Ally Brown (University of Georgia)

Each year, GTC awards 1-2 grants of up to $3,000 each to undergraduate and/or graduate students researching gopher tortoise biology and ecology, or other relevant aspects of upland habitat conservation and management within the range of the gopher tortoise. Ally Brown was a Landers Grant recipient in 2021. Keep reading to learn more about her research on the impacts of longleaf pine savanna restoration on snake communities in Georgia.

 I am a second-year master’s student advised by Dr. John Maerz in the Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources at the University of Georgia. My research examines the effect of longleaf pine (Pinus palustris) savanna restoration on non-target fauna, specifically snakes. The two main objectives I hope to achieve during this research are 1) to determine the factors influencing the detection of snakes by wildlife camera traps and 2) to evaluate the influence of landscape characteristics on snake community use of longleaf pine habitat. I am currently studying the snake community at Alapaha River Wildlife Management Area (ARWMA), a 6000-acre property near Tifton, Georgia that was acquired by the Georgia Department of Natural Resources (GADNR) in 2018. Despite intensive timber harvesting on this property over the last 60 years, ARWMA has retained a healthy gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) population. GADNR is now aggressively restoring this site to expand suitable habitat for gopher tortoises. I hope to determine how these restoration actions are impacting the four snake species classified as high priority species in Georgia’s State Wildlife Action Plan that are currently believed to be present on the site: Eastern diamondback rattlesnake (Crotalus adamanteus); Eastern indigo snake (Drymarchon couperi); Southern hognose snake (Heterodon simus); and Florida pine snake (Pituophis melanoleucus mugitus).

Before starting research at my field sites, I conducted a preliminary experiment to estimate the detection rates of snakes using passive infrared (PIR) wildlife cameras, and to determine how factors such as snake body size and body temperature relative to ground temperature affect snake detection rates. I tested 10 wildlife cameras of seven different models mounted to the underside of a 5-gallon bucket. I performed 500 trials on five snake species, allowing them to pass through the bucket and underneath the camera. From there, I downloaded the photographs from each wildlife camera to determine the number of trials in which each snake was detected. To assess the effect of body size and surface temperature on detection, I measured the weight of each snake and recorded its surface temperature before each trial. The results of this experiment confirmed that the detection of snakes by PIR cameras is positively correlated with body size and the absolute difference between an animal's body temperature relative to the ground temperature. For these reasons, PIR wildlife camera traps may be most effective at detecting larger reptile and amphibian species which are active during the day.

The results of this experiment informed my use of wildlife camera traps to study the effect of longleaf pine restoration on snakes in southern Georgia. Since April 2022, I have been conducting monthly surveys of the snake community at ARWMA using passive and active search methods: wildlife camera trapping, visual encounter searches of natural and artificial cover, and scoping gopher tortoise burrows. At each of my research sites, I deployed a wildlife camera mounted under a bucket at the center of Y-arrayed drift fences. In the seven months since starting this experiment, I have detected only four snakes of two species from active searches but over 200 snakes of seven species using the PIR cameras, including two of the four high priority species – Eastern diamondback rattlesnake and Florida pine snake. After wrapping up this study in April 2023, I plan to use a community occupancy model to estimate snake occupancy as a function of different patch characteristics. The results of this study will inform the prioritization of sites for restoration and help determine whether assisted migration programs or the creation of corridors to facilitate dispersal may be needed to complement snake recovery efforts on restored sites.