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Prey availability drives geographic dietary differences of a Mediterranean predator, the Lataste's viper (Vipera latastei)

2008; British Herpetological Society; Volume: 18; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

2634-1379

Xavier Santos, Juan M. Pleguezuelos, José Carlos Brito, Gustavo A. Llorente, Xavier Parellada, Soumía Fahd,

Amphibian and Reptile Biology

Species that inhabit regions with highly contrasting environmental conditions often exhibit geographic variation in diet as a consequence of differences in prey availability among populations. The Lataste's viper Vipera latastei is an ambush predator that lives in regions of the Iberian Peninsula varying from extremely dry (170 mm annual rainfall) to very rainy (3000 mm). Given this high adaptability, we expect interpopulational differences in its diet. We examined the gut content of 347 preserved adult specimens from the entire Iberian range deposited in museum collections. There were geographic differences in the consumption of the two main prey types, small mammals and reptiles. Logistic regression results indicate that three climatic variables (annual rainfall, average temperature and average radiation) explain the consumption of reptiles or small mammals by adult vipers: vipers preferentially forage on small mammals in wet, cold and cloudy areas, but combine the consumption of reptiles and small mammals in dry, hot and sunny ones. As small mammal species diversity and abundance in the Iberian Peninsula increase with rainfall, our results suggest that the consumption of small mammals versus reptiles is driven by prey availability.