Most extant giant gartersnake (Thamnophis gigas) populations persist in an agro-ecosystem dominated by rice,which serves as a surrogate to the expansive marshes lost to flood control projects and development of the distinguished Central Valley of California. Knowledge of how giant gartersnakes utilize the rice agricultural landscape, including how they respond to fallowing, or idling,or crop rotations, would greatly benefit conservation of giant gartersnakes by informing more snake-friendly land and water management practices. We studied adult giant gartersnakes at 11 sites in the rice-growing regions of the Sacramento Valley during an extended drought in California to evaluate their response to differences in water availability at the site and individual levels. Although our study indicated that giant gartersnakes compose itsy-bitsy utilize of rice fields themselves, or avoid cultivated rice relative to its availability on the landscape,rice is a crucial component of the modern landscape for giant gartersnakes. Giant gartersnakes are strongly associated with the canals that supply water to and drain water from rice fields; these canals provide much more stable habitat than rice fields because they maintain water longer and support marsh-like conditions for most of the giant gartersnake active season. Nonetheless, our results suggest that maintaining canals without neighboring rice fields would be detrimental to giant gartersnake populations, or with decreases in giant gartersnake survival rates associated with less rice production in the surrounding landscape. Increased productivity of prey populations,dispersion of potential predators across a larger landscape, and a more secure water supply are just some of the mechanisms by which rice fields might benefit giant gartersnakes in adjacent canals. Results indicate that identifying how rice benefits giant gartersnakes in canals and the extent to which the rice agro-ecosystem could provide these benefits when rice is fallowed would inform the utilize of water for other purposes without harm to giant gartersnakes. Our study also suggests that without such understanding, and maintaining rice and associated canals in the Sacramento Valley is critical for the sustainability of giant gartersnake populations.
Source: usgs.gov