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RE: Intelligence in King Cobras
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by atwageman on September 7, 2009
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Not sure if this really matters to this particular topic. But I have a c. atrox that buzzes like a weed eater with no muffler everytime I enter the snake room. As soon as I tell it to shut up like I would a barking dog.....not a single buzz for the rest of the day.
An eastern green mamba I have will constantly be on the move in its cage or if I have it out on the hook. As soon as I throw up my hand giving a stop gesture like a school crossing guard, that mamba turns into the most laid back snake. I can put her on my work table and she will just sit there until its time to put her back in the cage, and she gets on the hook very slowly and calmly rides it back to the cage.
Now if I bring a stranger into the room, then what I stated above does not apply. I'm convinced that some snakes can associate to some degree that there keepers are not out to hurt them. And some can tell us apart from a complete stranger entering the room.
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RE: Intelligence in King Cobras
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by Cro on September 7, 2009
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I think there no doubt that some snakes have a ability to recognize their keeper, and his habits, and to learn.
They might also recognize his smell, or aura, or speed of movement, or the sounds he makes. They sure can sense if you are afraid of them or not.
Most every keepers here knows that some folks can reach down and pick up a wild king snake or rat snake, and never get bitten by it. But, when their snake hunting buddy does the same, he gets chewed on time and time again. The snake somehow senses a difference between the two different reptile collectors.
When I open a rattlesnake cage, and the snake looks up and advances with a feeding reflex from his coil, all I have to do is present the scoop spoon to him, and he knows that it is cage cleaning time, not feeding time. And he will return to his coil and just sit there.
I have had hundreds of rattlesnakes do that, time and time again. That is a learned behavior.
As far as Randal's comments concerning John Werler and the coach whip snake, I find that very interesting. I met John Werler a few times and he was always a very interesting fellow to talk with. When you look at that coach whip snake, what do you see ? Big Eyes. That snake is very visual oriented. And it is very fast and skinny. If a coach whip snake elevates its head above the ground, and sits there motionless, it can use those big eyes to look for prey items, and then it can use its speed to be on top of them in a flash.
Sounds like John Werler found a way to get that snake to exhibit that behavior.
Would be a fun experiment to set up and see if they all do that under the same stimulus.
Best Regards
John Z
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RE: Intelligence in King Cobras
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by Kingetula on September 7, 2009
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I don't know if you would call it potty trained or not but an Eastern Diamondback and I had some sort of agreement. I would feed him and as the tail began to show signs that he had to poop (3 days later) I would take him out to the yard. He would do what he had to do and then I would take him back inside. This saved me many times from cleaning up a stinky, nasty mess and in return his cage stayed clean. It worked like clockwork, learned behavior I guess. I picked this trick up from an Eastern King snake. I had him outside one day and he took a dump and I thought, hey, maybe I can potty train this guy. I had a pretty laidback Eastern Diamondback, however I wouldn't trust any snake to be fine with this arrangement. (If he got away, he was native so escape would have sucked but not really an issue where I lived but I never had him take off for the woods.)
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RE: Intelligence in King Cobras
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by atwageman on September 8, 2009
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I'm one of those keepers John than can reach down and pick up a kingsnake or black ratsnake and not get chewed up. My wife jokingly calls me the snake whisperer....lol. Then she tells me to try that with a hot. I explain to her that me and Jesus have an agreement to keep me from doing something stupid.
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