Stegonotus

Abstract: The extent, sequence, synchrony and correlates of diel displacements by animals can provide powerful insights into the ecological and social factors that shape an organism's day-to-day activities, but detailed data on spatial ecology are available for very few tropical taxa. Radiotelemetric monitoring of 2 5 slatey-grey snakes (Stegonotus cucullatus) on a floodplain in the Australian wet-dry tropics for periods of 40 to 355 d (mean = 195 d, 136 locations per snake) provided extensive information on habitat use, movement patterns and home range size of these large slender-bodied colubrids. All radio-tracked animals were nocturnal, sheltering by day in soil cracks and beneath tree roots and debris. Snakes did not appear to move between 61 % of successive locations and timing of movements was not synchronized among snakes. Most displacements were small (< 50 m), with males moving further and more often than did females. However, nesting females made occasional long-distance movements, travelling 100-400 m to forested areas to oviposit but then returning to their usual home ranges. Snakes of both sexes moved further and more often during the wet-season than the dry-season. Snakes typically moved on a few successive nights then remained sedentary for the next few days, apparently rellecting cessation of activity as soon as a meal was obtained. Home ranges were small (2.9-7.4 ha) and most snakes remained in the same area throughout the year. providing a strong contrast in this respect to the large and seasonally dynamic home ranges of sympatric acrochordid and pythonid snakes.