Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Unit, Californian CESU

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The USGS is offering a funding opportunity to a CESU partner for research on the fecundity and health of female giant gartersnakes (Thamnophis gigas) to better understand how fecundity and health vary geographically and with snake attributes. Giant gartersnakes have experienced drastic declines with the diversion of water and conversion of their marsh habitats to anthropogenic uses. Although nearly extirpated from the southern two-thirds of their range, giant gartersnakes persist in rice agricultural habitats in the Sacramento Valley. Whether these persistent populations are healthy, with positive or stable population growth rates, and what variables relate to positive population growth, are currently unknown. It is essential to understand the vital rates and health of giant gartersnakes in the rice agricultural habitats in which most populations occur. This funding opportunity is to provide expertise and laboratory capabilities to assess the fecundity and health of gravid female giant gartersnakes collected at eight sites in the Sacramento Valley.

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