So, snakes aren't intelligent huh?

[Asbit]

Well here is my little anecdotal information that makes me feel many keepers underestimate the intelligence and brain function of their snakes.

Both of these two stories are about the same snake, Kraytos, a Male Butter het Hypo Motley. He has the sweetest personality, very nice, was never shy even as a little one when I got him, great eater-loves his mice-takes them like a champ.

Incident #1: There has only been one time I have seen him show any type of aggression. I had him out for some exercise and our hunter cat came in the room. I got concerned and tried to shoo her away. The cat decided to just stop where she was and stare at the snake. About 3 min into this the cat shut her eyes and Kraytos made his move. He took off like a dart fast and as straight as he could and still move, he went right for her hind quarter and rammed his nose into it. She jumped "sky high" and whipped around. He was only about 39 gms at the time but even once he assaulted her and she spun around on him he did not give up. He kept after her and literally herded her to the basement stairs, then once she went down them. He went back to casually cruising around.

Incident #2: I missed a feed for him and then he went into shed so between the both it added up to 21 days since he had last been fed. Normally he is fed approx every 7-10 days as he is 92 gms now. For the snakes that I have in 4 aquariums with non-latching screen tops, I use luggage straps go all the around the tank and clip securely on the top of the screen. He was obviously hungry and he managed to lift the corner of the screen enough so that he could escape.

This is where it gets really interesting. So everyone can get the full picture my house is just shy of 1900sq ft on each the basement and the main floor. I have only recently moved all of my snakes into my newly acquired snake room which in in the basement bedroom that is now empty, previously to the move he had never been in that room before. As well, in my basement there are two storage rooms which have holes in walls or partially finished walls, access to the furnace and the duct work, among many other ways to have lost him.

He was in his viv the @ 3:15 pm the afternoon of Tues Nov 2 as I checked him when I got one of the daycare children up, who sleeps in the snake room. Wed Nov 3 @ 7:15am I went to the kitchen to take my morning medicine. What did I find, Kraytos peeking out at me from under the lip of my kitchen counter while sitting on top of my built in dishwasher! He then started to crawl up toward the counter, _the exact piece of counter I feed him at_!!

Of all the things he could have done in the 16 hrs of freedom he had...and he spent it figuring out how to escape his viv, figuring out how to get out of the snake room, how to get from where he was to the stairwell in my basement, then up the stairs the to the kitchen, then up to the counter(the specific counter I feed him on, not the one on my island)!!

When I saw him I panicked and grabbed him which scared him back under the counter, so I had to thaw a mouse for him and lure him out with it. So in essence for all of his naughty behavior and effort he got rewarded with what seems to be exactly what he wanted.

I know this subject has been brought up before and most people do not feel that snakes have anything other than instinct but I wonder if we "sell them short" so to speak.

 

[knox]

My Florida King will watch me from her tank. She also reacts when I come close - not a fight or flight reaction, but checking me out, studying me. It is awesome.

Even when I get off the sofa to do something, she watches me.

 

[wstphal]

I think the "stupid" idea arises out of two things. One is that it is very difficult for most people who do animal intelligence research to think of ways to MEASURE snake intelligence. The other is the general, although outdated, assumption that the brain size divided by the body size correlates with intelligence. So humans, who have large brains but not gigantic bodies, score highly. Elephants and whales have huge brains but huge bodies and score below humans. Reptiles have small brains in comparison to their body size, so how could they be smart?

This idea is gradually becoming outdated as people study the intelligence of social birds (psitticines & corvids). Birds have small brains, even in proportion to their body size, but they turn out, in some groups, to be very smart. I believe someone has demonstrated that, for example, a parrot who knows what the word "blue" means and what "block" means can be asked to give his trainer the blue block, even though the parrot has NEVER seen a blue block before, and the parrot will do it, so he didn't just memorize the noises, he associated the word blue with the color and the word block with the shape, and when faced with an assortment of small blocks, pyramids and balls, he picked out the item that fit both criteria.

If somebody could figure out better strategies for testing snake intelligence, I think we would find out they are smarter than we think they are.

 

[ShenziSixaxis]

Very interesting. Corns are renowned by some people as being one of the most domestic and intelligent snakes, as they learn escape routes fast and remember them.

I always do laugh when people say reptiles/snakes are stupid or only have instincts. I just can't see a mindless being in that tank.