Spider personality??

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

:gj:

I'm not trying to attack you, I promise! ;) I know how easy it is to give our snakes bits of our own thinking. I use the same terminology sometimes too. It makes ME feel better, so I do it. :D (as long as I eventually remember I'm being a big doofus, then it's all good. :giggle: )

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No, no, no. I don't think you're attacking me. O_O I just think I could have handled it better. He did come a bit...know-it-allish and I could have responded much better than I did. Bad, bad Melanie. O_o

Just to throw out a bizarre theory...I haven't done any research on this, but did you ever think that even though they are naturally solitary creatures, they might actually have intellectually evolved due to their continuous intro into human lives? Our being so social might be what makes them somewhat social?

I know. I'm a nutjob.

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Originally Posted by Melicious

No, no, no. I don't think you're attacking me. O_O I just think I could have handled it better. He did come a bit...know-it-allish and I could have responded much better than I did. Bad, bad Melanie. O_o

Just to throw out a bizarre theory...I haven't done any research on this, but did you ever think that even though they are naturally solitary creatures, they might actually have intellectually evolved due to their continuous intro into human lives? Our being so social might be what makes them somewhat social?

I know. I'm a nutjob.

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No worries! We all get along fine. By the way, nutjob is a prerequisite to even post here :D

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Originally Posted by Melicious

No, no, no. I don't think you're attacking me. O_O I just think I could have handled it better. He did come a bit...know-it-allish and I could have responded much better than I did. Bad, bad Melanie. O_o

Just to throw out a bizarre theory...I haven't done any research on this, but did you ever think that even though they are naturally solitary creatures, they might actually have intellectually evolved due to their continuous intro into human lives? Our being so social might be what makes them somewhat social?

I know. I'm a nutjob.

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Adam is just blunt. He thinks it, and he says it. But we love him anyway. ;) :love:

As for the evolution thought. It's not likely, since evolution takes thousands of years. I think they are just curious, and tolerant of us. *shrug* But I haven't had a decent conversation with a single one of my snakes, sooo...... :rolleyes:

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Originally Posted by tigerlily

Adam is just blunt. He thinks it, and he says it. But we love him anyway. ;) :love:

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It's how he rolls....;)

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Originally Posted by Adam_Wysocki

How do you know?

-adam

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ROFL. How did I know that was coming? :)

I'm sure snakes have emotions, but they're just very primitive emotions such as fear and defensivness, if you can define such as emotion. That tiny little brain doesn't leave much for advanced emotions and thought. Although they do have different personalities, their main goals in life are to find a place to hide, find warmth, eat, and breed. Oh, and a few of them have long term goals such as seeing how frustrated I get when they soil a fresh cage or won't eat. :zerb:

Now if one of you could please explain to me why our yearling female BP, Rionach, has suddenly taken a bizarre interest in ears, belly buttons and noses I'd be just thrilled! LOL We seriously do not hide rodents in there! We all shower regularily! What is up with this crazy snake? We handle her and she attempts valiantly to stuff her snout in there...nothing more ticklish than a snake's flicking tongue....ack! We pull her away, she goes right back to it. Do our earholes resemble termite mound entrances? Has our snake lost her ever lovin mind (however small and unevolved that might be)?

She may not do higher math but dang she's a determined little devil! :giggle:

I like blunt people. I actually like everyone here who's greeted me and everyone who hasn't. -Hums.-

And OMFG@ the ears! I squirm all over the place when Ophelia goes after my ears. I think she does it on purpose sometimes.

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Originally Posted by xdeus

I'm sure snakes have emotions, but they're just very primitive emotions such as fear and defensivness, if you can define such as emotion. That tiny little brain doesn't leave much for advanced emotions and thought. Although they do have different personalities, their main goals in life are to find a place to hide, find warmth, eat, and breed. Oh, and a few of them have long term goals such as seeing how frustrated I get when they soil a fresh cage or won't eat.

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Very well put. these primitive emotions such as fear, hunger, being cold, or being warm are more state of minds than acutal emotions. Snakes, I would think, aren't really as much happy as they are content. {full, warm, not in shed etc} If a snake is hungry and striking at you for example, they are saying, I'm hungry, give food! not, I'm very mad at you for not providing me with a mouse sooner.

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Originally Posted by Melicious

Just to throw out a bizarre theory...I haven't done any research on this, but did you ever think that even though they are naturally solitary creatures, they might actually have intellectually evolved due to their continuous intro into human lives? Our being so social might be what makes them somewhat social?

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Thanks for the rebuttle, I'd much rather people differ from my opinion than agree with me, I don't learn that way. But I would think that it's extremly unlikely that snakes {I'm going to stick with BP's for my thoughts here} as a species have intellectually evolved due to their interactions with human lives. Yes, there is evidence that BPs have been kept in captivity all the way to early Egyptian culture, but I would doubt there is a single line of captive bred BPs that dates back that far. Hundreds of Thousands of BPs are taken out of Africa each year to be sold in the pet trade. There probably isn't a single BP line in captivity that has been captive bred for more than a couple hundred years {Adam, chime in, i know you've got more info on this}. It would take a couple thousand years of captivity to show any signs of evolution due to human interference. Lets take cats and dogs as examples. I saw a show recently on Discovery channel that was talking about the domestication of cats and dogs and how it started. Basicly, the early cats and dogs {they were wolves and big cats at the time} wandered into human camps from the smell of food. Some animals took advantage of this and stuck around, not attacking the humans. These cats and dogs walked willingly into captivity thousands and thousands of years ago simply because it benefited them. Through the years selective breeding has come up with the various types of cats and dogs we have now. Geneticly speaking, todays cats and dogs are virtually identical to their wild brethren. However inprobable, a chiwawa and a grey wolf could reproduce to have non-sterle pups. But back to the issue at hand. BP's or any other "domesticated" snake for that matter, simply havn't had the time to evolve from human contact. And probably never will. there was no mutual agreement when snakes were taken from the wild by humans. and there will probably never be a line of captive bred snakes that goes on continually breeding in captivity for thousands of years. However, {I know this is long, but I'm almost done} thats not to say that individual snakes don't adapt to humans. notice how I said adapt and not evolve. Individual snakes certianly do have different personalities, and it could be safe to assume that some individual snakes realize the benifits humans provide a dont mind us that much. ok, I'm done.

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Originally Posted by Boarder4l154

Very well put. these primitive emotions such as fear, hunger, being cold, or being warm are more state of minds than acutal emotions. Snakes, I would think, aren't really as much happy as they are content. {full, warm, not in shed etc} If a snake is hungry and striking at you for example, they are saying, I'm hungry, give food! not, I'm very mad at you for not providing me with a mouse sooner.



Thanks for the rebuttle, I'd much rather people differ from my opinion than agree with me, I don't learn that way. But I would think that it's extremly unlikely that snakes {I'm going to stick with BP's for my thoughts here} as a species have intellectually evolved due to their interactions with human lives. Yes, there is evidence that BPs have been kept in captivity all the way to early Egyptian culture, but I would doubt there is a single line of captive bred BPs that dates back that far. Hundreds of Thousands of BPs are taken out of Africa each year to be sold in the pet trade. There probably isn't a single BP line in captivity that has been captive bred for more than a couple hundred years {Adam, chime in, i know you've got more info on this}. It would take a couple thousand years of captivity to show any signs of evolution due to human interference. Lets take cats and dogs as examples. I saw a show recently on Discovery channel that was talking about the domestication of cats and dogs and how it started. Basicly, the early cats and dogs {they were wolves and big cats at the time} wandered into human camps from the smell of food. Some animals took advantage of this and stuck around, not attacking the humans. These cats and dogs walked willingly into captivity thousands and thousands of years ago simply because it benefited them. Through the years selective breeding has come up with the various types of cats and dogs we have now. Geneticly speaking, todays cats and dogs are virtually identical to their wild brethren. However inprobable, a chiwawa and a grey wolf could reproduce to have non-sterle pups. But back to the issue at hand. BP's or any other "domesticated" snake for that matter, simply havn't had the time to evolve from human contact. And probably never will. there was no mutual agreement when snakes were taken from the wild by humans. and there will probably never be a line of captive bred snakes that goes on continually breeding in captivity for thousands of years. However, {I know this is long, but I'm almost done} thats not to say that individual snakes don't adapt to humans. notice how I said adapt and not evolve. Individual snakes certianly do have different personalities, and it could be safe to assume that some individual snakes realize the benifits humans provide a dont mind us that much. ok, I'm done.

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That...makes much more sense. I just figured I'd throw some randomly floating hair-brained idea out. I like the idea of them adapting to us and us to them.

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Originally Posted by Melicious

Why wouldn't there?

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Because no matter how many times it's been investigated and studied by scientific organizations and universities around the world, there as never been any direct evidence to indicate that lower order life forms are doing anything more than reacting to stimuli within their environment.

I don't have an opinion one way or another, I was just posing the question. Didn't realize I would ruffle your feathers. I'll know better for next time. ;)

-adam