Effect of Prolonged Food Deprivation on Response to Prey Odors by Rattlesnakes

Six Crotalus viridis and 6 Crotalus enyo were observed once per week for 8 successive weeks in each of two situations: a clean cage and a cage containing mouse odors. Snakes were placed into each situation for 5 min, and all tongue flicks were recorded. Although the snakes had been fed weekly until...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Herpetologica 1981-01, Vol.37 (4), p.237-243
Main Authors: Chiszar, David, Radcliffe, Charles W., Smith, Hobart M., Howard Bashinski
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Crotalus viridis
Experimentation
Food deprivation
Foraging
Herpetology
Hunger
Mice
Odors
Rodents
Signal detection
Snakes
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Six Crotalus viridis and 6 Crotalus enyo were observed once per week for 8 successive weeks in each of two situations: a clean cage and a cage containing mouse odors. Snakes were placed into each situation for 5 min, and all tongue flicks were recorded. Although the snakes had been fed weekly until the initiation of this study, they were offered no food during the 8-week experimental period. During weeks 1-4 the mean rate of tongue flicking (RTF, per min) in the clean cage was statistically indistinguishable from the mean RTF in the cage with mouse odors. Hence, the snakes exhibited no differential chemosensory response to the two cages while they were deprived of food for the first month. However, during weeks 5-8 the mean RTF in the cage with mouse odors increased significantly compared to the rate in the clean cage, indicating that increasing hunger resulted in greater sensitivity and/or responsiveness to prey odors. We suggest that hunger-related increase in chemosensory response to prey odors may be the basis for foraging behavior in rattlesnakes.
ISSN:0018-0831
1938-5099