Snakes and their intelligence

 How smart are snakes and what we know about their intelligence?

Snakes are unique animals and live a solitary lifestyle. There are 4,000 reported snake species, but that number is always changing. They’re land predators which typically eat insects, small rodents, rabbits and other small animals. Snakes aren’t that known to eat humans, like how some horror movies may depict large anacondas to do so. Also, snakes aren’t always violent to humans. Snake attacks don’t always happen but they can happen often times. On average there’s 5.4 million snake attacks a year, as per the WHO. From navigation to social behaviour to personality, scientists are rewriting what it means to be a clever snake. According to research, snakes have long been cast as cold, reflex-driven creatures which slither through life without thought or memory. But over the last decade, a growing body of research has given us reason to start thinking otherwise. In fact, it suggests that snakes can learn, remember, navigate and even exhibit patterns of behaviour akin to personality and social interaction. There’s a common misconception that animals aren’t as smart as humans. Sure most animals might not have the same abilities as humans, but humans also don’t have the capabilities of many animals either. Monkeys, gorillas, chimpanzees and other members of that family share 98% of their DNA with humans and can learn American Sign Language. But snakes don’t have limbs like monkeys and humans. What are their capabilities and how can we measure snakes’ intelligence? How intelligent are they compared to other animals in their ecosystem?

As biologists continue to demystify these reptiles, their intelligence has become one of the most surprising stories in animal cognition. According to research, snake intelligence has been almost totally dismissed for decades due to their historical inability to “pass” laboratory tests. However, almost all of the methods these tests used were initially designed for mammals and birds, like mazes, which ultimately don’t match a snake’s natural life. But in biologically meaningful experiments which made sense for their lifestyles, snakes have shown genuine learning and memory. A classic demonstration comes from a spatial-learning study. The young corn snakes (Pantherophis guttatus) were trained to escape an arena by finding the single open shelter among multiple false exits. Across repeated trials over four days, the snakes became both faster and more direct in their attempts to escape the test arena. Notably, these are both indicative of learning and spatial memory, rather than simple instinct. As the snakes repeated the task, they travelled shorter distances and showed increased movement in the goal quadrant. In other words, they remembered where they needed to go, as well as how exactly to get there.

The common snake abilities and features include:-

They kill their predators in two ways: by constricting like boa constrictors to stop them from breathing or by injecting venom into their prey’s body through bites. Vipers are a common snake species which are smart in how they take down their prey.

They have very flexible jaws which can allow them to open very wide. Therefore, they can consume larger prey with ease.

They drag their bodies through loops since they don’t have any limbs. Snake bodies are comprised of curved ribs which also allow them to climb, swim and fling themselves through the air. Snakes slighter through lateral undulation. The S-shaped movements help them slither along uneven terrains.

Larger snakes or those which live underground move in a straight-forward line more than the S-shaped movement.

Snakes not only play a massive role in the food chain as they balance it out as predators and also prey. They help maintain the biodiversity of their ecosystem.

Although they have teeth, they do not chew their food. But they swallow it whole.

Lizards and snakes are similar in four ways. They’re similar in their biology, diet, diversity and the dangers they pose to humans. Lizards and snakes are both reptiles and are classified in the Squamata order. Most lizards and snakes are carnivores as they eat amphibians, fish, eggs, insects, rabbits, mice and rodents. Both species can be found on six of the seven continents in the world with the exception of Antarctica. They also live in diverse environments like forests, river banks, deserts and mountains. Snakes and lizards can both bite humans and some animals can inject poison into their prey. So snakes have similar abilities like some other lizards.

So what is snake intelligence, if it’s not comparable to mammal-style reasoning or emotional complexity? Based on the emerging bodies of research, herpetologists suggest that snake intelligence is comprised of:-

Spatial memory:- They can remember and navigate to goal locations relevant for survival, feeding sites, shelters or hibernacula.

Individual differences:- Like other vertebrates, snakes display consistent behavioural tendencies which differ between individuals.

Behavioural flexibility:- Snakes can modulate boldness, social interactions and defensive actions depending on context.

Adaptive learning:- Snakes can associate stimuli with outcomes, adjust behaviour based on experience and improve performance on repeated tasks.

Without an ability to learn, snakes in different environments wouldn’t be able to adapt and learn their new habitats. Without a capability to learn, they wouldn’t be able to conquer their prey at their respective environments. Several zoo experts drew a conclusion that snakes are primarily driven through instinct rather than intelligence. Some snakes are less intelligent than most animals, but that doesn’t mean they can pick up on certain things. There are studies which display their intelligence, but there are limitations to measuring their intelligence. Some of those limitations are based on assumptions by the experts and a lack of testing methods.

One common critique in terms of snake intelligence surrounds their inability to solve “puzzles” in the same ways that mammals do. However, this critique was overhauled once herpetologists realized that lab tests have forced snakes into unnatural problem formats. Once these tasks and tests were tailored to snakes’ unique biology, they witnessed some intriguing capacities emerge. For example, snakes have been observed using their bodies to manipulate their environments during ambush predation, forming live blockades to prevent prey from getting past them. While not a puzzle box test, this behaviour demonstrates goal-directed action. Ultimately, this suggests that snakes are capable of use of perception, decision making and situational assessment over mere instinct. These observations support the idea that snakes are not just reactive machines. Evidently, they’re capable of consistently using memory, perception and even team-work to solve real-world challenges. Snakes are great trackers which allows them to find their prey with ease. Snakes can remember cues. A study from the University of Rochester had snakes in a tub in the middle of a brightly lit room trying to find holes to hide in the dark. After they were guided by researchers one time, they kept finding the holes quicker and quicker. Some snakes are able to build their nests to protect their young. Snakes can collaborate with other snakes to hunt in groups. For example, the Cuban Boas work in packs to take down their prey. They can learn how to take small food as a reward. They can recognize their owners. Snakes can go undetected as they can slither into the tightest of spots like mouse traps behind houses and holes in the ground. They can warn people and animals of danger. Rattlesnakes can do that very well by shaking their tails and Cobras can elongate their head to warn people that they’re about to head their way. Some snake species can fake and imitate behaviour. The Eastern Hognose Snake can play dead when it’s threatened by larger predators.

Snakes have also been observed using both associative and spatial memory in ways which significantly improve their chances of survival. A study notes that corn snakes and other species can remember and consistently navigate to places associated with rewards or safety. In simpler terms, this means that snakes are able to remember locations where they’ve found food, encountered danger or found shelter; these are forms of memory that are both practical and adaptive. In nature, this translates into snakes returning repeatedly to successful feeding sites, reliable shelters or known migration routes between seasonal dens. Pit vipers (Crotalinae), for example, can migrate several km's to return to exact hibernation dens they’ve used in prior years. Given that the reptilian brain structure lacks a mammalian-style hippocampus, this an impressive display of spatial memory. This isn’t built on emotion as it normally is in mammals, but instead on associative and contextual memory systems. These mechanisms allow snakes to link certain places or stimuli with outcomes, and then to use that information to guide their actions in future survival scenarios. Some snakes which are considered as the most intelligent are the Whipsnakes, North American Racers, and King Cobras. Their intelligence levels are considered by their hunting techniques, behaviour with humans, and adaptability to their environments. King Cobras are also one of the few snakes which construct and protect their nests. King Cobras can also change their hunting tactics to best suit their hunting situation. In regard to pet snakes, pythons, boa constrictors and corn snakes are the best options.

This brand of intelligence may lack the emotional depth that humans place importance on, but it nevertheless serves snakes exceptionally well in the unique challenges of their environments. Evolution has shaped snake cognition not to favour empathy or emotion in the same way we have, but instead to favour tools which help them find food and avoid danger. In the past, many people assumed that snakes are nothing but dumb animals which move instinctively for prey or pose as a threat to humans, but how so? Well, some people have not test snakes’ intelligence properly. Most experiments snakes have underwent in the past were mazes, something that’s unusual in their experiences. Scientists also have a history of testing mammals more often than reptiles and amphibians. Therefore research could be very limited on those animal species. There are also negative biases towards snakes, which creates an aversion towards them. Hence, not many people would want to test snakes. The lack of testing prevented people from discovering that snakes’ primary sense is smell and not sight. People can assume that they may be dumb animals rather than knowing that their sense of smell helps with some of their primary decision making. They also don’t use their nose for smelling. Snakes use their tongues to smell and detect any prey or predators. Not only that, but they can feel vibrations through their skin to determine how large is an animal is by their movements on the ground, underwater and in the air.

Beyond basic learning and memory, personality research in snakes is gaining traction, which is a relatively surprising twist for animals that have long assumed to be uniform in behaviour. Specifically, an earlier study found that garter-snakes adjusted their behaviour based on their partner’s boldness during social tasks. This reveals both social flexibility and individual differences in terms of their “boldness” and exploratory tendencies, which shows that snake personality isn’t fixed but responsive to social context. Compared to most animals, snakes aren’t as intelligent as their threats. Some of their threats are larger animals like humans and large eagles. Compared to monkeys, they’re not as smart. But a flaw in that comparison is that monkeys have limbs while snakes doesn’t have any limbs. So the question would have to be decided on how they adjust with what their respective anatomies are like. However, there have been studies that snakes are able to adapt to their environment and survive. There needs to be more ways to test the intelligence levels of snakes. Because of the limited testing scopes, its convinced that snakes are more instinctive animals than intelligent ones.

This is a highly sophisticated form of behavioural plasticity, which was once thought to be beyond what these reptiles were capable of. If snakes were purely instinct-driven, they would act rigidly in social situations or ignore them entirely. Instead, these patterns suggest that snakes have special cognitive mechanisms which process social information and guide decision making. This is one of many hallmarks of complex minds across vertebrates. The scientists who primarily group snakes to be more instinctive because of the assumption that they only think of hunting, breeding and staying alive. It all goes back to the question of if snakes are more instinctual or intellectual. Their abilities to adapt to new environment and change their behaviours around new predators and prey help them become intellectual animals around.