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Behavioral variation in prey odor responses in northern pine snake neonates and adults

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Abstract

Squamate reptiles (snakes, lizards, amphisbaenians) rely heavily on chemosensory cues to identify, locate and choose between suitable prey items, but comparatively little research has focused on the chemical ecology of threatened squamate species. Such knowledge highlights ecologically important aspects of their survival. Due to gape limitations, squamates often demonstrate ontogenetic shifts in their diet where they consume larger prey as they grow older and their gape size increases. This shift enables squamates—especially snakes—to exploit new resources in their environments, usually mammalian prey. To test for ontogenetic variation in prey odor responses of a threatened snake species, the Northern pine snake (Pituophis melanoleucus melanoleucus), we presented food-naïve neonates and food-experienced adults with potential prey and non-prey animal scents and quantified their behavioral responses. Our data indicate a strong response to rodent scents from both neonates and adults. Further, neonates showed more frequent investigative probing and retreating behaviors from scented swabs and a higher rate of tongue-flicking than adults. We also developed a new metric for measuring snake responses to prey odor, a tongue-flick reaction score (TFRS), that incorporates investigative behaviors that may be unique to constrictor-type snakes. The TFRS did not differ between age classes and was highest when rodent odors were tested. A canonical discriminant analysis confirmed the relationship between TFRS behavioral components and tested chemical signal reactions. Based on our data, P. melanoleucus may fall into a category of snakes that exhibit an ontogenetic telescope rather than a general ontogenetic shift in their prey odor responses.

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Acknowledgments

This study was conducted under NJDEP state permits (Permit No. SC 2012-085, SC 2013-085, SC 2014-085) and Drexel University IACUC (18924 and 20129). Thank you to the New Jersey Air National Guard and New Jersey Conservation Foundation for access to research sites. A special thanks to the Laboratory of Pinelands Research at Drexel University for financial support. KPWS would especially like to thank Dr. Emile DiVito, Raffaella Marano, Emily Ostrow, Kathryn Bendon and members of the Laboratory of Pinelands Research for assistance with field work and experiments, Dr. James R. Spotila for aid in manuscript revisions, and Kevin Redding at Monell Chemical Senses Center for supplying rodent scents for tests. The authors would also like to thank an anonymous reviewer for comments that significantly improved the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biodiversity, Earth, and Environmental Science Department, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    Kevin P. W. Smith & Walter F. Bien

  2. Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA, 19104, USA

    M. Rockwell Parker

  3. Department of Biology, Washington and Lee University, Lexington, VA, 24450, USA

    M. Rockwell Parker

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  1. Kevin P. W. Smith
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  2. M. Rockwell Parker
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Correspondence to Kevin P. W. Smith.

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Handling Editor: Michael Heethoff.

Taxa

Class: Reptilia—Order: Squamata—Family: Colubridae—Genus: Pituophis—Species: Melanoleucus—Subspecies: Melanoleucus.

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Smith, K.P.W., Parker, M.R. & Bien, W.F. Behavioral variation in prey odor responses in northern pine snake neonates and adults. Chemoecology 25, 233–242 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00049-015-0193-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00049-015-0193-6

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