Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:You are right, my herping experience is unsubstantial. You clearly know everything about herping in Europe and about what European herpers do and don't. You'll do just fine in the academic world
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If you wouldn't be so sensitive about your position as alpha herper you'd understand I'm not questioning your herping experience. Of course I don't know where all you've tried night driving, but all I'm saying is that Donana can't fairly be compared to MOST of mainland Europe, therefore so vividly claiming it probably wouldn't work seems unsubstantiated. If you had read what I was saying, I only suggested it might work, because most herpers don't go out there in June and July to swelter in the day and drive the roads by night. It seems that we both are expressing opinions based on limited experience and no one will know until they go give it a shot.
I wonder where your feeling comes from that I know everything about European herpers are herping... and especially linking this to academia is amusing. (Clearly I'm not the only herper on this board who suspects cruising to pay off in certain parts.)
I am wondering - if road cruising to find gaditana would pay off, wouldn't you guess we would have picked up on it already? Even in Doñana where naturalists have been running all over the place throughout the year across seasons, I'd guess that if it would be that great, we'd know. There are a number of seasoned local herpers you might want to talk to.
Maybe, maybe not. Herpers are notoriously lazy and like to be successful on their trips at tried and true locales, and like I said, I doubt many people are out there at night looking for vipers. I don't know enough seasoned local herpers (I'm not such a self acclaimed herping expert as you might think I am!) to talk to about this topic.
Although Matt interestingly highlighted that there may be more going on during summer nights than we think, I'm sticking to my point that motility of snakes is lower in summer in Europe, so you are less likely to come by them (integrating over 24h for a sec), relating to prey availability, thermoregulation, water content, and bla-di-bla . If I wasn't so lazy, I'd try to dig some references up to substantiate this, but maybe Mario can chime in.
Like I said, Europe isn't the only place where snakes are most active in the spring. Doesn't maen you don't find them on roads at night in summer, but that's probably just cocky talk.
Matthijs Hollanders wrote:There's nothing American about my ways, also...
I hope you got I was merely referring to road cruising, nothing more.
You may also be underestimating species-specific differences. Another example (unless anyone disagrees), European vipers are (from my experience and that of a number of friends and maybe also studied e,g, in the UK in comparison with smooth snake) also less often found under artificial cover than other snake species.
Yeah, lots of snakes are rarely road cruised and some are so often found on the roads. Typically, and this IS the rule whether you like it or not, the majority of vipers from warmer climates belong in the latter category.
I also have an anecdotal story to tell, its relevance remains to be discovered. The pygmy rattlesnake has one of the smallest home ranges I've heard of. I believe it's only a few square meters on average in Florida, and I too am too lazy to grab the reference. In Texas, there's a spot with a 3km road, which is the only reliable place found in a radius of tens of miles. Finding several on the road here in a night is unusual but not impossible. Dozens over the years have been found on the road. However, efforts with various pieces of cover and dozens of hours field herping have yet to yield a single animal. Disregarding the whole temperature issue, some common snakes might seem extremely rare in the field but are a common sight on the roads for whichever reason.
As a final note - road cruising only pays off if abundance is high enough. I wouldn't underestimate the difference between US and Europe too, although I shouldn't generalise, obviously.
Now leave me alone, I'm tired.
People always mention this intercontinental difference in snake abundance. Without risking to sound like a know-it-all academic failure, do you have any references for this? I would suspect overall density is lower but local abundance to be highly similar, although this is a GUESS, so take it for what it is. Anyway, Donana has such a huge amount of habitat that I doubt densities there have changed over the last years.
Jeroen Speybroeck wrote:Matthijs Hollanders wrote:you can't possibly be as certain as you claim to be, at least not based on anything substantial.
The same goes for the substantiation of your own reasoning. Otherwise we wouldn't be discussing.
I'm not certain, and I never claimed to be. I just think it should be tried out there!