BP Intelligence?

Anyone have any idea of what kind of intelligence ball pythons have?

In comparison to my boa, my BP seems to lack in the smarts department a little bit. He tends to notice only movements, but my boa looks right into my eyes. Plus my ball python doesn't seem to get the concept of gravity. :P

Any thoughts?

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Originally Posted by theJuju

Anyone have any idea of what kind of intelligence ball pythons have?

In comparison to my boa, my BP seems to lack in the smarts department a little bit. He tends to notice only movements, but my boa looks right into my eyes. Plus my ball python doesn't seem to get the concept of gravity. :P

Any thoughts?

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Rest assured that ball pythons and boas are EQUALLY dim animals, and that neither understands the concept of gravity.

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Originally Posted by theJuju

Anyone have any idea of what kind of intelligence ball pythons have?

In comparison to my boa, my BP seems to lack in the smarts department a little bit. He tends to notice only movements, but my boa looks right into my eyes. Plus my ball python doesn't seem to get the concept of gravity. :P

Any thoughts?

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Not sure on intellegence as we know it as related to any animal lacking in the frontal cortex area of the brain but they definately have instinct on their side. As far as not getting the concept of gravity its probably because ball pythons arent arboreal snakes and therefore dont do much climbing and they arent as nimble as arboreal snakes so yes they tend to fall if placed up high. Maybe you should administer an IQ test and find out.:rofl:

They are slightly smarter than the average politician :D

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Originally Posted by Dave Green

They are slightly smarter then the average politician :D

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X2:bow:

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Originally Posted by Dave Green

They are slightly smarter than the average politician :D

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:rofl:

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Originally Posted by dave green

they are slightly smarter than the average politician :d

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:p

snakes in general share the same intelligence, they are designed to eat and breed. thats about it.
spooky

Im fairly certain pit vipers are the most evolved group of snakes therefore leading me to assume they would also be considered the smartest.

:snake:

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Im fairly certain pit vipers are the most evolved group of snakes therefore leading me to assume they would also be considered the smartest.

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i hear what your saying about pit vipers,,they always seem like there thinking about something,,, but i think that its just the way their eyes look that gives us this impression. as with any other snake, their brains are just big enough not to slide down the back of their neck:snake:.
spooky

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Originally Posted by Dave Green

They are slightly smarter than the average politician :D

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Indeed, most politicians also seem to lack any conventional understanding of science. :D Or of snakes and their relative level of danger to the general public, lol.

My girl certainly seem smarter than my cat, but that's not saying much. :P

Most bp's I.believe are smarter then what we give them.credit form like.skip said.no concept.of.gravity...Lmao.

I won't say there.smart.. while.I do say a 15 foot retic gives us the glare while it debates Einstein's Mass–energy equivalence... :P

I will say they learn though. After 2 weeks of baytril injections my two younger balls freak when they see a needle. It's hard to describe, but IMO, they're smarter then what we five them credit for, BUT most of there.intelligence Is learned through repeating actions.

Well. Snakes are certainly not the brightest bulbs on the tree. However, we have observed hook training to be effective and they are able to learn to trust their keepers. So they can definitely make associations, which is more than can be said about many animals.

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Originally Posted by Mike41793

Im fairly certain pit vipers are the most evolved group of snakes therefore leading me to assume they would also be considered the smartest.

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I could be mistaken, but I was under the impression that cribos and indigos are the most intelligent snakes.

When my bp's see me lay down a towel in front of their cage they get excited, and start putting their heads up to the top of the cage to get out, cause they know it's time to eat...lol...They're just too damn cute, I love all my babies:snake:

I think it is hard to place a human term 'intelligence' to a animal. Give its natural habitat a snake is a straight genius. It will be able to navigate and find food better than almost any thing else. 100 million years of evolution, is hard to beat. Can they learn sure they can and do. Can they learn something beyond instinct yes they can. It is just hard to 'rate'.

I love animals. Snakes in general maybe not all but in general do something few other animals do. Defy all natural instinct. Dogs rarely do, cats as well rarely. Snakes it is common, think on this the little brain has 3 'modes' mate, eat, threat. When a royal for example is first brought home many go into threat mode, Ball up, and or tense up waiting for the need to escape. Natural instinct period nothing more. But often given time they stop responding with threat mode and respond with nothing, just ignoring no tension no defensive nothing. It goes against the grain. Learned? yes, instinctive no absolutely not, a full 180 from instinct.

Ask your self the base instinct of a dog is a pack animal, a human dog pack beats no pack at all. Have you ever seen a dog not aggressive to anyone but also completely shun every one and thing even the people whom raised it? I have never seen a dog raised from a pup not bond with any one of thing. dogs rarely break instinctual pattern but snakes do quite often reasoning no intelligence is unfair but it is quite uncommon for any animal to behave counter to instinct.

Im sure the snake brain is mostly fight or flight, eat, and breed, they dont possess higher intelligence as their brains are mostly brainstem which is mainly instinct and body functioning. Mostly all animals can be conditioned in some manner with either classical or operant conditioning techniques, this however does not denote intellegence by any human standard only that they can make associations. It seems that people get emotionally attatched to their pets (as they should) and like to believe they possess human qualities and attribute them to their snakes where there are none. Snakes indeed do have their own personalities and some are ahead of the curve compared to others but thats about as far as it goes.

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Originally Posted by theJuju

Anyone have any idea of what kind of intelligence ball pythons have?

In comparison to my boa, my BP seems to lack in the smarts department a little bit. He tends to notice only movements, but my boa looks right into my eyes. Plus my ball python doesn't seem to get the concept of gravity. :P

Any thoughts?

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My little spider seems to look me in the eyes too. Its cute. Haha. :)

I don't believe in labeling animals as "intelligent" by comparing their "intelligence" to ours. And face it, that is what we are doing. I have heard a statistic that dolphins are as smart as a 5 year old child. I believe it, but what does it prove? That they can function as well as a 5 year old child if placed in a human environment, but in a natural environment, how is that relevant?

The same can be said for snakes. They are as "smart" as they need to be to thrive in the environment they were designed for. That environment is not terrariums in our homes, yet they are able to adapt. They are perfectly capable of making associations (Pavlov's classical conditioning experiments). They are expert escape artists, so I fully believe they have a level of problem solving ability, despite what science tell us. No scientist has ever watched my snake stuff herself firmly into the track of her sliding glass cage front and ripple her creeping muscles, followed by stuffing her nose in the far edge to see if she made any progress. Don't even try and tell me that's not a conscious effort based on months of observation. Cage locks do not just exist for fun and giggles! :O

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Originally Posted by Domepiece

Im sure the snake brain is mostly fight or flight, eat, and breed, they dont possess higher intelligence as their brains are mostly brainstem which is mainly instinct and body functioning. Mostly all animals can be conditioned in some manner with either classical or operant conditioning techniques, this however does not denote intellegence by any human standard only that they can make associations. It seems that people get emotionally attatched to their pets (as they should) and like to believe they possess human qualities and attribute them to their snakes where there are none. Snakes indeed do have their own personalities and some are ahead of the curve compared to others but thats about as far as it goes.

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Bah!

I'm currently teaching Brom the Boa home defense.

He can sight a rifle and pump a shotgun simultaneously.

http://file.walagata.com/w/the-salamander/lemme.jpg

The rest of you just have dumb snakes.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Originally Posted by Salamander

Bah!

I'm currently teaching Brom the Boa home defense.

He can sight a rifle and pump a shotgun simultaneously.

http://file.walagata.com/w/the-salamander/lemme.jpg

The rest of you just have dumb snakes.

:rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl::rofl:

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Lol that's awesome! Is that your picture? If so can I have it to share?

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Originally Posted by C&SReptiles

My little spider seems to look me in the eyes too. Its cute. Haha. :)

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My littlee spider likes to look in my eyes to right b4 he tries to bite me lol. :D

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Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents

Lol that's awesome! Is that your picture? If so can I have it to share?

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Yeah...Brom's quite the camera ham.

I got about a dozen shots of him working the weapons before he started to head for the bookshelf that contains my stuffed bunny collection.

Sure...have a ball with it.

:)

Here's another with a different caption

http://www.walagata.com/w/the-salamander/donttread.jpg

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Originally Posted by Salamander

Yeah...Brom's quite the camera ham.

I got about a dozen shots of him working the weapons before he started to head for the bookshelf that contains my stuffed bunny collection.

Sure...have a ball with it.

:)

Here's another with a different caption

http://www.walagata.com/w/the-salamander/donttread.jpg

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That's epic! Thanks :D

Everyone has pretty much summed up the intelligence question, but I totally know what you're saying about boas eyes locking onto you where balls just kind of stare into the distance. I'm pretty sure that boas have better eyesight, though. Balls rely on heat a great deal, and boas rely on eyesight a bit more than balls. So, probably, your boa can actually see that you're something, where the ball doesn't realize that you're not just part of the background...although I haven't actually asked them, so I could be wrong!

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Originally Posted by Foschi Exotic Serpents

That's epic! Thanks :D

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You're welcome......:)