Landscape Scale Habitat Selection of Harlequin Coralsnakes (Micrurus fulvius) in Three Large, Protected Areas in the Southeastern United States

The Harlequin Coralsnake (Micrurus fulvius) is an iconic and imperiled species of the southeastern United States, but we know little of its ecology and natural history. We used our field notes on incidentally observed coralsnakes within three large, protected areas in Georgia and Florida (Apalachicola National Forest, Eglin Air Force Base, and Fort Stewart Military Installation) to generate information related to the habitat preferences of individual animals. We generated random location points in each of our study areas and compared the landscape-scale habitats surrounding them to the habitats surrounding coralsnake location points. We obtained evidence that coralsnakes exhibit hierarchal (i.e., multiscale) habitat selection. Specifically, coralsnakes were found in areas with more sandy soils (250 m scale) and scrub/shrub habitat (500 m scale) than random points across the landscape. Our study generates novel habitat information for a poorly known species.