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The southeastern United States is home to a diverse assemblage of snakes, but only one species, the Rough Greensnake (Opheodrys aestivus), is considered specialized for a predominantly arboreal lifestyle. Other species, such as Ratsnakes (genus Pantherophis) and Ribbonsnakes/ Gartersnakes (genus Thamnophis), are widely known to climb into vegetation and trees. Some explanations given for snake climbing behavior are foraging, thermoregulation, predator avoidance, and response to flood. Reports of arboreality in snake species typically not associated with life in the trees (such as terrestrial, aquatic, and even fossorial species) usually come from single observations, with no knowledge of prevalence of the behavior. Here, we report on arboreality of snake species detected during 8 years of night surveys in the Atchafalaya Basin of south-central Louisiana and 5+ years of night surveys in Big Thicket National Preserve in southeast Texas. We recorded a total of 1,088 detections of 19 snake species between the two study areas, with 348 detections above ground level (32%). The Rough Greensnake and Western Ribbonsnake (Thamnophis proximus) accounted for nearly 75% of total arboreal detections among the two study areas. However, with one exception, all snake species detected more than once between both study areas had at least one arboreal detection. These observations demonstrate that snakes with widely varying natural histories may be found in the trees at night, and for some species, this behavior may be more common than previously believed. into the trees for various reasons. Snakes may climb into trees to exploit seasonally available food sources. For instance, large colubrid snakes in the United States often forage in trees each spring as they seek bird eggs and chicks as prey (e.g. Cunningham 1955; Mullin et al. 2000; Sajdak 2010). Copperheads (Agkistrodon contortrix) are known to climb to prey upon seasonally abundant cicadas (Gloyd and Conant 1990; Beaupre and Roberts 2001; Sajdak 2010). Snakes may climb into trees to avoid terrestrial predators (Martins 1993; Sajdak 2010). The North American Racer, Coluber constrictor, is well documented to flee into trees to avoid capture (Conant and Collins 1998; Mitchell et al. 2000; Sajdak 2010). In Amazonian forests, many diurnal snake species, even categorically terrestrial species, were found at night sleeping on low vegetation, perhaps in avoidance of terrestrial predators (Dixon and Soini 1986; Martins 1993). Snakes may ascend into trees for better basking sites and shelter (Brown 1992; Sajdak 2010). For example, in Canada, hundreds of Red-sided Gartersnakes (Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis) were observed ascending into low trees during the day when thermal reversals caused by rain showers caused the ground to have lower temperatures than what was available in the trees (Shine

the journal of north american herpetology

NOCTURNAL ARBOREALITY IN SNAKES IN THE SWAMPLANDS OF THE ATCHAFALAYA BASIN OF SOUTH-CENTRAL LOUISIANA AND BIG THICKET NATIONAL PRESERVE OF SOUTHEAST TEXAS