About This Project
Venomous snake bites are a rare but potentially deadly risk that we mitigate with anti-venom. However, of the dozen islands where tiger snakes are found they each eat a different group of animals, which we suspect affects their venom and therefore the anti-venom we need to develop to save lives. Carnac Island's seabird-eating tiger snakes contrast with most inland frog/lizard-eating snakes and we want to find out if expressed venom components also differ.
Ask the Scientists
Join The DiscussionWhat is the context of this research?
Tiger snakes on islands are interesting for many reasons, including having giant or dwarfed bodies/heads. The tiger snakes on Carnac Island are not naturally occurring; they were introduced by humans within the last 100 years which means we can look at how they rapidly evolved to a new environment over one or a few generations. Depending on what animals are available to eat in a new environment compared to what animals a snake is used to eating, snakes may have to adapt quickly in order to survive. Head size is one feature that can adapt quickly in new environments: when you only have seabirds to eat and you have to be big enough to swallow a seabird to survive, you'll very quickly grow your head big enough.
What is the significance of this project?
We know that there is a surprising amount of variation in within-species venom profiles. Many snakes show a change in their diet as they grow from baby to adult and this has been found to correlate with life-stage changes in venom composition and bio-activity. There may be a reciprocal evolutionary 'arms-race' between snakes and their prey with respect to the effectiveness of their venom, however we currently lack enough data to explore this possibility. Our trip to Carnac Island will allow detailed characterization of seabird-eating snakes with respect to their venom as well as anatomical and physiological variation in their traits. We can then compare the Carnac Island tiger snakes to mainland tiger snakes for these traits.
What are the goals of the project?
The overarching goals of this project are to document the natural variation amongst tiger snake populations and evaluate associations with differences in venom components. This campaign aims to support our fieldwork on Carnac Island later this year, which is part of a wider project on multiple other tiger snake islands investigating geographic variation in tiger snakes. We will capture 10 tiger snakes from Carnac Island and an adjacent mainland population to sequence the venom-encoding genes produced by the venom gland and see how they differ between the island/mainland populations. Some immobilisation enzymes might be more highly expressed in Carnac Island tiger snakes as seabirds struggle to escape more than lizards.
Budget
Fieldwork costs will include airfares to Perth, Australia and boat hire to get to Carnac Island. We will be camping on the island for a week, while we catch the tiger snakes. Supplies include snake catching equipment, containers to keep the snakes secure, and other provisions. Filming of the fieldwork allows us to more effectively make our supporters and the general public aware of the science that we are doing.
Endorsed by
Meet the Team
Team Bio
Vicki and Marc work together at the University of Adelaide on reptile evolution and population genetics. They both have strong ties to the South Australian Museum and Museum Victoria's venom bank, as well as collaborations with international experts in venom evolution.
Vicki Thomson
I am a young researcher interested in how species can adapt to future climate change using naturally occurring variation. In Australia, I also work on the echidna, emu, brush-tailed possum, malleefowl, grey kangaroo, ghost bat, and many species of native mice.
I have worked on a diverse set of projects in my short research history. I have discovered a unique group of chickens brought into Oceania by the early Polynesians when they originally colonised the Pacific Islands. Using these archaeological chicken bones (and ancient DNA techniques) I have reconstructed the migration route of these early Polynesians. I have also located the Indonesian island where the Pacific rat lived prior to being introduced through-out the Pacific by early Polynesians, and driving many native birds extinct.
Marc E H Jones
I'm interested in the evolution of amphibians and reptiles. In particular, anatomical variation and its relationship to traits such as body size, diet, and bite force performance.
I have a diverse research history. I have described a number of fossil amphibians and reptiles including one of the largest ever frogs (Beelzebufo, from the Cretaceous of Madagascar), as well as the oldest known reptile related to lizards, snakes, and tuatara (material from the Middle Triassic of Germany). I have also contributed to, and led, a number of projects investigating the biomechanics and bite force of lizards and tuatara. This work showed that the New Zealand tuatara has a flexible chin necessary for it's ability to shear and chew food and that the connections between the bones of the skull are an important part of how the skull responds to mechanical loading.
Additional Information
Marc catching a snake during a snake handling course.
A tiger snake.
We have already examined anatomical variation amongst museum specimens of tiger snakes and have some preliminary venom protein/genetic analysis from historical samples.
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