Social behaviour in snakes

[adamanteus]

Guys, as many of you know, I've always believed that snakes aren't social... they are just found hanging around together because it happens to be a good spot for whatever reason (ideal temp, availability of food etc). I may have to change my views.
The following was written by a British Herpetologist of some standing, he has worked with British reptiles all his life... and he's pretty old now!)

I am getting toward the end of writing my adder book. The task has brought back quite few memories as I have sorted throught my records and data. Here is something interesting. In 1988 I started doing photographic IDs for both adders and smooth snakes; this in addition to ventral scale clipping. Each season I would photo ID between 4-6 litters of adders. In 1989 I Photo IDd two litters from *******. From this litter I have since recorded two females plus one male. Now, the interesting bit. These two females (sisters) are always together. They both bred for their first time at 7yrs. Since then, their breeding cycles have differed. But, even during the non-breeding years of one they are still seen together. If they both have a non-breeding year I have found them together in the summer grounds.
I cannot really explain this 'bond' but maybe it happens more often than we know. Communal behaviour of gravid females is not unusual.
Oh yes, mom is still alive, well in 2004.
I last saw the sisters in 2004, the photo was taken with my film camera in 2001.





__________________
TP

I have spoken to him since he posted this, to get confirmation, and he has seen these two sisters together every single year during that 15 year period! Serious food for thought, I'm sure you'll agree.

[Sid]

Very interesting to say the least, James. Thanks for sharing this with us.

[dekaybrown]

I have been observing social behaviour in captivity for a couple years.

Its difficult to determine if there is any bonding in captivity, as the animals have no choice but to live together, Are they just tolerant of one another?? in the wild, that is an amazing find!!!

And they will MARK TERRITORY with poo, more on that later.

Captivity and wild are apples and oranges apart, yet still fascinating to observe.

There are 3 hides in one tank, 3 dekay browns and 2 garters. There was a red belly snake, I let her go, she was not liking the captivity, and it showed. I felt it would be cruel to force this snake to stay my pet, when it spent more time turning down food, freaking out in the tank and just seemed non content.

The 2 garters almost always chose to hide together, as the 3 dekays do the same. Sometimes I will find one garter coiled up with a dekay in the same spiral.

They MUST be taken out and fed one at a time, or they will brawl violently over one single food item, even if there is enough food to feed an army, they all decide they want the same one!!

A snake that is otherwise unwilling to eat, will sometimes immediately scoot right over and grab onto the food that is already in another snakes mouth, while ignoring all the other food in the cage.

Can they identify siblings? Obviously so. Can they identify their own kids, I wholeheartedly believe so, Xena's litter was kept in quarantine as they grew, as an experiment, when they were a bit bigger, I placed a few babies in the tank. Shortly I observed Xena coiled up with her babies, and no other snake in that cage.

AFTER WEEKS of separation, removed a neonate, and returned with a juvenile. And she apparently recognized the babies?

Regards,
Wayne

[jeanette]

Ive always believed that its possible for snakes to bond with each other just as i believe its possible for them to ......... maybe "bond" with is the wrong word......... but enjoy a relationship with people.
Im really glad to see this is being investigated by a renowned herpetologist and i hope this will give other herpetologists a push in that direction to investigate this phenomenon further. There is so little known about snake relationships and behaviour, and untill now the general belief is that snakes are solitary creatures and prefer their own company at all times., But infact if they happen to rely on a community at odd times such as winter isnt it a possibility that they may infact form bonds that last their whole lives?
Garters are greatly known to winter together, and Austin stevens actually had an episode in one of his television series for Animal Planet where he ended up inside a mountain documenting Rattlesnakes coming together to hibernate. I do think that if snakes are so solitary then it would stand to reason that they wouldnt come together just to hibernate. Maybe the reason they are not often seen together during the rest of the year is so they can preserve food sources and not eradicate it and therefore starve themselves, not because they dislike their own kind

[Garter_Gertie]

Of course I can't quote my source as I didn't note it but I did read within the last day or two, on line, garters are social beings. If memory serves me correctly it was the author's belief garter's hiberariums (is that rite?) are cultural [my word] things vs. say one snake finding a good place to snooze the winter away and then passing the word on to hundreds and hundreds of other garters.

Eagles and Phoebes return to the same nest (or nests) year after year. Why can't it be the same for snakes? It would seem to me with snakes having even a smaller brain than a bird what's hard-wired into the reptilian reptilian brain would be greater as there's less room for the important stuff.

Now, sisters following each other around for 15 years is totally remarkable. One should stop and think, "How does this behavior ensure survival of the species?" Well, I'm - for once - at a loss for words. There's no benefit to species survival to two female snakes hanging out together.

Fascinating reading and pondering. Great post.

[dekaybrown]

Garters also breed in massive writhing gobs in the wild.

I watched a very excellent special on this, and will be sure to relate fully soon

Had to toss that in....

Wayne

[Garter_Gertie]

Originally Posted by jeanette

I do think that if snakes are so solitary then it would stand to reason that they wouldnt come together just to hibernate. Maybe the reason they are not often seen together during the rest of the year is so they can preserve food sources and not eradicate it and therefore starve themselves, not because they dislike their own kind

Excellent, excellent thought. PARTICULARLY regarding spreading out to preserve food sources, etc. I think that's really good. Wonderful thought and makes much sense to me.

I don't think bond is too strong a word. Well, oookkkkaaayyy. Maybe just a teeny bit to strong. Certainly Winnie knows me over all others and I believe she's got my walk down pat as she's always surfacing as I near her tank. She watches for me and while I can run my finger along the glass or put my finger near her mouth for a garter kiss, if anyone else does these things she's scrambling around like a nut-case to hide.

Winnie is social with me. But she is a snake and when she's had enough she lets me know in very strong garter language it's time to be put back. She will never - by any stretch of the word - become tame. But she does socialize and recognize me and is not fearful.

[adamanteus]

Gertie, the reason Garters use communal hibernation dens is because of the small numbers of suitable sites, this is not a social act and is quite well documented. These dens are often used by different species.

For example, Black Rat Snakes are sometimes referred to as Pilot Snakes or Rattlesnake Pilots because of the erroneous belief that they guide Rattlesnakes to winter dens. Dens in which Rattlers and Rat Snakes over-winter together. Mass hibernation is simply a matter of need... there are very few dens for very many snakes. Of course snakes have no means of 'passing the word' to hundreds of other snakes scattered across a wide area.

[adamanteus]

I think it's a HUGE (and wholely mistaken) jump, from what has been observed between these two sibling Adders, to snakes bonding with people.
Snakes don't bond with us, they learn to tolerate us.

[jeanette]

Originally Posted by adamanteus

Gertie, the reason Garters use communal hibernation dens is because of the small numbers of suitable sites, this is not a social act and is quite well documented. These dens are often used by different species.

For example, Black Rat Snakes are sometimes referred to as Pilot Snakes or Rattlesnake Pilots because of the erroneous belief that they guide Rattlesnakes to winter dens. Dens in which Rattlers and Rat Snakes over-winter together. Mass hibernation is simply a matter of need... there are very few dens for very many snakes. Of course snakes have no means of 'passing the word' to hundreds of other snakes scattered across a wide area.

If this is so then why did the rattle snakes documented by Austin stevens return every year to the same place? this doesnt sound like a "lack of good places to hibernate" It sounds like strict social behaviour, "coming home" if you will excuse the term. The cave he crawled inside to see the rattle snakes was simply crawling with them. he was aware that if he made one wrong move he was toast. the snakes were crawling over him there was no floor to be seen, i think he guessed at the number being in the hundreds, and he did say that even young snakes came to this cave even though they had never had their first winter. Maybe that isnt a communication thing but its definately a "something"