Cite this article as:
Chetanov N. A., Litvinov N. A., Ganshchuk S. V., Galiulin D. M. Comparative thermobiological characteristics of the dice snake Natrix tessellata (Laurenti, 1768) (Colubridae, Reptilia) from the Kama Cis-Urals, Middle and Lower Volga regions. Current Studies in Herpetology, 2025, vol. 25, iss. 3, pp. 226-229. DOI: https://doi.org/10.18500/1814-6090-2025-25-3-4-226-229
Comparative thermobiological characteristics of the dice snake Natrix tessellata (Laurenti, 1768) (Colubridae, Reptilia) from the Kama Cis-Urals, Middle and Lower Volga regions
Since 2019, single individuals of the dice snake Natrix tessellata (Laurenti, 1768) have been repeatedly found in the Kama Cis-Urals. The lack of data on the thermobiology of the species in atypical conditions determined the purpose of this work – a comparison of the most important thermobiological characteristics of the water snake from the Lower and Middle Volga region, as well as the Kama Cis-Urals. Data on the body and selected substrate temperatures, collected in the spring-summer period from 2001 to 2024 in the Lower (n = 162 individuals) and Middle Volga regions (n = 104 individuals), as well as the Kama Cis-Urals (n = 43 individuals) served the material for the study. When comparing the samples, lower body temperatures were found in the dice snakes from the Middle Volga region, the differences are statistically significant both when compared with the sample from the Lower Volga region and from the Kama Cis-Urals, the maximum temperature (29.9°C) was noted for the dice snake from the Kama Cis-Urals. No reliable differences in the selected substrate temperature were found in the dice snakes from the Lower and Middle Volga regions, while the differences with the sample from the Kama region are statistically significant. The body temperature of the dice snake is similar when comparing the samples from significantly remote parts of the range, this indicator is species-specific, but in the Kama Cis-Urals the dice snake is forced to be active at significantly lower ambient temperatures.
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