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Are snakes intelligent?

enchantress62

enchantress62

In love with Frank
I was sharing pictures of my baby corn snake with a friend at work and she told me a story that left me pondering the question, are snakes intelligent?

According to my friend she had an experience as a child with a Boa belonging to a friend of her mothers. She claims that she was six years old and playing at the kitchen sink at the friends house. The Boa came into the kitchen and without making a sound or touching her managed to wrap it's self around her legs. Only then did it begin to constrict and work it's way up her body. She says that she tried to scream but couldn't and it was nearly up to her head before her mother and friend came into the kitchen and saw what was happening. They removed the snake and no harm was done but my friend has an extreme phobia now.

Taking into consideration the idea that she is remembering the event with a six year old child's perspective and probably has some of the details wrong. I began to think how crafty the Boa was to silently and methodically work it's self into a position where it could tackle it's prey with minimal effort.

We all know that snakes, like all animals, are primarily driven by instinct but after watching my little Frank I'm beginning to wonder if they don't have a higher level of intelligence then we understand. Does anyone know of any studies on this subject or would like to share an experience that made you wonder the same thing?
 
I don't think snakes are intelligent. They have very flat brains with hardly any folds or surface area. The amount of folds and surface area on brains allows for the synapses to fire, since snakes don't have these folds the number of synapses that their brains fire is really down to survival. They know when to eat, reproduce, and to hide. We also see a higher degree of intelligence among social animals. Animals that need to communicate to survive have larger, more developed brains, we can see this in animals such as ourselves, primates, wolves, and elephants. Snakes are solitary ambush predators for the most part, especially boas. So I am curious as to if this boa your friend remember was actually "hunting" her. If a boa were to need a meal, they usually sit and wait. They can last a lot longer between meals than our smaller corn friends. They also strike and then constrict as they grasp onto their food. The story your friend tells sounds much more like it was attempting to climb a "tree". I don't think that it was crafty that the snake was quiet (they are after all very silent), nor do I think it was being methodical, as it sounds to me that it was simply trying to get to a higher area. I do think that snakes have the ability to recognize their main keepers as fish do, but I do not think they are intelligent any more beyond the fact that they know what to do in order to survive. They've done this for millions of years with very little change, since they are so successful at what they do, they never had any reason to evolve higher brain function.
 
Well, I think any animal that is alive is intelligent to some degree. Otherwise they'd be dead. :p

Does a snake have an intelligence similar to humans? No, clearly not. And not just because they don't have thumbs. They just don't need our level of intelligence to survive and thrive.

Sounds like that boa was just using the kid as a tree, and climbing her, rather than attacking.
 
It is well documented that memory alters as time passes. Events become more dramatic in the retelling.

Honestly, what probably happened what that the snake slithered around her and then that was it. It's like playing telephone. Slithering around turned into coiling around turned into coiling entire body, etc etc.
 
That would be very scary for a child though! I would agree with AliCat that they probably aren't smart, they are instinctive. When I come to watch them, their instinct tells them to hide. It's not that they don't like me, they are naturally hiding from a large monster! They are all very tame though, some come out more than others and will stay out when I watch, but some immediately go hide if I get up to watch.

I do wonder if they hate being in cages since in the wild they would be able to roam about freely. I wish I could let mine play on the floor, but not so with the cats. I could in the bathroom and put something up so they couldn't easily slither under the door.
 
For the most part snakes are unintelligent. Some of the more evolved Colubrids, Elapids, and Viperids are intelligent to some degree. Your Cornsnake is not particularly intelligent, and for the most part are not going to show any sign of it.
 
Thanks guys. You have confirmed what I have observed. My Frank is so young that he shows no sign of intelligence. lol My friend's story, however, was very interesting to me. From a 6yr old's perspective what happened would have been terrifying. As an adult reflecting on the event I think she has been influenced by stories on the TV and the "Boogy Man" idea. Still, it was an interesting story, and since I'm very new to snake ownership. I wondered if there was any chance of intelligent calculation on the Boa's part.
 
I would say small intelligence.
If I put the feeding bin up to both of their vivs, they get all excited, come out of wherever they are and start climbing the glass. I've went over with other objects of similar size in my hand and neither could care less.
 
They aren't like dogs or anything, but mine will crawl out onto my hand to be handled, and has never pooped on me, only in the corner.
 
A friend of mine had her snake go through a maze to get to her feeding tank, each time washed it thoroughly and the maze. Eventually the snake got to apparently memorizing her way through.
 
My bearded dragon poops on the toilet paper I put in her viv. I put in about 8 squares 2 wide/4 thick. She lines it up and goes, although sometimes she gets some over the edge.
 
My Frank is just a tiny guy right now and his whole world seems to be about hiding and eating. lol I look forward to seeing the changes he'll make as he grows older. Hmmm Now that I think about it. If there is any kind of intelligence there then I should be able to train him right? I'll have to put some thought into that one.
 
To the OP my guess is the boa just being wrapped around climbing was mistaken for constricting by a frightened kid. Snakes move silently by design so I don't think it was being extra sneaky. To me snakes are a good example of the food chain, can it eat me or can I eat it, and if neither of those two apply then they generally dismiss it and carry on.
 
Well, I'm a noob, but among my 13 snakes I see varying levels of intelligence. None are amazingly intelligent, but, for instance, I have one snake who will come out from wherever he is if you say "dinner time" over his cage. this has been tested by many of my friends to their endless amusement. Some of my snakes are downright dumb, and will do things like smack their heads into one glass wall, then do it again and again, insistent that if they can see through it they should be able to move through it.

Most of my snakes know when feeding day is (I have a very regular schedule) and come out when I walk past their cages an time on said day, then go back in when I don't get them out. My Japanese rat snake shows the most intelligence of them, he systematically checks his cage for escape routes, often ignoring the open door of the cage if he is working on trying to shift the wires in his cage top (he'll never make a big enough hole, but oh, he does try). He reacts to various phrases, and comes out when spoken to on most occasions. He pouts at the bottom of his door when he wants to be taken out and is being ignored. He has also taken to being trained to sit around my neck quite well.

Maybe they aren't amazingly intelligent, but I think they are far more intelligent than they are given credit for.
 
Call me crazy but I think Chino is pretty smart. He knows me and my husband when I open the cage he will come right to me or him. Someone else opens the cage and he hides. He also knows that when I clean his cage I feed him. I get he is not like a dog but he can recognize. He is 15 so I think I know his actions pretty well.
 
I have one snake that speaks, but my problem is no one in my family is parselmouth. We are waiting for Harry Potter to visit, but he is too busy trying to save the wizard world. My other snakes have figured out how to open their enclosures and then slither up the stairs and out to the garage freezer, open up the lid and pull out feeders and then thaw them in the microwave and then eat them and then put themselves back into their enclosures. I told my wife that it'd be nice if they'd figure out how to fix dinner for us, one of them overheard, and looked at me and just stuck out her tongue. My dumbest snake though wastes all his time playing street fighter against me, winning about two thirds of the time. I keep telling him to spend more time reading, and that he could probably get a high paying job, one where he could save up enough money for his very own rack, but he's too lazy - stupid snake.
 
not you, but some one has a snake with ears
i have several snakes that react differently when different people handle them, whether scent be the cue or something else
 
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