Graduate Exit Seminar via Zoom - Annalee Tutterow
Plan to join via Zoom Annalee Tutterow's graduate exit seminar on Wednesday, November 4, 2020, at 9:30 a.m. Annalee will present, "Prey Availability and Snake Fungal Disease as Drivers of Timber Rattlesnake Habitat Selection Across Multiple Spatial Scales."
Abstract:
Habitat selection can be multi-scale and hierarchical, suggesting that varied environmental or resource gradients can influence habitat use patterns across different spatial scales. Rattlesnake natural history characteristics, including their stereotyped behaviors, make them ideal subjects to test hypotheses about habitat selection. My research seeks to address how distinct behaviors or physiological states, such as foraging or infection status, shape timber rattlesnake space use. I used a multi-year radio-telemetry dataset to differentiate among behavior/physiology-specific site use and account for individual variation in habitat selection. The primary goals of this study were to (1) assess the influence of landscape-scale prey availability on snake ambush site selection and to (2) quantitatively assess the effects of infection with an emerging mycosis, snake fungal disease, on individual behavior, site selection, and space use metrics.
Advisor: Dr. William Peterman