My VPI book arrived yesterday (SQUEE!) and I've been reading it cover to cover. I'm about half-way through now. Anyway, I just wanted to post, for those who don't have the book for whatever reason, a few things I found interesting.

There seems to be a constant debate on this site about how snakes perceive their environment and whether or not they can recognize their keepers. ***This is NOT to be confused with the "do snakes feel love" debate.***

Anyway, these facts may help shed some light on the issue. I don't know how strict they are with their copyright stuff, so I won't quote large paragraphs - we should all buy the book! Instead, I'll paraphrase.

From the "sensory abilities" section:

Snakes have a good sense of smell. That's the regular, "with the typical nose" sense of smell. (I'd never even thought of snakes as having a regular nose before).

Snakes CAN hear. They have an inner ear structure as opposed to an outer ear structure, but the fact is: it's there! (Good news for me because I don't feel so crazy for talking to my snakes now. ) They also sense vibrations, but that is old news.

Ball pythons are very sensitive to touch all over their bodies, so they get a lot of info this way.

They can "see" in infrared through their cute little pits, (There's a really interesting anecdote about an involuntary reflex in snakes which deals with this). And, a surprise to me because I've always heard otherwise: ball pythons have GOOD VISION. Apparently, the number of rods in their eyes is very close to that of a house cat. They can see in day and night, and quite possibly IN COLOR. The book also said that they can see in the ultraviolet light range. (Which humans cannot).

So, to recap - snakes can smell and see very well. They are sensitive to touch and can actually hear us when we speak to them. All of this is from the VPI Pythons of the World Volume 2: Ball Pythons; The History, Natural History, Care, and Breeding, (Good God what a title...) pages 22 through 27. I'm sorry the information is so non-specific and vague. I was trying not to infringe on any copyrights. To the best of my knowledge, I haven't, since the copyright page states that small excerpts for the purpose of a review may be used freely, which is basically what I consider this.

The book is DEFINITELY worth the money. I'm getting so much out of it, and the photography is stunning. I would also like to quote the following:

"Ball pythons CAN AND DO (my emphasis) identify their keepers, and they do so using either vision or olfaction" (Barker, page 22).

^ I was glad to hear that.