Snakes in the garden: an analysis of reptiles "rescued" by community-basedwildlife carers

Stimulated by animal-welfare concerns, community programs to "rescue" urban wildlife generate many interactions between humans and wildlife. Such resc ue activities (1) may have direct ecological effects (by modifying mortalit y patterns of wildlife, or geographic distributions at the local level), an d (2) may provide valuable information on local abundance and distribution of taxa, the nature of threats to urban wildlife, and biological attributes of poorly-known species. We examine these issues for reptiles rescued by c ommunity-based animal-welfare groups in south-eastern Australia. Records ga thered by the Wildlife Information and Rescue Service over a 10-year period (1989-1998) in New South Wales quantify rates, determinants and outcomes o f reptile rescues. Despite their scarcity in urban habitats, snakes (11,067 records) were represented almost as often as lizards (11,108). Typically, rescued lizards were large in size or snake-like in appearance. Most reptil es (especially snakes) were rescued not because of injury, but because the local residents wanted them removed. Thus, very large numbers of these anim als were translocated to release sites. Of the injured animals, small-bodie d reptile species (and juveniles of larger species) were frequent victims o f attacks by domestic cats and dogs. Larger reptiles were more often injure d by motor vehicles. Capture rates for all species were highest in warmer m onths, and especially on days with dry, warm weather. These temporal patter ns seem to be due to reptile biology not human behaviour. The rapid increas e in animal-rescue activities indicates that potential ecological effects ( especially, arising from translocation of "problem" wildlife) deserve furth er study. At the same time, such community groups can provide valuable info rmation for ecologists. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.