BP vision...??...

[bearhart]

So, my BP's vision has always made me wonder. I've seen him clearly identify a mouse by sight (that he wasn't expecting) from at least two feet away. Also, he regularly watches me. I've seen him spot and watch me from across the room. But, he's also doing this stuff that makes him look as blind as a bat.

One thing I've noticed is that his night vision is not nearly as good as I would expect it to be. I've experimented with handling in a darkened room to see if that would make him more comfortable. In fact, the effect is opposite because he tends to not see my fingers when I move them and bumps into them which startles him.

Also, alot of times when he's moving in his cage he seems to be moving more by feel than sight. I get this impression because he often bumps things as he navigates and it gives him the look of a blinded person feeling around as he moves. He definately can't see small things like little bits of moss sticking out in his path.

And, another thing is that he'll sometimes stare at the sides of his cage that are blocked off with corkboard. He'll stare at what is basically a wall for minutes on end. By the placement of their eyes I know snakes must have a wide field of view but they do seem to prefer pointing their heads at what they are interested in (i.e. prey).

Anybody see things like this? Anybody know about BP vision?

[Gooseman]

To my knowledge, most snake eyes are defense based. They are wide set so that they have a huge field of view, and as such cannot really focus on much of anything. It's basic purpose is to catch movement, i.e. a bird overhead or a predator on the ground. When your bp is facing it's prey (or you for that matter), it is not necessarily using it's eyes, but rather focusing with it's heat pits. So yes, they are basically blind to detail so I'm not surprised your snake was staring at a blank wall, or bumps into things at night. Atleast that's my guestimation based on they set-up of the eyes, the use of heat-pits, and their natural predators.

[bearhart]

That's a good point because, in nature, predators typically have forward, narrow-set eyes for a narrow field of view designed to track prey with precision. Conversely, animals typically in the 'prey' category have side, wide-set eyes for a wide field of view designed to maximize their ability to spot predators.

Snakes have always confused me because they are predators but have what I wound consider a 'prey' type eye arrangement. So perhaps they sit a bit in both camps. They've got eyes for defense and compensate for it on the predator side with heat pits.

[dcgator24]

Well think about when and where a snake hunts. Usually at night and maybe underground. The heats pits are superbly designed for just such environments. Eyes wouldn't help much. So they've got a highly evolved third sense for hunting, and when they do go out during the day they've got wide field of view "prey" eyes to alert them to predators.

[bearhart]

Excellent....all according to plan...