Meeting Abstract
The captive breeding and care of reptiles is extremely commonplace throughout North America, with important roles both economically and in conservation. As a result, there are many established guidelines and protocols for raising and breeding reptiles in captivity. However, little is known about how these programs alter the behavior of individuals kept in captivity long-term, and what the long-term consequences may be. As a first attempt to quantify some of these behavioral changes, we used high-speed video to examine striking in 5 species of long-term captive snakes to see how captivity has altered the performance of the strike. We chose 3 species with an extensive history in the exotic pet trade: ball pythons (Python regius), red-tail boas (Boa constrictor), and California kingsnakes (Lampropeltis californae). Our other 2 species, the northern copperhead (Agkistrodon contortix) and eastern rat snake (Pantherophis alleghaniensis) are not commonly bred in captivity and in our samples first-generation captives. Strike performance was species-specific. The northern copperhead and red-tail boa exhibit strike velocities, accelerations, and kinematic profiles that closely match the available literature on strike performance in other snakes. The other three species showed significantly lower strike velocities, strike accelerations, gape angle, strike distances, and angular accelerations. Performance was not correlated with body size, history of captivity (long-term vs first-gen), foraging mode (ambush vs active) or prey size. The mechanisms behind these patterns remain unclear, and we suggest several potential avenues for further research.
