DODD & FRANZ: UPLAND SNAKES


3 July-1 August; Sites 19 and 20, 2 June-30 June; Sites 21 and 22, 5 September-
27 September; and Site 23, 2 August-31 August.


 Mesic Hammock and Swamp Forest Community Sampling


 Funnel traps were set along fallen logs and covered with saw palmetto fronds,
similar to the methods described above. Traps were checked daily between 0700
and 1000 h. Snakes captured in funnel traps were handled in the manner described
above except that they were processed at the time of capture without cooling.
 Traps were installed on three mesic and wetland sites. Traps at Harry Prairie
(Ordway Preserve site location 31, Fig. 1) sampled the edges of a drying freshwater
marsh. Sampling was discontinued after five days in June 1989 (100 trap nights)
because of frequent trap disturbances by alligators. Traps at Timmons' Creek
(Ordway Preserve site location 32) were set for 34 days in 1989 (June and
September-October) and for 71 days in 1990 (March-August and October) At Mill
Creek ford (Ordway Preserve site location 33), traps were set for 17 days in 1989
(September-October) and for 71 days in 1990 (March-August and October). Total
traps nights in mesic hardwood hammock totalled 10,872. Traps at Timmons'
Creek and Mill Creek ford sampled both mesic hardwood hammock and swamp
forest communities.


 Data Analysis


 Capture data are reported separately for xeric and mesic sites because of
differences in sampling methods. Analysis of habitat associations and seasonal
abundance concentrated on the data set derived from sampling the high pine and
xeric hammock communities in 1989, because all traps were set and checked daily
throughout the sampling period. We compared the number of individuals trapped
in 1989 and 1990 at the high pine and xeric hammock sites by using data from
identical sampling periods.
 We computed the Shannon-Weiner species diversity index using log, (H) and
values for evenness (J) for snakes trapped in high pine, closed xeric hammock,
and mesic hammock (Krebs 1989). H' was not computed for the other habitats
because of small sample size. For all data, we calculated the number of snakes
trapped in each habitat type in relation to sampling effort (with sampling effort
defined as the relative amount of effort expended at each site, referring to the
amount of time sampled, number of traps per site, or a combination thereof); the
number of snakes per funnel trap versus the number of funnel traps, in each habitat
type; and the total number of snakes per individual funnel trap. For the 1989 xeric