We studied the colonization of the Amur Rat Snake Elaphe schrenckii and the Steppes Rat Snake E. dione of a sawdust mountain, located among the wastes a timber processing complex, during high floods of the Amur River. Since 2013, both species of snakes live in this territory year-round. For snakes, shelters from the cold are shelters in the form of “floa-ting” cracks (depth 1–1.5 m, temperature in winter up to +18°C) with a snow “roof”. Species E. schrenckii dominates in numbers on group wintering.
The spawning migrations of four widespread species of anuran amphibians in European fauna (Pelobates vespertinus, Bombina bombina, Pelophylax ridibundus, and Rana dalmatina) were analyzed. In the years with an abnormally early start of the spawning migrations of the anuran amphibians and their passage through a false spring, powerful anticyclones over Central Asia, Trans-Urals or Western Siberia blocked the west–east atmospheric transfer.
We investigated seasonal changes in the plasma levels of sex hormones in males (testosterone) and females (progesterone and estradiol) of Elaphe dione (Pallas 1773). Snakes (21 males and 17 females) were captured from May to August 2022 on the Samarskaya Luka (Samara Region, Russian Federation). Some individuals (4 males and 11 females) after capture were kept under controlled laboratory conditions for two months, then they were released at the capture sites. Blood was sampled immediately after capture.