KOREASCHOLAR

This study was conducted to investigate the movement and home range of the red-tongued viper snake (Gloydius ussuriensis) from June 2006 to June 2009. This snake species inhabits an islet on Jeju Island, Gapado. A total of 132 individual snakes were marked during the study. Among the marked individuals, the number of snakes recaptured more than once was 22 (16.8 %) and the number of individuals recaptured more than twice was eight (6.1 %), indicating a relatively low recapture rate. The durations from capture to recapture varied from 1 to 710 days. However, the capture points were not much different, indicating that the moved distance of snakes and the interval between capture-recapture were not correlated. The home ranges of the Red-tongued viper snakes calculated from data of the snakes which were captured more than three times using the MCP(minimum convex polygon) method were 8∼167 ㎡(64.0±57.0 ㎡), suggesting that this snake is relatively sedentary. Home range size differences between female (Mean=62.0 ㎡) and male (Mean=66.0 ㎡) snakes were not significant. In the red-tongued viper population of Gapado, there was no statistically significant relationship between body size and home range size although it was positively correlated (r=0.675). Our results provide valuable data to understand life patterns of the red-tongued viper snakes and will be useful when conducting further ecological studies on other snake species.

INTRODUCTION
 MATERIALS AND METHODS
 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
 REFERENCES

• Byoung-Soo Kim(Shinseong Girl’s Middle School)
• Hong-Shik Oh(Dept. of Science Education, College of Education, Jeju National Univ.) Corresponding author