• Hello!

    Either you have not registered on this site yet, or you are registered but have not logged in. In either case, you will not be able to use the full functionality of this site until you have registered, and then logged in after your registration has been approved.

    Registration is FREE, so please register so you can participate instead of remaining a lurker....

    Please be certain that the location field is correctly filled out when you register. All registrations that appear to be bogus will be rejected. Which means that if your location field does NOT match the actual location of your registration IP address, then your registration will be rejected.

    Sorry about the strictness of this requirement, but it is necessary to block spammers and scammers at the door as much as possible.

Have we been wrong in the Social behavior of Rattlesnakes?

Very interesting article indeed. The fear of assigning human traits to snakes may have made us misinterpret some important behaviors.
 
I believe Jeff Mohr (El Jefe here) would be able to offer an informed opinion, having completed doctoral research about rattlesnakes in 2010.
 
"Fear of the dangers of anthropomorphism has caused ethologists to neglect many interesting phenomena, and it has become apparent that they could afford a little disciplined indulgence." (Hinde 1982)

"To endow animals with human emotions has long been a scientific taboo. But if we do not, we risk missing something fundamental, about both animals and us." (de Waal 1997)

Many scientists, in their efforts to be unbiased and avoid anthropomorphism (assigning human traits to non-human animals), engage in anthropodenial (de Waal 1997). Anthropodenial is the opposite of anthropomorphism: the refusal to acknowledge humanlike characteristics of non-humans animals, which is just a bias of another sort. As indicated by Hinde and de Waal above, scientists have missed some interesting animal behaviors because of anthropodenial. (For more on this topic, check out de Waal 1997.)

For example, numerous observations of rattlesnake families dating back more than a hundred years were dismissed by the godfather of rattlesnake biology, Laurence Klauber:"

http://blog.socialsnakes.org/2013/01/removing-blinders.html

I agree, it would be interesting to hear others thoughts on this considering the godfather of rattlesnake biology dismissed them as well.
 
airenlow said:
We all read the article...
Click to expand...

And your thoughts? Any at all? I mean, you don't have to be an expert to have an opinio. After all, this article is stating that even experts can be biased. Surely, you have some thought of your own other than... "We all read the article." Right or wrong, its your opinion. You should never be afraid to share that.
 
You see, I and wondering if Humans are causing this behavior in these snakes... Rattlesnakes that live near urban areas are less likely to rattle, and therefore less likely to be killed immediately. It is a path of evolution that (in my opinion) will lead to them "loosing" their rattles and possibly become a new species. I wonder if the development of maternal instincts is somehow caused by the need to protect their genes from dying at the hands of humans?
 
Outcast said:
You see, I and wondering if Humans are causing this behavior in these snakes... Rattlesnakes that live near urban areas are less likely to rattle, and therefore less likely to be killed immediately. It is a path of evolution that (in my opinion) will lead to them "loosing" their rattles and possibly become a new species. I wonder if the development of maternal instincts is somehow caused by the need to protect their genes from dying at the hands of humans?
Click to expand...

Very interesting theory and one that I think you might be right on the nose with as well. It just makes you wonder how much more complicated their pea little brain is that we don't give them credit for. Mine have certainly learned when feeding time is. When they see me start to get out feeding tubs and their mice warming cups they come out, any other times they could care less when I am doing. So if they could learn that, why can't they learn to protect their young from us be mean monsters.

I would really like to see that research continued. How long does she protect her young? Till they have enough rattles to make a big boy noise or just till he is breeding size and looking for lady snakes? Does she do it year after year or was this just a coincidence that this baby was still around the follow season? It definitely makes you ponder.
 
I'm surprised you're just finding out about this, ATPSS! I've been blabbing about the Social Snakes website all year. They have the COOLEST videos of the snakes interacting with their kids, with the squirrel, with other snakes...
 
bitsy said:
I believe Jeff Mohr (El Jefe here) would be able to offer an informed opinion, having completed doctoral research about rattlesnakes in 2010.
Click to expand...

I talked to Melissa at the Biology of the Rattlesnakes Meeting in July 2011. Her presentation had some cool video (mostly what you see on the website) and she is finding out some neat aspects of parental "care" when using the cameras. There are others doing that work as well and I have been applying for funding to try it out on eastern rattlesnakes species.

Rattlesnake biologists have known for some time that there is limited parental "care" with mother and juviniles...especially after birth. These videos confirm that even better than most biologists could have known. Although I saw my females with their babies when I studied the timber rattlesnakes in SC, I never had the opportunity to put cameras on them. I wish I could have as I would bet we'd see some of the similar behaviors.
 
Nanci said:
I'm surprised you're just finding out about this, ATPSS! I've been blabbing about the Social Snakes website all year. They have the COOLEST videos of the snakes interacting with their kids, with the squirrel, with other snakes...
Click to expand...

I kind of live under a rock... I don't pay attention much until it catches my eye, then I do "a lot" of "research" on it, then it goes away because something else has caught my attention....LOL
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top