When I said "escape a situation," I had more in mind when you have your snake out for handling and it starts trying to go into the couch rather than its trying to repeat a successful escape from its enclosure.

I do think, though, that there is some level of stress just from being in captivity. I mean, if you were kept in a room with your preferred temp range and a nice comfy bed and food you couldn't really complain about and plenty to drink and adequate sanitation, but every time you left the room you had to hold hands the entire time with Nancy Reagan and sometimes you'd look up to find a grizzly bear towering over you (like a household dog), don't you think you would still have some stress? I realize that's anthropomorphizing a bit, but if there were no stress from captivity, why would they try to escape at all?