"i also think it depends on the environment given - not to be a b-word or anything but i think it only stands to reason that snakes would be products of their environment just like any other animal - so, if you have a highly intelligent animal in a box with nothing but newspaper and a water bowl, it probably would be lethargic and bored and to the same token, if you had a nice naturalistic enclosure with which the snake could properly engage in, they would probably act more akin to how they would in nature because that’s what the enclosure would allow "
I've run across some interesting discussions of WC vs CB rosy boas. It seems that rosies in the wild virtually never bite when captured, although they can develop the tendency after time in human custody. That foody behavior seems more an artifact of captivity, not only because it is reportedly rare in freshly WC specimens but also since it isn't unusual for captive rosies to try to eat literally anything (actually constricting sweatshirts, striking at water bowls and new breeding partners). Attempting to eat non-prey items (including human hands) sure seems more pathological than adaptive.
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