Study finds you can train pythons

I taught a goldfish to swim through a hoop on command. I was bored. It was cool.

I think ANY scientific study in the reptile world is worth something.

While there may be more information needed for solid conclusions about various subjects, the fact that there is funding and a group of interested people to continue this is exciting.

I have always put the biology and natural habits of my snakes first, and I picked the animals that were most interesting to me to be my pets.

If you LOVE your snake, you should search every corner to find something new and real about it. Breeding for colors and patterns is certainly fun, but actually knowing where your snake comes from and it's natural habits are what's truly amazing IMO.

I have a relatively diverse collection and was convinced the royal I bought my son, our first snake, was dull and boring. After some years of research and studying I'm not convinced the royal/ball we have here is any less intelligent than the retic I just added.

A smart ball python hides and stays somewhat inactive waiting for its next chance to eat. To me that is rather smart or at the very least an instinctually intelligent process, being they are the smallest pythons on the African continent. Stay hidden, stay alive.

I side tracked a bit there but these studies are interesting and if you look at them in depth, you may unlock some answers to questions you have about your own captive pet.

I read a lot about snakes. I can't do field research, but I can certainly read about quality studies in the field or in a captive study situation..

There is a similar but inconclusive study about carpet pythons here: http://www.eaglemountainpublishing.c...e&product_id=1


I value new findings from herpetologists and I also value information from very passionate and experienced keepers/breeders, as many, many things change in captivity. With research and understanding a seemingly boring snake may become rather complex and interesting.

OP, thank you for putting this post up! Thinking about why we all became interested in these animals in the first place starts with their secret, stealthy habits. They are unique compared to most other animals, and continual research is interesting and necessary to help us understand them better.

I love seeing stuff like this!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by bcr229

https://ball-pythons.net/forums/show...Nova-s-Surgery

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Thanks for the link; that's a fascinating read! I'm so glad Nova made it through okay.

My hunch is that snakes have a sensory world that we only vaguely imagine. I’ve heard somewhere that wolves can smell animals with pus - a weak one to target. For example I bet snakes can smell our different emotional states; maybe they can learn to associate that with our behavior - like picking them up.

As Glo mentioned ball pythons have the intelligence for their niche. From a ball python point of view, rolling Learning about these things helps me avoid reducing snakes to mere scaly robots but also helps to keep anthropomorphism at bay.