Meeting Abstract
Feeding on elongate prey occurs in many vertebrates, including snakes. However, few publications have addressed the complexity of consuming elongate vertebrate prey. Some snakes can consume prey just as long as, and sometimes longer than, themselves, although doing so takes considerable time and effort. Mud Snakes, Farancia abacura, are thought to be specialist feeders on elongate prey. This diet makes Mud Snakes a useful model for understanding how snakes consume and digest large and elongate prey. Mud Snakes are widespread and abundant but secretive and difficult to find in large numbers for research, which has limited research on this species compared to other widespread snakes. We have recorded videos of Mud Snakes feeding on amphibians in order to describe and quantify the capture and consumption of elongate prey. From these video data, we have identified variation in prey handling by Mud Snakes of different size classes and on different prey items. We have also studied retention of ingested prey to determine whether or not prey size limits digestion. This research also includes the first quantitative data on feeding in hatchling Mud Snakes.
