#snake research

[omg-snakes]

What’s a favorite snake fact?

Just one you think is particularly cool or interesting.

Goodness! There are so many interesting things about snakes that it's really hard to pinpoint just one thing.

I guess my favorite snake fact is that they are capable of more complex social interactions than we originally thought, including developing preferential relationships with other members of the same species within their population. While this area of study is still pretty new, "friendships" between nonbreeding same-species individuals have been documented in rattlesnakes as well as garter snakes.

(PDF) Social Behavior of Rattlesnakes: A Shifting Paradigm

PDF | New eras don't come about because of swords, they're created by the people who wield them. -Nobuhiro Watsuki Breaking conceptual barri

Not all snakes will make friends, not all species are built for companionship, and cannibalism or ophiophagy is found in many species so I don't advocate for cohabbing snakes* in captivity, but I'm eager to see where this new research takes us.

Mostly I just find it very comforting to know that somewhere out there, a snake is snuggling with their platonic bestie.

[millievanilly]

Northern watersnake or Nerodia sipedon. This is a female who is trying to shed her skin. <3 I love them so much

[millievanilly]

My babies ❤️

[millievanilly]

My babies ❤️

[thepalmertrinity-blog]

Mr. Mealey's Class Kicks Off Snake Research

On Monday, September 28th, Mr. Mealey's class kicked off their annual snake research. With the help of his students, Mr. Mealey was able to measure, handle, and release a black racer snake back into the wild on Monday, and a red rat snake on Tuesday.

[rainbowsnakes]

Stress… we all can imagine what this word means, and it is used often, if not daily. Snakes, however, don’t have looming deadlines or polarizing politics, so their version of stress is quite unlike ours. To a snake, missing that final meal before winter could cause a state of prolonged stress.

This is a really interesting article about measuring stress in snakes! 

The stress hormone Corticosterone (CORT) Is frequently used as a measure of stress in a range of animals and can affect them both pysiologically and behaviourally. 

This research team were aiming to find if CORT was a good measure of stress in snakes and what, if any, effects CORT had on snakes by using implants.

One of their findings I wanted to highlight was that elevated CORT did not suppress testorsterone in this study! 

This is very interesting and supports the idea that reproductive sucess / willingness to breed does NOT necessarily mean that snakes are free from stress or have good welfare standards. 

I am excited to see the rest of the results from this study!  

[rainbowsnakes]

Much of what is known about the molecular evolution of vertebrate vision comes from studies of mammals, birds and fish. Reptiles (especially snakes) have barely been sampled in previous studies...

Snake lenses vary substantially in their spectral transmission. Snakes active at night and some of those active by day have very transmissive lenses, while some primarily diurnal species cut out shorter wavelengths (including UVA). In terms of retinal anatomy, lens transmission, visual pigment spectral tuning and opsin gene evolution the visual system of snakes is exceptionally diverse..

Interesting! 

[rainbowsnakes]

Sup, If anybody is curious to read any of the papers I cited in the 

“arboreal snakes gotta climb” post feel free to message me the title of what u want and I can send the pdf to u via skype or watever coz yes I know  paywalls SUCK.