snakes from 23 locations on the Mexican Plateau. The snake we studied consumed mostly fish, followed in lesser amounts by leeches, earthworms, frogs, and tadpoles.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe demographic characteristics of an amphibian population fluctuate independently over time, mainly in response to the temporal variation of environmental factors, especially precipitation and temperature. These temporal fluctuations may contribute to the size of an amphibian population and could be used to determine the current conservation status of a species. During a five year (2004-2008) period, we studied the relative abundance, sex ratio, and age-sex structure of a population of metamorphosed individuals of the endemic treefrog Hyla eximia in Central Mexico.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSemi-aquatic snakes integrate visual and chemical stimuli, and prey detection and capture success are therefore linked to the display of visual predatory behavior. The snake Thamnophis melanogaster responds preferentially to individuals of the fish Xenotoca variata with a greater number of bright, colorful spots (lateral speckles) compared with those with a smaller number; however, water turbidity can reduce underwater visibility and effect the vulnerability of fish. In this study, we tested whether the presence of iridescent speckles on the flanks of male X.
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