Derping Herp

[kgrah1]

No one will ever accuse this snake of being smart.

Over the years, I've heard a number of people that tell me snakes are not smart by any means, and never will be. I'm met some snakes that were crafty, some that understood you weren't a threat, some that knew exactly where you were putting that tape and wanted you nowhere near their stubborn eyecaps. And then I met Marble. Marble is the reason for the unsmart stereotyping.

Marble can recognize another snake, even if she can't smell it. She'll react to her reflection, or a picture of a snake on the internet. She will sniff it all over and react to its body language. She will not recognize a snake if she can't see its face. It is clearly just an oddly-shaped branch. I tried this with snakes that were yellow or pink or purple, and she only reacted to the ones where the faces were clearly visible and looking at her. A picture of a mouse will prompt a hunt, and I've found that having mice for a screensaver and letting her watch them gives shorter feed strikes, because there are clearly mice there, she just can't find them. Surely one will float around the tank tomorrow.

Today was a feeding day. Normally, I can leave her alone after she strikes, because she's a lot better at eating than she used to be(the longest she ever took was 7 hours. She kept falling asleep.). Today, I got to watch her brighten up my morning with her sillyness. She took the mouse, and ate. But she's pretty long, and frequently forgets that she has extra length. So when the tail flops down onto her back, she's startled, and thinks it's another snake. She drags the mouse away from her tail, then uses said tail to cover her face and hide her meal from what is most certainly a rival predator. Then she smells the tail again and it's clearly the other snake. This leads to ten minutes of her scooting backwards around the tank, trying to protect her mouse. Then she rolls onto her back and loses sight of the tail entirely. It is now safe to eat the rest of the mouse.

After she eats, she collapses one of her tunnels, and then digs it all over again, in the same spot. Then she hides and all is right again.