How smart are cornsnakes?

[stephen]

Are some smarter then others?
Do cornsnakes actually (really) want to be with humans?
What have you seen your cornsnake do, that you would consider it actually interacting with you?
These questions have me thinking..............
As pretty much starting with a pair of Amels years ago as pets,having them grow out and finding out they were actually a pair and breeding them,got me where I am today.
Breeding cornsnakes as a hobby.
Then watching new morphs being produced ,made me want to produce my own new morphs.
What if I only had got one back then and kept it only as a pet,I wonder how much more, I would know about them.
I took my cornsnakes out of brumation early this year to get the breedings I wanted to done early.I didnt however take out a couple males that I wasnt planning on using.This morning one of the males that was in hybernation woke and decided he wanted to be back out and feeding and breeding I think.He escaped his Viv,what I found really strange is he came looking for me, to let me know this I think.These two males where on the other end of my house close to the front windows,where it stays fairly cool.Well this morning he was at the foot of my bed just laying there waiting for me to wake up.When I woke and sat up there he was ,he just looked up at me and was kinda moving its head up and down and flicking its tongue,it seemed he was definetly trying to tell me this.He didnt move when I went to pick him up. Now with all the experience I have with cornsnakes any other male would have went his own way .Every other snake that has ever escaped always just disappeared and few where ever found again! I would like to hear from others on anything, to them that might show cornsnakes are smart. Thanks

 

[Nroc]

That's a cool story. Waiting for you in the morning. Glad you didn't step on him. He would have lost trust in our species for life after that.

My hatchling sometimes acts interested in me. My normal assumption would be that she wants nothing to do with me, but sometimes, she approaches me from within the tank. She normally tries to avoid me. Perhaps I am breaking her in...and thus she simply does not fear me as much. This would make more sense than her actually wanting to be near me...

If I put my hand in the tank, and she climbs into it...I will know for sure...

 

[sciencechick]

I don't have anywhere near the experience of most people on this board, but I don't think they are all that smart. Their brains are pretty small. Mine tried to eat the floor of her feed box after she finished her mouse because some fluids ended up there. She also decided to to right back into her shed as she was still finishing it, that doesn't seem like an animal that thinks much to me.

I don't think it takes much intelligence to make associations with food, so my guess would be he was hungry and just knew that the big warm thing brought mice.

 

[wstphal]

Are some smarter then others?
Do cornsnakes actually (really) want to be with humans?

I think some probably are smarter than others. Somebody had a snake escape recently. The little bugger went back in his viv, pooped & left again. Was eating pinks in bottle traps & then leaving the bottle trap. This went on for days before finally being recovered. That's smart!

I have also read that once they figure out how to escape, you have to fix the flaw that let them escape or they will escape again IMMEDIATELY, which means they sure do remember how they escaped from that viv the last time.

Do they want to be with us? I doubt it's an emotion, but we are nice large heated trees with hides attached (clothing) & we bring tasty mice.

 

[bitsy]

In my opinion they work on instinct, not intelligence.

If your house was cool, then your bed would have been warmed by your body and appear as a hotspot to him. He was simply behaving as normal and thermoregulating - not trying to communicate with you.

Mind you, it's a compliment to you that he felt safe enough to do so. He must have known that you were nearby due to your smell. I firmly believe that they can distinguish between their usual human and "others". I think what you had was a vote of confidence, rather than a "Timmy's trapped down the well" moment (like in Lassie movies).

 

[tstephe3]

The only thing I could think of that is probably not normal. Is my very first corn, he's an Amel is always out in plain sight. Doesn't hide really at all. The thing I think is kinda cool about him is he is always really active when I'm getting other snakes out.. Het starts looking at me like why aren't you getting me out. Lol

 

[stephen]

Well

No that was not the case, as him just trying to find a hot spot.First he was at the other end of the house.From where he was, there are racks and alot of hot spots,there are also females that are ovulating inbetween him and I.When I woke he seemed to purposely try to get my attention.He layed there, where it wasnt very warm waiting,when I seen him and looked at him, he looked at me eye to eye then kinda shook his head , as if he was trying to tell me something.He is surely not afraid of me, as he waited there not moving until I picked him up.Also, he was one that has been more of a pet then the others, one that has been held alot .
In general,animals are alot smarter then we think.This was proven by my sister,using her rabbit as a example.We made a huge wooden maze,when the right path was taken the rabbit was rewarded with a treat.Once the rabbit knew the path,every time it went the right way straight through the maze to get its treat.

 

[SLUFDRIVER]

I'm new, but have seen some questionable behavior in my 9 mo old female. She and our cat seem to have a 'thing'. The cat purrs when he sees the snake, and the snake will go to the glass of the viv and tap the glass, then they just look at each other. This is almost daily. Also, she seemed very agitated last Monday, and when I put my hand close to her she approached immediately. She started prodding the calloused areas on my hand hard enough that she would actually shake. At first I was at a complete loss on this behavior, until to my surprise she began to shed her skin in my hand. I vote for if not smart, then certainly clever!

 

[oneirogenesis]

There is a neuroscientist who set up an experiment with corn snakes not long ago to test their ability to learn from their environment. I bought a copy of his paper, which is unfortunately on another computer. However, if any of you are interested, I will find the name of it again and the website I bought it from.

This particular scientist realized that testing a snake's intelligence by sending it through a maze would not exactly be fair to the snake, as they would not encounter similar problems in the wild. Rodents are on the move and foraging constantly, so learning a maze is well suited to them. Instead of using this technique, the scientist recognized that in the wild corn snakes spend more time looking for, and staying in, secure hiding places and avoiding open ones. He set up a small arena with several entrances around the perimeter. Only one of the entrances led to an actual hiding spot, which he put coloured tape around in the hopes that his snakes would learn to recognize it. Otherwise the entrances all looked the same. If I remember correctly, he also placed a card on one of the walls of the arena to give the snakes a frame of reference from which to navigate.

The conclusion he came to was that the snakes definitely did learn and remember where the correct hiding place was. In the paper I read he included diagrams of the paths the snakes took around the enclosure, and you could see that with each subsequent trial, the paths grew shorter and there was less wandering around: the snakes would basically beeline to the now familiar hiding spot. He did a bunch of different experiments around the same basic principle in an effort to understand how snakes navigate and remember spatial information, but I cannot remember all of the details now.

Defining intelligence is a really hard thing to do. We can say for sure that corn snakes do learn, and they are definitely inclined to remember the people and places that are safe and those which are not. But they are not social animals by nature and have not evolved very effective ways of communicating with us, so it's difficult to know what really goes on in their little heads. I assume Ariadne trusts me because she will eat and drink while still in my hand and she considers me to be a safe hiding place. Whether or not she "likes" me I can't know, because she can't really tell me.

 

[wstphal]

There is a neuroscientist who set up an experiment with corn snakes not long ago to test their ability to learn from their environment. I bought a copy of his paper, which is unfortunately on another computer. However, if any of you are interested, I will find the name of it again and the website I bought it from.

I need to read that paper & I will happily pay the website to get it! Please send me the link! Thanks for mentioning this & thanks in advance for the link.

 

[bitsy]

When they escape, they do seem to go back to the same place and try it again.

 

[wasuslitherin]

Can they hear things? Like vaccum cleaner, music, ect. ?

 

[bubba6]

i think snakes are smarter than we "humans" give them credit for. after all they have been around for how long? I believe my two snakes "like me" because from day one neither has ever struck at me or gave the appearance of such. just my worthless two cents

 

[tom e]

I wouldn't have any problem with thinking that they can know us as the source of their food. Add to that the fact that this one is very 'tamed' (as in not afraid of you) and likely very hungry, I think that could very well explain it!

My first snake as a kid was a wild caught gopher snake. We kept him in a 55G tank with a board on top and books on top of that. We knew almost nothing then about their care. Anyway he used to escape every night and would be found on the kitchen window sill every morning in the sun. My mom would just grab him up and put him back in the tank, lol. How lucky were we?

 

[bitsy]

Can they hear things? Like vaccum cleaner, music, ect. ?

They pick it up as vibration, to which they're very sensitive. So yes they perceive noises that go on outside the tank, but they won't "hear" them as they don't have ears.

 

[oneirogenesis]

I need to read that paper & I will happily pay the website to get it! Please send me the link! Thanks for mentioning this & thanks in advance for the link.

After a bit of searching I found it again. Here is the link to the article where you can purchase it as a PDF: http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/30001100/abstract

Here is a link to a list of Dr. Holtzman's papers and where they are published; he's done a lot of research on spatial learning and memory in snakes, but the above article was the only one I could find online. http://www.bcs.rochester.edu/people/dholtzman/index.html

Glad that I could be of help

 

[Caryl]

I need to read that paper & I will happily pay the website to get it! Please send me the link! Thanks for mentioning this & thanks in advance for the link.

Me too!!!!

 

[Asbit]

Me Three!!

 

[ReversingTime]

thank you for sharing, this is a very interesting topic

 

[usmcbecker]

I have four snakes and four Tanks. one has a problem with the dual doors. One of the doors has been damaged and it has separated at the side and if I dont put someting heavy on it, the snake will escape. I rotate the snakes from time to time to give them a change of scenery, so they keep busy exploring it like its new territory. It seems that one of my girls is more prone to escape. She has escaped twice and one time I caught her in my bedroom trying to climb up on my bed, during brumation. I didnt think too much of it, but i was led to believe that there is some connection to it. I just thought it was funny that she went to the opisate end of the appartment to come and find it. I think they know who feeds them. I dont know if this was just a coinsidence, but none the less, it made me feel good none the less. When the others escape when I am feeding them, they will find the closest place to hide, but not her. Thats why shes my favorite.