Reptiles are becoming recognized as an excellent model species for approaching questions in behavioral development. They have well documented behavioral patterns, which are ideal for ontogenetic study. Baby snakes are precocious, with no help from the parents, thus they have to fend for themselves from birth. Litters are often large--60 or more--and many do not survive to reproduce. There is thus a premium on performing adaptive responses via genetically determined behavioral mechanisms and/or rapid learning or other developmental mechanisms. The present research will focus on several issues. First, there is a large amount of diversity found among individual snakes born to the same mother, yet little is known about the reasons underlying the individual variability. Large effects are seen between litters in feeding, social, and defensive behaviors, but it is not clear if these are due to environmental or genetically determined traits. The diversity may be due to different fathers even for litter mates. Careful behavioral observations will allow some conclusions to be drawn regarding these questions. Snakes are also the land vertebrates with the most complete reliance, as a group, on the chemical senses in virtually all aspects of their behavior. The possibility that social grouping in snakes is related to the transmission of information about food sources via chemical cues will be examined. Such data will allow clarification of the role of chemical cues and the mechanisms through which they act. Therefore, this research project will address behavioral, hormonal and genetic factors that underly the adaptations and behavioral development exhibited by this species.
