Demonstrating that snakes experience emotions

[Caitlin]

I honestly don't want to get into a back and forth about this, so will just say that the science claiming that snakes lack the brain structures to experience emotions is very outdated, and has been effectively debunked for almost a decade. This happened once we had improved technology, beginning with really stunning research from the Max Planck institute utilizing single-cell RNA sequencing.

We now know that vertebrates including snakes possess neural structures that have been demonstrated to share functionality with the structures contributing to emotional states in humans. The current research shows that even though the reptile brain is structurally somewhat different (not hugely so) from the mammalian brain, multiple areas of the reptilian brain share functionality with mammalian brain structures, including the functionality found in the most advanced structures of the mammalian brain that are associated with processing emotion. This is a level of functionality previously assumed to be nonexistent in reptiles.

Physiologically we now know that reptiles not only have the capacity to experience emotions, but also to regulate emotions, demonstrate impulse control, and engage in complex learning.

Some of the problem with folks discussing this is that when the term 'emotions' comes up, humans understandably assume that we are all talking about things like 'love' or 'hate', but those are just the labels that we give to the physiological states that comprise emotions. Snakes, birds, dogs, fish and other vertebrates experience emotions in SPECIES-SPECIFIC ways. None of them can label or categorize emotions in the same way that humans might, but that does not mean those emotional states do not exist.

Even if we discuss only human emotions, there is no way of discerning whether the state that I label as 'love' is the same state that you or anyone else would call 'love'. We can't know how other vertebrates experience emotion, how they may categorize it, or how they would label it if they could, but there is no doubt at all (scientifically speaking) that vertebrates including snakes experience emotions.

I will admit to a lot of frustration with the over-use and misuse of the term 'anthropomorphism'. It is typically used as a stick to beat keepers with who are trying to improve husbandry standards, and I find there is a lot of misunderstanding of its actual meaning and application. Just as actual anthropomorphism can be harmful to our animals ("My snake loves being kept in the Barbie Playhouse!"), I'd also caution against mechanomorphism: the assumption that snakes aren't much more than instinct-driven tubes requiring only a temperature gradient, food, and water in order to thrive.

And with that I will thank you if you have read this, I appreciate your patience with my science nerd tendencies, and I will peacefully take my leave <3