GarethUnsworth
New member
How i the quality of each and how to they gather a sense of their surrounding? Sight? Sounds? Smell? Taste? Touch? and Heat?
Thanks
Thanks
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What senses do snake use?
- Thread starter GarethUnsworth
- Start date
obboi34
Aaron
they are effectively deaf, though they can feel vibration very well. sight is ok, but they are nearsighted. I don't think they have a sense of taste as we think of it, but their tongue and jacobson's organ basically taste the air. they are aware of heat, but I could not tell you how it feels for them.
bitsy
Owned by Corns since 1991
Sight - They have good binocular vision, but for objects further away it seems to work more on detecting movement than on specific identification of what something is.
Sounds - They don't have ears but are very sensitive to sound through their sensing of vibration.
Smell & Taste - These are essentially the same sense for them. They pick up particles from the air on their tongues and insert them into the Jacobsen's Organ in the roof of their mouth for analysis. They have a very acute sense of taste/smell. A snake flicking its tongue at you is the equivalent of a dog or cat sniffing your hand - it's an information-gathering exercise. Over time, many Corns come to recognise their main carer and I believe that they mainly do this by taste/smell.
Heat - They have heat sensing pits down the sides of their heads. This is one of the principle ways in which they would locate and hunt prey in the wild, and one of the reasons that we recommend super-heating pinkies for reluctant feeders.
However their bodily sense of heat detection is very different to the one we have. They're capable of sitting on a surface that's dangerously hot (like an unprotected bulb) for a long time and actually sustaining very deep burns. For some reason, their bodily heat detection doesn't tell them when something is causing them harm and it doesn't trigger a pain reaction or movement to somewhere safer.
Sounds - They don't have ears but are very sensitive to sound through their sensing of vibration.
Smell & Taste - These are essentially the same sense for them. They pick up particles from the air on their tongues and insert them into the Jacobsen's Organ in the roof of their mouth for analysis. They have a very acute sense of taste/smell. A snake flicking its tongue at you is the equivalent of a dog or cat sniffing your hand - it's an information-gathering exercise. Over time, many Corns come to recognise their main carer and I believe that they mainly do this by taste/smell.
Heat - They have heat sensing pits down the sides of their heads. This is one of the principle ways in which they would locate and hunt prey in the wild, and one of the reasons that we recommend super-heating pinkies for reluctant feeders.
However their bodily sense of heat detection is very different to the one we have. They're capable of sitting on a surface that's dangerously hot (like an unprotected bulb) for a long time and actually sustaining very deep burns. For some reason, their bodily heat detection doesn't tell them when something is causing them harm and it doesn't trigger a pain reaction or movement to somewhere safer.
lxhiddenxl
New member
haha I didn't know that... Learning something new everyday! Too bad Calypso is pretty small and would not appreciate me holding her head still
bitsy
Owned by Corns since 1991
Yup. They're not obvious as in boids, but they're there. My old guy is effectively blind as a result of cataracts but he unfailingly tries to line up my nose for an experimental chomp when I get him out to feed (thankfully I can anticipate him and get him into his feeding tank to distract him!). My nostrils are the part of my face which give off the most heat and he knows exactly where they are. He even follows them if I turn my face.
It's a bit unnerving having a snake which consistently lines itself up on your face. Poor guy doesn't mean anything by it though - I just have to try not to take it personally!
lxhiddenxl
New member
Aww that's sad. How old is that snake?
HermesMom
New member
lxhiddenxl
New member
wow, that is awesome! Would love it if my lil girl makes it that long!
Binocular vision? I don't think that's possible with the eye structure of typical snakes, their eyes are too much to the sides of their heads to form a good stereo image like humans and animals with eyes front can.
I haven't seen any visual targeting performance in my snake, she comes very close to the food and takes a sniff before striking. Also, when moving the mouse side-to-side, she easily misses the strike, which would suggest that she isn't using her vision very much when going for food.
They do have pretty good monocular vision though, some times I'm surprised how easily Nuppu picks up distant movement outside her viv.
