Do Corn Snakes Love?

Originally Posted by visceralrepulsion

YOU said animals dont feel emotions, you didnt say SNAKES. so you opened the door to this discussion. and you cant argue with proven facts like for example the fact the elephants experience sorrow and grief when a family member or "friend" dies. so be insolent, sarcastic and closeminded all you like, it just truly shows you are not wiser than your years. but to respond like you did wont get you anywhere, and it certainly wont earn you any education. you can say 'im done with this discussion' because youve been proven wrong, its okay, id be embarrassed too. why cant you have a civil discussion and not a black or white debate? are you too set in your own opinions that you can accept others perspectives, facts, and knowledge? if so thats pretty sad, you wont get far in life thinking the world revolves around you.

lulz, ok yeah i'll give you that i opened the door to all animals in this discussion but thats just my opinion. and how did i respond in a way that offended you? all i said was that i was done having a discussion about a theoretical situation of animals feeling love. this is why i hate having a discussion where the answers are based upon opinion. people get too sour when their opinion isn't agreed with by everyone else. and i wasn't proven wrong because there isn't a right or wrong answer. all i said was that i was done, and reiterated my previous opinion, and then yeah i might have gotten a little sarcastic with my last sentence. as far as being too "closeminded" as you say, no i'm not because once again this is all a matter of opinion and not facts. i can accept that you think your (insert animal here) feels all the emotions that you do but i'll tell you i think you're wrong everyday. so once again, someone pull a Dr. Dolittle and i'll believe you. and one last comment about your response. more specifically the last sentence in your response.

don't put words in my mouth and step off.

IMPO, I think it is close minded and more than a little arrogant to say that emotions are specific to human beings, we are not "outside" the natural order of things, we are a part of nature and share DNA and certain brain structures with many other animals on this planet.

The only thing truly specific to humans is our language (which is true for other species as well) Love is simply a sound that we assigned to an already existing feeling, humans did not invent love or emotion.

oh ffs obviously i'm trying to beat a dead horse here. unsubscribed. not touching this thread again.

Originally Posted by Farmgirl

Wolves mate for life, if/when one dies or is beaten and evicted from the pack, the other will either go off alone (mate dies) or leave the pack with his/her mate. They do not find another and start over. This seems particular to wolves as other wild canine species will find another mate and start over.

Bald Eagles also mate for life and do not go find another mate, that was one of the reasons the protection effort was so important when their numbers dropped alarmingly because one death meant 2 losses to the breeding pool.

Actually, you are incorrect on both accounts. They mate for life, unless one of the mates dies but they will find another mate. Ive done eagle research and had the same male go through at least 3 females. One was hit by a car, one got egg bound, and we couldnt figure out what happened to the other one.

With wolves, the next female/male in the order of the hierarchy generally gets to become alpha and replace the lost mate of the alpha pair.

Originally Posted by Farmgirl

IMPO, I think it is close minded and more than a little arrogant to say that emotions are specific to human beings, we are not "outside" the natural order of things, we are a part of nature and share DNA and certain brain structures with many other animals on this planet.

The only thing truly specific to humans is our language (which is true for other species as well) Love is simply a sound that we assigned to an already existing feeling, humans did not invent love or emotion.

We do indeed share brain structures with animals, but with snakes only the base of the brain, where basic stuff to survive is programmed. Snakes don't have the brain part people developed where emotions like love are based, that is a fact, not an opinion. So it is not arrogant to say we as humans belong to the very few species that can experience emotions, it can be a black and white discussion if you stick to facts

Of course we can argue about what emotions are, but scientists have already made that decision and located their home base. You can choose to disagree with that but to me that's closer to being arrogant than what is said above.

I don't really think she was talking specifically about snakes anymore.
The discussion sort of moved off of snakes when the OP claimed humans are the only living things capable of emotion.
We've pretty much come agreed that snakes cannot "love", they simply aren't built to love. But, it (understandably) made her a bit angry when he said that other animals are incapable of having "feelings". That's just foolish.

Originally Posted by Farmgirl

Wolves mate for life, if/when one dies or is beaten and evicted from the pack, the other will either go off alone (mate dies) or leave the pack with his/her mate. They do not find another and start over. This seems particular to wolves as other wild canine species will find another mate and start over.

Wolves will not beat out the alpha pair in the pack. A pack is comprised of family members, the parents and pups. Just like humans do not raise question to their parents, wolves will not challenge theirs. If one of the alphas die then either another wolf will join that pack, or the two betas will stand up. There is truly no such thing as a lone wolf either, the wolves that we consider "lone" are searching for mates to start their own packs. And if one member is lost, they will start over.


As for the original discussion, I don't think that animals are entirely void of emotions, however I don't think there is much to corns or any other snakes. They have extremely flat brains that act out instincts alone. I believe that a corn (and boa) can recognize its primary keeper and learn that that person does not mean it harm, but I don't think they love. They know that we're associated with food and not harm, that's all.

Nevermind.. I accidentally responded to the wrong quote.

Originally Posted by legitimatehypnotist

I don't really think she was talking specifically about snakes anymore.
The discussion sort of moved off of snakes when the OP claimed humans are the only living things capable of emotion.
We've pretty much come agreed that snakes cannot "love", they simply aren't built to love. But, it (understandably) made her a bit angry when he said that other animals are incapable of having "feelings". That's just foolish.

correct, I was not speaking specifically of snakes when making that comment. I agree that a snakes brain is primitive, and I agree that is based in fact rather than opinion.

Then again, the fact that we share brain structure with many mammals, and that scientists have proven that those animals use the same part of the brain as humans do when experiencing emotion is also a proven fact. So I do stick by my opinion that saying that human beings are the only creature capable of love is arrogance.

Not the only but one of the very few.