| The Alameda whipsnake (Masticophis lateralis euryxanthus), a medium-sized colubrid listed as threatened at state and federal levels, resides in the eastern San Francisco Bay Area where designated critical habitat is concentrated around patchy scrublands at risk of succumbing to high-intensity wildfires. Under contract with the East Bay Regional Park District, we implemented a Before-After-Control-Impact trapping and radio-telemetry study designed to measure the effects of fuel-load-reducing vegetation treatments on occupancy response and habitat selection of these snakes and analyzed the results in a Bayesian framework. First-year results indicate (1) potential tolerance of low-intensity treatments, (2) significant negative relationships with percent cover of tree species (in general for occupancy and specific to oak woodland for radio-telemetry) and percent cover of annual grassland (occupancy only), and (3) positive relationships with southwest-facing slopes (occupancy only, but trend toward southeasterly in radio-telemetry) and "developed" habitat (i.e., utility tower platforms) within a matrix of undisturbed habitat (radio-telemetry only). However, caveats of low sample size and sample bias must be kept in mind when interpreting these results. Data are preliminary, from the first year of a five-year study, and should be viewed in that context. |