2023-07-11 12:45:05
When animals experience acute or chronic stress, their bodies increase the production of certain hormones that cause changes in the nervous system, immune response, and behavior. Some animals, if they are in the presence of a congener, may see this effect attenuated. This calming effect of being with peers occurs especially in animals that are not solitary but tend to live in groups.
Some research suggests that snakes can display complex social behavior. However, in reptiles, as well as in other animals that live mostly solitary lives, very little research has been done on the calming effect of being with conspecifics.
Now, Chelsea E Martin’s team at Loma Linda University in the United States have examined whether southern California rattlesnakes use that kind of passive social support to alleviate acute stress.
For their study, the researchers used 25 South Pacific land rattlesnakes that were free-living until captured. They evaluated the calming effect of the presence of a conspecific through experiments in three settings: when the snake was alone, when it was accompanied by an inanimate object (specifically, a rope), and when it was accompanied by a conspecific of the same sex.
Martin and his colleagues found through such experiments that when two snakes were together in a stressful situation, they experienced a sense of social support that calmed them down, much like we humans do when, instead of having to deal with each other, alone to a disturbing situation, another person in the same situation accompanies us.
“This attenuation of the stress response had not been described before in any species of reptile,” Martín emphasizes.
Specifically, the research team found that when a snake was exposed to stress, the presence of a conspecific significantly reduced the change in the snakes’ heart rates. By working with wild-caught rattlesnakes, the researchers were able to show that the calming effect of the presence of a conspecific exists in the wild and can persist in captivity.
One of the snakes in the study accompanied by a rope instead of a congener. (Photo: Chelsea Martin)
“Our snakes came from populations that hibernate individually and others that hibernate communally. We found no differences between the group of snakes used to hibernating together and the group that tends to hibernate individually,” explains Martin. “We also did not observe differences between the sexes in terms of the calming effect of the presence of a conspecific.”
Mountain rattlesnakes hibernate in groups, which could be an indicator of a propensity for stronger social bonds than plains rattlesnakes, which often overwinter alone. Female rattlesnakes have also been known to clump together during pregnancy and remain with the newly hatched pups. Testing for these variables helped the researchers verify that the calming effect of the presence of a conspecific is just as strong in snakes that winter alone as it is in snakes that winter together, and just as strong in females wintering alone. in the males.
The study is titled “Social Security: Can rattlesnakes reduce acute stress through social buffering?”. And it has been published in the academic journal Frontiers in Ethology. (Source: NCYT from Amazings)
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