A Real Smart Asp: Snakes Show Surprising Ability To Learn

[Bogertophis]

Corn snakes might be intelligent. Spotted pythons...not so much. The same researcher tried this experiment with spotted pythons. It didn't go so well.

Spatial Learning and Shelter Selection by Juvenile Spotted Pythons, Anteresia maculosus
Anita Stone, Neil B. Ford and David A. Holtzman
Journal of Herpetology
Vol. 34, No. 4 (Dec., 2000), pp. 575-587 (13 pages)

Abstract
Spatial abilities are important in mediating natural behaviors in snakes, such as localization of refuges. Twelve spotted pythons (Anteresia maculosus) were trained to find the location of an escape hole in a circular arena, given a choice of eight holes. A snake was deemed to have learned the task if it found the goal on eight out of the last ten acquisition trials. Only half of the animals learned the task after 32 training sessions. Manipulation of sensory cues after training suggests that subjects differed in their responses to manipulations in the environment, suggesting the use of different cues to find the goal. Ten of 12 animals were also tested for shelter preferences. Snakes were given a choice of three different shelter sites (submerged, on the surface, or elevated) to determine the relevance of the arena escape task. Most snakes preferred elevated shelters and showed fidelity to shelters chosen on the first day. These results suggest that juvenile spotted pythons may be more motivated to seek elevated, instead of submerged, refuges, and this may account for the failure of half of the snakes to learn the spatial location task.

That's very interesting & I don't think it reflects badly on their intelligence- only that they evolved with different life skills to survive. They're very tiny compared to things that would eat them, so sitting on the ground is asking for trouble, but they climb very well, plus they blend in on tree bark very nicely- not to mention the attraction small lizards (a big part of their diet) have to run up & bask on trees. I've only known one spotted python (that I still have) & she prefers being above ground most of the time too.

That's very cool that you found this study- as it has implications for your little Antaresia too.