Camera trap surveys characterize a snake community from a Chihuahuan Desert shortgrass prairie.

Chihuahuan Desert grasslands are ecologically diverse and considered among the most threatened ecosystems in North America, stretching from the southwestern United States toward San Luis Potosí, Mexico. These desert grasslands support a wide diversity of mammal, bird, and herpetofauna species, with the latter being among the least surveyed taxa within these ecosystems. Data on snake communities within desert grasslands are relatively sparse due to the difficulty in consistently detecting these secretive reptiles. Herein, we report the success of time-lapse-triggered camera trap arrays in documenting snake community structure within a desert shortgrass prairie ecosystem on private land in the Trans-Pecos Region of Texas in Presidio County. During 2020 and 2021, a total of 564 images of snakes were captured, with 268 of these being unique observations representing 15 species. Snakes were observed during every month the cameras were operational except for February and November 2020. Diversity indices were similar across cameras arrays, but frequency of occurrence of each species varied greatly. Camera trapping continues to play a pivotal role in characterizing squamate communities, and this study provides another example of how camera trapping can be successful at surveying snake communities on private lands within desert grassland ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]