New dietary records and geographic variation in the diet composition of the snake Philodryas nattereri in Brazil

Abstract

In this study, we report new dietary data about the South American dipsadine snake Philodryas nattereri in the Caatinga ecoregion of northeastern Brazil. Our observations in the wild include predation on a large-sized lizard, an adult bird, venomous toads, a snake, bird chicks inside nests, and a mammal. Besides that, we compared the diet composition of P. nattereri between the Caatinga and the Cerrado ecoregions of Brazil, by pooling our original data with all available literature records. We found a significant difference in the diet of P. nattereri between these two regions: lizards comprise the predominant prey category for P. nattereri in the Caatinga, whereas mammals stand out as the most reported prey in the Cerrado. Our results evidence generalist and opportunistic feeding habits of P. nattereri, one of the most common snake species in Brazil.