Field Observations Confirm Laboratory Reports of Defense Responses by Prey Snakes to the Odors of Predatory Snakes

Abstract

Organisms rely on their senses to obtain information about the biotic and abiotic environment. Snakes are dependent upon their chemical and visual senses in obtaining information about their surroundings (Halpern and Frumin, 1979). The structure largely responsible for gathering much of this information in snakes is the vomeronasal organ, which detects environmental chemicals. Many studies have demonstrated the role of this organ in prey detection/prey trailing for all the major snake groups, however, studies examining the prey’s ability to detect and respond to a potential predator have been confined to a few laboratory experiments and isolated field observations. I report here preliminary experiments on responses of prey snakes, cottonmouth moccasins, to odors of one of their predators, kingsnakes.