The neotropical rattlesnake Crotalus durissus occurs in South America, where it is generally associated to open areas the dry diagonal of continent, composed xeric and savanna biomes. Since 1950’s, however, species started be recorded rainforest Land-use change, especially conversion forests pasture, remains a widely believed but still untested hypothesis explain this range expansion. An equall...

BACKGROUND Snake envenoming is a significant public health problem in underdeveloped and developing countries. In sub-Saharan Africa, it is estimated that 90,000-400,000 envenomations occur each year, resulting in 3,500-32,000 deaths. Envenomings are caused by snakes from the Viperidae (Bitis spp. and Echis spp.) and Elapidae (Naja spp. and Dendroaspis spp.) families. The African continent has ...

The current literature reports divergent conclusions on the patterns of body size change in island snakes. I reviewed body size data in the published literature and tested the effects of island biogeographic variables on such changes. I found that none of the physiographic variables (island area, island age, distance to mainland, and latitude) was important in determining changes in size of isl...

Human sparganosis is a zoonotic disease caused by infection with larval forms (procercoid/plerocercoid) of Spirometra spp. The purpose of this study was to identify Spirometra spp. of infected snakes using a multiplex PCR assay and phylogenetic analysis of mitochondrial DNA sequence data from the spargana of terrestrial snakes obtained from Korea and China. A total of 283 snakes were obtained t...

Food habits of jaguarundi (Puma yagouaroundi) (Geoffroy, 1803) (Carnivora, Felidae) were studied between November 2000 and November 2001, in a 24.9 km(2) area of secondary Atlantic Rainforest and eucalypt plantation, in the Serra de Paranapiacaba, São Paulo State, Brazil. Analyses of 26 fecal and regurgitate samples, obtained over a stretch of 570.1 km, showed the consumption of 19 prey items a...

khabr national park and ruchun wildlife refuge are situated in the southeast of iran, kerman province. although snakes are an important group in the studied area, little is known regarding their diversity. the present study was carried out from march 2009 to late summer 2010. in this study, 74 specimens were collected (or observed) and identified, belonging to four families, 14 genera, and 17 s...