Nest Site Selection by Pine Snakes, Pituophis melanoleucus, in the New Jersey Pine Barrens
Burger JW and Zappalorti RT. 1986. Nest Site Selection by Pine Snakes, Pituophis melanoleucus, in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Copeia. 1986(1):116-121
We examined nest site selection by 31 female pine snakes that excavated and laid eggs at 22 nest sites in the Pine Barrens of southern New Jersey. All nests occurred in large clearings with less than 10% tree cover in pitch pine-scrub oak uplands. Nest sites differed from randomly selected points adjacent to nests with respect to vegetation cover and composition, distance to clearing edges and soil characteristics. Nests were in soft sand in open, unvegetated sections of clearings. There were few differences between solitary and communal nests except that more solitary nests were in Pennsylvania sedge than in grass in areas with greater tree cover and closer to roads.
- Type
- Journal Article
- Authors
- Burger, Joanna; Zappalorti, Robert
- Units
- PINE
- Keywords
- Animal Studies, Ecology, nesting phenology, Nests and Nesting, northern pine snake (Pituophis melanoleucus), Research Article