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Do snakes hear?

Clovis

Clovis

Pirate
Well, I went off on a tangent in another thread about the auditory capabilities of snakes and thought it might be best if I stared a new thread on the topic rather than derail that one, so here's my view.

"Hearing" is the recognition of vibrations that travel through the air (or the ground) and being received across the eardrum, then transferred via electrical impulses to our brains. Every voice resonates at a different frequency, which is what causes voices to have different tones and pitches, giving each person a different voice. Snakes also have an inner ear, equipped with an eardrum, and they receive the vibrations both through their skin and via their bones, most particularly the lower jaw bone.

Snakes can and do hear, despite lacking an outer ear. They do have a fully functioning inner ear, and recognize vibrations through both air and ground, at different response times, with particular sensitivity to lower frequency sounds. I've collected a few articles in the last hours to support this.

It is a "commonly held belief" that snakes are deaf, since they lack an outer ear. I don't believe it for a second. Here's some of my research finds.

Shall we discuss?

All research cited belongs to the authors, I didn't do it myself, nor am I claiming ownership of any of the following. (just to cover my bases, y'know?)

http://www.anapsid.org/torrey.html

http://www.anapsid.org/reptilehearing.html

http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode.cfm?id=A8A0FD9F-9AB0-7EDA-0EFCDBFB6244702B

http://www.seh-herpetology.org/files/bonnensis/229_Young.pdf

http://jeb.biologists.org/content/54/2/373.full.pdf
 
TBH, it's a matter of fact rather than something for discussion. Snakes do perceive sound as you describe it above. I'm not sure it's a commonly held belief amongst snake keepers.

They don't "hear" as we technically do, but they probably have more acute systems for "sound detection" than us.
 
yeah their "sound detection" as bitsy called it is mainly for survival obviously. I mean a deaf animal wouldn't last very long in the wild. and given that they don't have terribly good eyesight if they were deaf, snakes probably would have died off a long time ago lol.
 
Very interesting. I've been wondering how well snakes hear, although I always assumed that they either could hear or could pick up vibrations. Does anyone know how well they hear? Like the highest and lowest pitch they can hear?

I'll go read those articles.
 
Well without getting technical i know that Slinky prefers Duran Duran to the soundtrack to My Best Friends wedding! She will stick her head out of her moss box and does not go back in until I turn the music off. Pretty sure it is the difference in the bass vibration since the cd player sites next to her viv on the top of the dresser :)
 
hypnoctopus said:
Very interesting. I've been wondering how well snakes hear, although I always assumed that they either could hear or could pick up vibrations. Does anyone know how well they hear? Like the highest and lowest pitch they can hear?

I'll go read those articles.
Click to expand...
In the last 2 articles (which are a bit more heady, I know) there are a few graphs that show the responses to a range of frequency. The graph in the second to last is easiest to understand.
 
I think the information out there about snakes using their jaw bones to pick up vibrations and send the information to the inner ear/cochlea seems to be the most interesting, to me. Even stereo hearing! Though I haven't read up too much on it.

I think they hear, they just don't "hear" in the same manner that we think of as hearing. Hearing is just the body and brains processing of vibrations, I suppose snakes just process differently. Humans process vibrations in the air. I suppose snake "hearing" is more focused on processing vibrations on the ground...better prey tracking I suppose.
 
ZoologyGirl said:
I think the information out there about snakes using their jaw bones to pick up vibrations and send the information to the inner ear/cochlea seems to be the most interesting, to me. Even stereo hearing! Though I haven't read up too much on it.

I think they hear, they just don't "hear" in the same manner that we think of as hearing. Hearing is just the body and brains processing of vibrations, I suppose snakes just process differently. Humans process vibrations in the air. I suppose snake "hearing" is more focused on processing vibrations on the ground...better prey tracking I suppose.
Click to expand...
They do certainly "hear" better through the ground, but they also seem to (in trials) react to the same frequencies of sound in the air, though on a bit more of a delay than they do with ground vibration.
 
Toothless comes to his name if i go to his viv and say his name he'll come out of his hide to where my face is. He also comes out of his hide to see whats up if a man starts speaking (i attribute this to bein that his only other owner was a man for 5yrs) and when my MIL was here visiting he'd come out of his hide and just hang out in the open and not go back to his hide until she was gone....she had a southern accent. ;)
 
The evidence is not only in the research either. My yearling will actually bring her nose out to the tank and if call her name in a really low, bassy voice. She also responds to jazz music and anything with an acoustic-y, vibrational sound. She's very attracted to speakers if they play that type of music, but seemingly averse to them for anything else.
It's extremely interesting to me. Also, she is most active during power outages.
During Hurricane Irene we weer out of power for three days. It must have made a huge difference, the lack of vibration from power lines and all the other things we don't think much about, because she was so active and hyper and fast-paced.
Very, very cool.
 
Snakes are not going to recognize their name or a certain sound track. They don't hear words. They feel vibrations that they can sort of translate into a threat or a disturbance. They are not intelligent enough to know they have a name. When they hear vibrations they investigate it, usually if they're hungry or are not threatened by a particular vibration. Snakes. May find the tone of your voice non-threatening but it's no your name they're responding to. On the note of the power outtage, I am guessing no electric=no heat pad, and the snake was seeking heat. Snakes also are on the move and active during heavy rains. We often get our best breedings at work during heavy rains.
 
Carinata said:
Snakes are not going to recognize their name or a certain sound track. They don't hear words. They feel vibrations that they can sort of translate into a threat or a disturbance. They are not intelligent enough to know they have a name. When they hear vibrations they investigate it, usually if they're hungry or are not threatened by a particular vibration. Snakes. May find the tone of your voice non-threatening but it's no your name they're responding to. On the note of the power outtage, I am guessing no electric=no heat pad, and the snake was seeking heat.
Click to expand...

When did I say she recognized words all? All I said was that she liked the vibrations. She's always been curious about heavy vibrations and low, bassy sounds, i.e. my voice. That's all I said.
And it was 85 degrees during hurricane Irene. I didn't need a heat pad because my A/C was out. It was dark and silent and humid and she liked it. I got lucky.
 
so if he doesnt hear words then its the way I say his name, but its the only thing he'll come out for...if i just talk by his viv nothing happens or he goes deeper into his hide....if i say his name he comes out and puts his nose to wherever my face is.
 
It's definitely the way you say it. The reason I posted what Nyx does is so that people might try it at home. I have a lot of fun with what little hearing my most active snake has lol.
Snakes, although they do hear poorly, have excellent (electrophysiological) "hearing" within the range of 200-300Hz. Anything outside of that range, they don't really hear that well. It's a defense mechanism against larger predators. But since they do have cochlear signal activity, we know that they can "hear" or process noises in vibration form, although I'm sure some seem more interested than others. Bassy sounds, usually computerized or from an actual bass guitar often sound off within that range. I was surprised when I found that she seemed curious about where the sound was coming from.
Also, if you do try it at home, make sure it isn't too loud, and have a camera ready because I've gotten the cutest and best pictures of mine when she's staring inquisitively at the speaker haha.
 
he doesnt react to music or the tv....just voices....i swear its like he knows the difference between real ppl and noise from the speakers. If someone 'new' is in the house he comes out to see who's here. If its a man he's more curious than normal (prolly the deeper tones etc). But if we are playing music or watching tv with the surround sound on he doesnt care. LOL silly snake.
 
Ha, some just respond to different things than others. My other one doesn't care about sounds or outside stimulation AT ALL. All she wants is food and warm palms of hands. I can't get my yearling to stop responding to everything. If I so much as move too hard for her, I can look over and see her head poking out of one of her hides. I even caught her doing what looked a lot like stalking prey to my cat through the tank glass the other night. It was adorable, but weird. :)
 
Toothless stalks the cat too....he even struck at him the other day. Well he's a kitten about 4mo old and Toothless is about 5ft long so he must have assumed that cat looks like dinner. :)
 
I think they can hear/ have sometype of audio sensory system. At a research talk in undergrad, a speaker ( named Aurther something...), spoke about how fish could hear underwater. he put a waterproof speaker in the the tank and when the music was turned on the fish started to swim in school around the speaker. So i guess snakes can hear too.
 
People often don't talk to their snakes, thinking they can't hear them. I however always talk to my snakes. They may not hear all the tones of my voice, but maybe they hear some tones of it. I also speak closely to their head a lot of times to increase they chance they may hear me. This may all be fruitless, but I still have a feeling they do pick up the deeper tones, and possibly other tones of my voice. Either way I'll never stop talking to my snakes, haha. My snakes have also responded to music. One time for example I was holding Lars, and my boyfriend was sitting fairly close to me, playing guitar. Lars would not stop reaching for the guitar, so finally I let him crawl on it, and he stretched himself out across it, and staid there for quite sometime. Maybe the vibrations felt good to his belly and lower jaw? Who knows, but it was very interesting behavior to witness.
 
Here is a link to an interesting summary of a recent paper published in The Journal of experimental biology. The authors studied the activity of the neurons connecting the snakes inner ear to its brain and subjected the snake to a variety of sounds. They concluded that sounds transmitted only through the air were perceived by the snake even though the snake did not react to them. They studied this in ball pythons.

http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2011/12/vibrating-skulls-help-snakes-hear.html
 
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