DOI: 10.5061/dryad.crjdfn390
title: Data and code from: Spatial ecology of the Turks & Caicos boa, Chilabothrus c. chrysogaster Cope, 1871 (Serpentes: Boidae)

description: Obtaining ecological and natural history data from cryptic squamates can
 be challenging, but is crucial to understanding species’ biology,
 particularly in the context of conservation. In the Greater Antilles, this
 challenge is especially apparent, particularly among the West Indian boas
 (genus Chilabothrus). Most species have had only minimal natural history
 study, with a few exceptions. The Turks & Caicos boa (C.
 chrysogaster) has been studied intensively for over 16 years on the small
 privately owned island of Big Ambergris Cay, Turks and Caicos Islands. We
 conducted a multi-year radio-tracking study on the species to generate
 information relevant to spatial habitat use and movement that will inform
 conservation decision-making in the face of increasing development
 pressure. We tracked a total of 19 female snakes using surgically
 implanted transmitters, enabling us to obtain between 16 and 40 location
 observations per boa over the lifetime of each transmitter. We estimated
 home ranges, the core space used by an animal, using range distributions,
 finding that females have a home range of 0.70 ha to 1.2 ha. We also
 estimated occurrence distributions, the use of space between specific time
 intervals, finding an average occurrence area of 1.62 ha. Several females
 overlapped in their spatial habitat use, and we observed female boas using
 two novel habitats for the species (iron shore wrack and red mangrove).
 This study provides valuable information on the spatial ecology of an
 endangered boa and will serve to inform conservation work that is
 currently underway.
description: Snake radio telemetry.
description: R v. 4.2.3.
description: # Data from: Spatial Ecology of the Turks & Caicos Boa, Chilabothrus
 c. chrysogaster Cope, 1871 (Serpentes: Boidae) 1\) Data file (boas2.csv)
 and R code (R_Code__Reynolds_etal_2023.r) to run basic spatial statistics
 This data file contains latitude and longitude for each snake for each
 encounter. The date, time, and snake ID are included as columns. The R
 code will allow a user to calculate distances traveled, as well as basic
 KUD calculations. Each row is a single observation of a snake, identified
 in the the name column. 2\) Data files to run spatial statistics with the
 package ctmm. See the external CTMM package help file for column naming
 conventions. This folder contains the following data files:
 boa_telem_data.csv. This file contains the telemetry data for all boas,
 formatted into the input format for ctmm. Each row is a single snake
 observation, identified by the event-id. Other columns include visible
 (was the snake found), the timestamp in CTMM format, the lat/long
 coordinates in decimal degrees, the tag-name of each snake, and the study
 name. range_resident.csv. This file contains the telemetry data for boas
 that were determined to be range resident in ctmm. These data should be
 used for final ctmm analyses. The data structure is equivalent to
 boa_telem_data.csv, but has been filtered to only include range-resident
 boas. overlap.X.csv. These files are individual files for each pair of
 range-resident boas that overlap ranges, used to calculate range overlap
 using AKDE. The boa names are included in the data file name. The rest of
 the data file is equivalent to boa_telem_data.csv, but has been filtered
 to only include a pair of overlapping boas. 3\) Data files to run spatial
 statistics with the package bbmm. See the external BBMM package help files
 for column naming and data type. This data folder contains one csv file
 for each snake in the study, with the snake name included in the data file
 name. Within each cscv file, each row is a single observation of a snake,
 identified in the name column. The date and time of the observation are
 included. The column named rounded is the time rounded to the nearest
 hour. The lat and long coordinates in decimal degrees are given. The time
 lag(hrs) column is a vector of time differences in hours between
 successive locations of the snake. In other words, how long between each
 location given in each column. 4\) R code to run all CTMM package
 analyses. R code to run spatial statistics with the package bbmm. The code
 allows a user to run a BBMM analysis for each snake. ### Description of
 the data and file structure There are datafiles organized by R package
 usage that can be loaded directly into R using the scripts provided.
 Datafiles are organized by folder, with each folder corresponding to a
 package in R and a set of scripts. ### Sharing/Access information Links to
 other publicly accessible locations of the data: \* none Data was derived
 from the following sources: \* none ### Code/Software 1\) R script to run
 basic spatial stats (R_Code__Reynolds_etal_2023.r) 2\) R script to run
 spatial statistics with the package ctmm
 (R_Code_ctmm_Reynolds_etal_2023.r) 3\) R script to run spatial statistics
 with the package bbmm (bbmm_code.r)