Clint and Sisuitl have equally valid points. Is it true that snakes lack the part of the brain that allows for comlex emotions such as love, joy, anger, and jealousy? Yes. These are very human and complex and need the areas of the brain that are unique to humans and some species of apes. These would include the cerebrum and frontal lobes. The cerebrum is the outer part of the brain that allows for thinking and comlex emotions. This part is lacking in the snake's brain. The frontal lobe is part of the cerebrum, but it gives a person individuality. Individuality and higher thought processes are what allows people to feel love, joy and anger. Those emotions are not only complex, but based on the individual.
Now, from the scientific disection of the brain, there is no way a snake can be happy. This is complex and based on individuality. We can see, however, that each corn snake has some form of individuality because they all respond differently to the same stimulii. They may be lacking in the frontal lobe, but it seems as though they have a small portion of it, just by the observation of many different snakes' responses to stimulii. They do seem to lack the cerebrum though. Just last night I had taken off the lid to one of my containers to see how the snake reacted, and she kept trying to go through the side of the container, even after I showed her that the top was off by lifting her upper body to the lip. It still took her 45 minutes to crawl out of the top, so I would have to say that based off my observation, corns do not have the ability of complex thought. the thought process would be more like "something changed" instead of, "the lid is off, go up".
Back to Sisuitl's point. Snakes do feel fear, but it is not the complex fear we think of, it is more of a defense mechanism. Remember back in 5th grade when we first strated studying the brain stem because of frog disections? The basic, primal response is "fight or flight". The fear that snakes have is the "flight" response being triggerd because the snake is threatened. Only after continual "flight" responses are shown to not be truly threatening, then the snake begins to get comfortable. This is called conditioning.
I do agree that some snakes are more comfortable in the company of others. It may be possible that SOME corns are comfortable with others, and SOME are not. Corns (lacking most of the frontal lobe, if not all) are highly unlikely to be comfortable around others unless conditioned to be so. After 7 years of cohabitation, I think that my corns are conditioned to be comfortable with each other. I may seperate them for a month or more to see if there are any noticeable differences. I'm scared that when one dies, though, the other will follow shortly because they have spent their entire lives together, and maybe need each other around. Again, highly unlikely, but it is something that I have thought about several times. Only time will tell unfortunately.
