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Amazing experience with my Naja haje
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by Viperlady on November 5, 2006
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Hello everybody. I just wanted to know if any of you who keep Naja species have had any similar experiences. Yesterday I added some regular red construction bricks to Mario's (I call him that way 'cos the enclosure includes bricks and tubes) enclosure. A couple of them had some kind of moss or algae growing, y'know the green stuff that grows on rocks with certain humidity conditions. Well, the cobra started "tasting" them and then scratched his upper cape scales on the brick with moss. I've never seen this kind of behavior in any other snake, and since I've only had this specimen for about a year, and is my first experience with cobras, I'd like to know if anybody has seen this before and if any of you know what this behavior is due to, or just tell me what you think... ain't that really interesting? I've searched for references, but nothing has shown up yet.
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RE: Amazing experience with my Naja haje
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by Viperlady on November 5, 2006
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Sorry, I forgot to add that I started imagining what this could mean. Could he had been trying to acquire the smell of the material? Thinking these guys commonly share habitat with other reptiles with very sensitive sense of smell, which are part of their diet. I thought maybe they normally "try to smell" like their surroundings so their prey won't be aware of their presence... another idea is that they are leaving their markings on new additions to their surroundings. Territorialism??... well, please let me know what you think.
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RE: Amazing experience with my Naja haje
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by Cro on November 5, 2006
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Harumi, very interesting observations. Any of the three possibilitys you mentioned could be right. A brick that was outside might have the smell of mice, snakes, lizards, frogs and toads, and insects on it, as well as scents left by animals like dogs and cats marking their territory with urine scent. It would be interesting if you put a new object with virtually no scent, such as a block of wood or a new brick, and see if the snake reacts the same way or not.I do not know of cobras scent marking their territorys, but it could be possible that they do, and that it has just not been observed yet. After all, many other animals do scent mark. Or perhaps he was just curious about the new object in his cage.
I think you could set up a few simple experiments that would help determine just what his actions were about.
If you decide to try that, let us know here what you observe.
Best Regards JohnZ
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RE: Amazing experience with my Naja haje
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by Viperlady on November 5, 2006
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Well, John... up to now, I've already tried with "clean bricks" and he didn't seem to care about them at all as well as the rest of the stuff inside the enclosure, but actually the brick with the green thing was only rinsed with tap water to get rid of dirt. I picked these bricks from my backyard, and thinking about it, there could be a lot of attractive odors for a Naja, such as the smell of Sceloporus... quite an interesting observation topic, don't U think?
Thanks for your comments and advice, & sure, I'll be paying attention and will keep track of anything new.
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RE: Amazing experience with my Naja haje
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by Rob_Carmichael on November 6, 2006
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There's a word in the zoo world that most of us have heard called "enrichment" that is often applied to mammals/primates, birds, etc. It is just now catching on with reptile departments. Cobras are incredibly inquisitive animals whose behaviors are still poorly understood. One thing is for certain, when their environment changes a bit, they spend a lot of time checking out these "foreign invaders". Our king cobra, Thai, is incredibly curious and each week, we put something new in his cage that we get from outside (which seems to have much stronger scents)....we'll put a pile of dead leaves in his cage and watch him "play" in them for hours. If we put an old rotting log in his cage he will rub his face all over it much like what Harumi observed. Why he does it is sheer speculation. Oftentimes, I will hide his food in PVC pipe and he just goes nuts over trying to find his food. All in all, it adds a certain degree of enrichment in their captive lives.
Rob Carmichael, Curator
The Wildlife Discovery Center
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RE: Amazing experience with my Naja haje
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by Atrox788 on November 7, 2006
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Agreed with Rob. Over the years I noticed this inquisitive nature in many elapids (pallida, annulifera, lubricus, scutatus, kaouthia and nigericollis) colubrids (Pituophis to be exact). Anything new or changed around in the cage drew and almost imideate inspection from the animals consisting of paseing around the cage, stoping many times to sniff a perticular item or area, usualy whichever item or area was forigen or replaced elsewhere. Even simply removeing and adding new substrate of a soiled area they would be right there sniffing away.
The awarness of snakes, perticulary the genus Pituophis and Elapids is quite amazeing and prooves to me that there is alot more going on up stairs then people give them credit for. This isnt to say Crotalids and Viperades dont also posses this but due to their more lethargic nature it just isnt as obvious. I had one copperhead in pirticular that was always very curious of anything going on around her cage and would always come up to see whats up. It may have been a simple feeding association but even still.
Very nice observations ^^ BTW, I noticed you keep Aspidelaps from your profile. Have you had any breeding sucsess? Could you perhaps provide alittle insight into your animals and their husbandry? Im in the begining stages of compileing a care sheet for this sight based on my experince with the genus and would love to hear others experinces. This goes to both Viperlady and Rob.
Thanks and good discussion ^^
Regards,
Jeremy Geffert
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RE: Amazing experience with my Naja haje
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by Viperlady on November 7, 2006
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LOL...Jeremy...That would have been good, but I was only checking the straightness of the bow and the cord and didn't have the arrow even close... (well, I hope I explained myself, I'm not sure about the technical words in english) ... mmm... what a shame I wasn't...
Ok, back to my observations, I've noticed some inquisitive behavior also in elapids like Micrurus and Aspidelaps, and in a Crotalus simus, but none other viperids, however none of those as remarkable as with Naja. Well, I've never had Pituophis deppei, I have a catenifer, but never seen her (it's a girl) behaving similarly, but in fact, I remember a Leptophis I once had to "babysit" for a week, who did the same thing.
And I wonder, why do people still think reptiles can't have fun?
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RE: Amazing experience with my Naja haje
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by Atrox788 on November 7, 2006
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Hehe. Yea, I noticed you didnt have an arrow but I figured maybe you were just day dreaming about it LOL God knows I have. Nothing would give me more pleasure then to stick a venoider in a pit of gaboon vipers LOL Yes, im methodical at times.
Regarding Ptiuophis, I should have made more clarification. For Pituophis I have noticed this primarily in pinesnakes. Northern Pinesnakes most noteably but also southerns and blacks. There are many reffercnes to them being one of the smartest snakes, or atleast aware and I definately see were these claims came from. My big male will look at me the entire times im in the snake room, checking me out and always inspects his cage (or atleast seems to be) everytime I change, rearange or insert somthing into the cage. If I change the water bowl he is right there after im done smelling away.
Like you I never realy saw it in the gophers though. Deppi I place more so with gophers then pinesnakes due to physical differences so it would probaly be about the same. Never worked with them unfortunately.
I think the Naja show you more of it due to their spastic demeanor. They are always on the move anyway and when placed into an enviroment with new smells and sights they kinda go into over drive. I saw this much more with African Naja then Asian. Asian just always seemed extreamly defensive, rdy to hood and hiss on the drop of a dime. Not saying that they are any less intelligent or aware, or having fun (I like the latter one best heheh)then African species but it made it hard for me to witness any of this behavior because they would so readily stand their ground.
To this day though the most visualy/sensory aware snakes I have ever seen were Ophiohagus. Kings are simply in a league of their own. When they look at you they look you in the face and they have always amazed me with the inquisative nature.
BTW, the closest I have ever seen a snake to having fun is when my pines and Naja were given chicks lol I realy belive them to be the equivilent to us going out for a margarita LOL My huge male pine will chase me half way around my snake room when he smells them. Its so fun to watch as long as he dosent get ahold of me O.O
Well Bonita, untill next time.
Adios,
Jeremy
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