Few things in life are more jolting than spotting a snake. The slithering serpents just naturally inspire fear. Even writing that word – snake – feels wrong.
The one bright side that can be gleaned from running into a snake, however, is at least there weren’t two snakes. Or a group of snakes. Now that would be horrifying. Anyone remember this?
No, snakes tend to slither around on their own, so we typically only see them one at a time.
If the idea of encountering a group of snakes sends shivers down your spine, you might not want to read on. No, but seriously. Stop now.
A new study that was published in Animal Behavior and Cognition offers evidence that some snakes actually coordinate hunting in groups, per New York Magazine.
The study was conducted by Vladimir Dinets, a psychology professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Dinets studied Cuban boas that hunted bats, and he came away with some startling conclusions.
“Many Cuban caves shelter large bat colonies, and in some of them small populations of boas regularly hunt the bats as they fly out at dusk and return at dawn,” according to a press release announcing the study. “Dinets noticed that the boas hung down from the ceiling of the cave entrance and grabbed passing bats in midair. He found that if more than one boa was present, the snakes coordinated their positions in such a way that they formed a wall across the entrance. This made it difficult or impossible for the bats to pass without getting within striking distance of at least one boa.”
Did you spot that? They hung from the ceiling. They coordinated their positions. They formed a wall. How troubling is that? But it gets worse…
“Such group hunts were always successful, and the more snakes were present, the less time it took each to capture a bat,” according to the press release. “But if there was only one boa, it sometimes failed to secure a meal.”
So, the next time you see a single snake, I guess you can count yourself lucky. Sorry for the nightmares.
