Curious?

[Mighty Monty]

Just been curious about this, so i thought i'd ask.

Do Ball Pythons hear? or do they just sense everything through vibartions? taste? smell? heat?

[Reptile_Man]

they sense through vibrations like othersnakes.just yesterday,i had carmen out,and my mother was outside my roomn and dropped something on the ground and carmen suddenly turned in that direction.

[Sausage]

They don't have ears, so they don't hear. However, their lower jaws pick up vibrations, which is kind of like hearing I guess.

[Nate]

They don't have ears, so they don't hear.

According to "Ball Pythons: The History, Natural History, Care, and Breeding", by Dave and Tracy Barker:

Page 25- Hearing
"No, snakes are not deaf, even though this misconception has been accepted as dogma for decades....

Snakes, including ball pythons, have a well-developed inner ear on each side of the head. Each inner ear is connected to the quadrate bone by a columella."

[Snikt228]

I was thinking about that too. Is it bad or annoying to them to play loud movies or music in the same room?

[Nate]

Honestly, I doubt it.

I was at a club once where a chick brought out a huge red tail boa....clubs are loud...very loud...and I talked to her about it. she said he is a great eater and does very well in a crowd. Never stressed or shows discomfort.

granted, a red tail boa and a ball python are not the same...for what it's worth, I do not play loud music or movies. bp's are picky enough

[Mendel's Balls]

According to "Ball Pythons: The History, Natural History, Care, and Breeding", by Dave and Tracy Barker:

Page 25- Hearing
"No, snakes are not deaf, even though this misconception has been accepted as dogma for decades....

Snakes, including ball pythons, have a well-developed inner ear on each side of the head. Each inner ear is connected to the quadrate bone by a columella."

Great find!

It makes sense considering an external ear opening is not what enables an organism to hear...it's the inner ear, specifically the cochlea.

Here's some other links of interest.

http://coloherp.org/cb-news/Vol-29/cbn-0201/index.php
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http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/content/abstract/54/2/349

This one links and references several other papers of interest.

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http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/cgi...10.1086/377052

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http://ccrma.stanford.edu/~hiroko/snake/index.htm

This uses audio filters to model how a snake might hear.....notice how a snake can hear a lion (one of its natural predators), but not other animals.

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It appears from the literature that they can hear not just ground vibrations but also airbone vibrations. They use their body surface as an "outer ear" so to speak.....this is termed "somatic hearing".