Discussion time - Boredom and "enrichment" in snakes

[CptJack]

Well this is all true, Intelligence cant be used to loosely if you ask me, Sure instinct is instinct, and a bird can talk chatter and play with others, BUT They are intelligent in there own right, and have clearly shown this by being an insanely long living animal who havnt been taken off the face of the earth like many other species, aswell as the crocodile/alligator. Sure they thrive by instinct but does this mean they are stupid or dumb, When being one of the alpha predators in the wild?

Im sure i could very well be wrong about it all, but there instinctive intelligence is enough to make me think they are smart, know good from bad, and know danger from safe.

Birds are also SOCIAL, and their enrichment is, depending on species STILL to mimic things they do in the wild. Tearing up trees, foraging for their food, and social interaction in either the form of humans or other birds. This applies to cats, dogs, and other animals just as much, in what we give them the opportunity to do with us and how we provide enrichment/training/play. Dogs? We play with them. We capitalize on all that breeding we have done to make them social, crave human attention or to do specific jobs and channel it somewhere else. Even housebreaking is capitalizing on a natural behavior - to keep their dens clean. Cats? Litterbox training? Natural behavior to bury waste. Play? They hunt. In our homes they may hunt feathers on sticks, but it's the same sort of thing. Even hamsters - wheels for exercise, things to chew. Rats and mice? Social structure/company, climbing, foraging, maybe running.

I love my snakes. I love my snakes a LOT. But what do BP in the wild? They meet each other to mate, they eat, and they stay in solitary burrows under ground. The 'enrichment' we provide them is STILL in mimicking that. They eat, they may or may not breed, and they're given clean cages and hides. We take them out and let them move around. That's... Literally the only behavior the wild animals exhibit. There is nothing more to capitalize on, as far as enrichment goes. Wiggle a dead rodent or provide a live on, give them somewhere to hide, let them move around sometimes, provide a water bowl they can soak in if they want and substrate they can burrow in if they want. . I'm not sure what else you're even looking for. BP don't climb, they don't actively hunt (they ambush), they do not live in groups.

What sort of behavior or activity is it they engage in, in the wild, that they do not experience or have the opportunity to exercise in captivity? Because that's what enrichment *is*.

(Please note, I'm talking BP only here in saying that 'enrichment' opportunities are basically just being kept with good husbandry - rather than toys. Other reptiles, not so much, not even other snakes. But BP are what they are, and that's not a king snake, a tegu, an iguana, or a turtle. It's certainly not a bird or a mammal.)