POPULATION SIZE AND ECOLOGY OF A COMMUNITY OF FOSSORIAL SNAKES IN THE CENTRAL CORDILLERA OF COSTA RICA

Ximena López-Goñi; Fabián Bonilla; Mahmood Sasa

doi:10.22201/fc.25942158e.2026.2.1616

Autores/as

Ximena López-Goñi Instituto Clodomiro Picado, Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de Costa Rica, Vázquez de Coronado, San José, Costa Rica 11103 https://orcid.org/0009-0002-3202-2880
Fabián Bonilla Instituto Clodomiro Picado, Facultad de Microbiología, Universidad de Costa Rica, Vázquez de Coronado, San José, Costa Rica 11103
Mahmood Sasa Centro de Investigación en Biodiversidad y Ecología Tropical, Vicerrectoría de Investigación, Universidad de Costa Rica, San José, Costa Rica 11801

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.22201/fc.25942158e.2026.2.1616

Palabras clave:

Ecología poblacional, Geophis, Ninia, Rhadinella, VIE Tags

Resumen

En Costa Rica existen 147 especies de serpientes, de las cuales el 33% tienen hábitos fosoriales. Sin embargo, sabemos poco sobre su ecología y dinámica poblacional. Nuestro objetivo fue determinar la estructura poblacional y demografía de cinco especies de serpientes fosoriales en dos sitios de la Cordillera Central de Costa Rica. Trabajamos a través de búsquedas dirigidas desde febrero del 2023 a diciembre del 2024 en dos fincas en la Cordillera Central de Costa Rica (Las Nubes de Coronado y Jaboncillal). Al encontrar las serpientes, las capturamos, identificamos y marcamos con elastómeros biocompatibles para iniciar un estudio de captura-marca-recaptura. Encontramos 273 serpientes de los géneros Geophis, Ninia y Rhadinella. Geophis fue el género con más especies y G. godmani fue la especie más abundante seguida de G. brachycephalus. En el estudio observamos más machos que hembras y no vimos dimorfismo sexual entre sexos con respecto al tamaño, aunque las hembras pesaban ligeramente más que los machos. El tamaño poblacional de la comunidad de serpientes fosoriales en la finca de Las Nubes de Coronado fue casi dos veces mayor que la población de la finca de Jaboncillal. Encontramos baja fidelidad al sitio en Geophis con un desplazamiento de hasta 331 m en el caso de una recaptura. Las enormes diferencias en las poblaciones probablemente se deben a que las condiciones ambientales (humedad y temperatura) son más adecuadas y existen más microhábitats aptos para las serpientes en Las Nubes de Coronado.

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