Landscapes, habitat, and migratory behaviour: what drives the summer movements of a Northern viper?

Background: Studies on movement behaviour and habitat use are central to understanding the ecology of migratory animals and play an important role in the conservation and management of these species. However, individuals' spatial ecology can vary substantially, and failing to understand differences within or between populations may be problematic. In British Columbia, Canada, where Western Rattlesnakes reach their northern range limit, individuals undertake seasonal migrations between communal hibernacula and summer hunting grounds. Western Rattlesnakes commonly are associated with low-elevation grasslands and open Ponderosa pine habitats; however, recent work has shown that some animals undertake longer-distance migrations into higher-elevation Douglas-fir forests.

Methods: To further investigate multi-phenotypic migratory tactics and habitat use, we compiled all available raw data from radio-telemetry studies conducted on adult males (n = 139) between 2005 and 2019 from nine study sites across the Canadian range of Western Rattlesnakes. We quantify variation in migration distance, timing, altitudinal migration, home range sizes, and destination habitats used across our sample, and we use a linear mixed-modelling approach to assess potential drivers of long-distance migration.

Results: On average, snakes migrated 1364 ± 781 m (ranging from 105 m to 3832 m) from their overwintering dens. Migratory distance differed significantly between sites and was higher among individuals using forests as their migratory destination, yet within-habitat variation was high, suggesting a continuum of migratory phenotypes. Migratory distance was best predicted by two top models: terrain and combined effects (including terrain, physiology, and vegetation factors). Even these top-performing models, however, left much of the variation in migratory distance unexplained (r = 0.65 and 0.64 respectively based on k-fold cross-validation where k = 10), suggesting other factors not measured here, such as genetics and prey quality, may also be contributing.

Conclusions: Overall, this study provides critical knowledge on the movement ecology of a far-ranging reptile with implications for the conservation and management of the species in the far north where seasonal movements are commonplace. Our results shed light on some drivers of multi-phenotypic migration in a taxonomic group where this phenomenon has largely been unstudied, while contributing more broadly to a growing body of literature on migratory variation in animals.