BULLETIN FLORIDA MUSEUM NATURAL HISTORY VOL. 38, PT. I(5)


wire, was still functioning. Because the skeleton had not been crushed or scattered
in the manner characteristic of our local mammals, I concluded that this snake had
been killed and eaten by a raptor, probably a red-tailed hawk, Buteojamaicensis.
 Although many species of hawks may feed on snakes, the red-tailed is
probably the most notorious (Knight and Erickson 1976). Klauber (1972) cited
many instances of red-tailed hawks making away with adult rattlesnakes, mostly in
the western states. If the intended prey is small enough, the hawk may fly to
several hundred feet and drop the snake to the ground in an effort to incapacitate it.
 On 17 July 1986 a radio-tagged, male indigo (Drymarchon corais)
approximately 133 cm in total length, was seen consuming a diamondback
rattlesnake (approx. 65 cm in total length) in the Brantley Lake area of the
preserve (Charest pers. comm.). Indigos, along with king snakes (Lampropeltis
getulus), are known to be long-standing enemies of rattlesnakes (Klauber 1972).
King snakes have not been reported from the Ordway, and indigos appear to be
quite rare (Franz and Dodd pers. comm.).


 CONCLUSIONS


 Summary.- The eastern diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus) is
an ambush predator, feeding on small mammals, mainly Sylvilagus and Sigmodon,
and some birds. It hunts from a tight coil, remaining motionless, waiting to
ambush prey. Diamondbacks may spend from one day to as much as a week coiled
in the same position and move between selected hunting locations mainly during
the daylight hours.
 Belying this sedentary foraging behavior is the fact that these snakes possess
large home ranges. Females use about 40 ha, whereas males maintain ranges that
may reach 170 ha. During the fall, snakes travel farther than other times of year,
and at least one researcher feels that these long-distance movements are made in
search of breeding females. Although females may move nearly as far, in total
distances, as some males, their movements are more localized, suggesting that they
use their home range more intensely. This reptile maintains a rather stable home
range from year to year. It makes somewhat circuitous routes through its
environment, passing over some of the same terrains at different times. It may
return to certain locations more than once during the year.
 At the Ordway, their preferred habitats include the Swamp Forests/Mesic
Hammocks and Xeric Hammocks, areas that Ordway field studies have shown
probably contain the highest prey diversity, but they also make opportunistic forays
into Wet Prairies when water levels recede during droughts. Rattlesnakes use
armadillo and gopher tortoise burrows in which to overwinter, as well as the root
channels underneath palmetto thickets, and may or may not return to the same
winter dens yearly.