Surface shape affects the three-dimensional exploratory movements of nocturnal arboreal snakes

Movement and searching behaviors at diverse spatial scales are important for understanding how animals interact with their environment. Although the shapes of branches and the voids in arboreal habitats seem likely to affect searching behaviors, their influence is poorly understood. To gain insights...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of Comparative Physiology 2012-12, Vol.198 (12), p.905-913
Main Authors: Jayne, Bruce C, Olberding, Jeffrey P, Athreya, Dilip, Riley, Michael A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal Physiology
Animals
Biomedical and Life Sciences
Boidae - physiology
branches
Ecosystem
Exploratory Behavior - physiology
Gait - physiology
Gravity
Habitat
habitats
Life Sciences
Locomotion - physiology
Motor task performance
Neurosciences
Original Paper
snakes
Surface Properties
Trees - anatomy & histology
Zoology
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Summary:Movement and searching behaviors at diverse spatial scales are important for understanding how animals interact with their environment. Although the shapes of branches and the voids in arboreal habitats seem likely to affect searching behaviors, their influence is poorly understood. To gain insights into how both environmental structure and the attributes of an animal may affect movement and searching, we compared the three-dimensional exploratory movements of snakes in the dark on two simulated arboreal surfaces (disc and horizontal cylinder). Most of the exploratory movements of snakes in the dark were a small fraction of the distances they could reach while bridging gaps in the light. The snakes extended farther away from the edge of the supporting surface at the ends of the cylinder than from the sides of the cylinder or from any direction from the surface of the disc. The exploratory movements were not random, and the surface shape and three-dimensional directions had significant interactive effects on how the movements were structured in time. Thus, the physical capacity for reaching did not limit the area that was explored, but the shape of the supporting surface and the orientation relative to gravity did create biased searching patterns.
ISSN:0340-7594
1432-1351
DOI:10.1007/s00359-012-0761-y