Study finds you can train pythons

[Aste88]

http://link.springer.com/article/10....071-014-0797-1

"Large pythons and boas comprise a group of animals whose anatomy and physiology are very different from traditional mammalian, avian and other reptilian models typically used in operant conditioning. In the current study, investigators used a modified shaping procedure involving successive approximations to train wild Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivitattus) to approach and depress an illuminated push button in order to gain access to a food reward. Results show that these large, wild snakes can be trained to accept extremely small food items, associate a stimulus with such rewards via operant conditioning and perform a contingent operant response to gain access to a food reward. The shaping procedure produced robust responses and provides a mechanism for investigating complex behavioral phenomena in massive snakes that are rarely studied in learning research."

Interesting seeing they've proved it.

[cletus]

I wish I could train mine to stop flipping her hides over every night.

[paulrobert]

swwweeeetttt!! I wonder what else we'd be able to train them to do? Photo-shoot poses?

[Eru_Iluvatar]

I don't know if that kind of animal cognition is actually 100% true, but who knows...

[Sauzo]

My snakes have trained me to clean poop and feed them.

[redshepherd]

I'm not surprised, since you can hook train most pythons to associate "tapping with hook = not feeding time"... Just no ones ever tried the old button pushing for food trick until now.

[Vipera Berus]

I'm not as surprised as I could have been since I have found that my bp thinks poking me in the ear when heating the food is a good idea.

[Coluber42]

This shouldn't be that surprising. Wild pythons and boas have been shown to re-use ambush sites that were previously successful, for example; some snakes that hibernate are known to return to previous den sites; I don't think we should be surprised that any vertebrate is able to learn from previous experiences, or even invertebrates. It's a pretty basic survival skill for any animal with a brain.

Plenty of animals turn out to be more trainable than you might think; I've heard of people teaching their bettas to swim through hoops or touch targets for food. The real difficulty with training snakes the same way is that it's hard to give food rewards to an animal that naturally eats large infrequent meals, and operant conditioning hinges on being able to reward the animal with something it really wants. So training a snake is hard because it's hard to tell what it wants in the moment if it's not food, and it's hard to give multiple food rewards to an animal that naturally eats one gigantic item and then doesn't eat again for a long time. But that is not the same as them not being smart enough to learn things.

[Nellasaur]

Anyone else curious what "extremely small food items" they used in training their subjects? I'd love to give training Yigg a try

[redshepherd]

Anyone else curious what "extremely small food items" they used in training their subjects? I'd love to give training Yigg a try

Since they're wild burmese pythons, I assume anything like an adult rat or smaller would be considered "extremely small" LOL

For ball pythons, probably anything around fuzzy mice or smaller, assuming it's for an adult ball?