Bad news from CNN:
A scientist from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville has discovered that a species of snake, the Cuban boa, hunts in groups, and through teamwork improve their chances of catching prey.
It's the first time that reptiles have been observed to have been involved in "coordinated hunting," where individual animals take into account the location of others of the same species to maximize their hunting successes.
Thanks for sharing this information. I really like your blog post very much. You have really shared a informative and interesting blog post with people.. affordable SEO
This is actually the kind of information I have been trying to find. Thank you for writing this information. holm law group san diego
Rikki-Tikki-Tavi totally rocks, but I'm not anywhere near that nimble. I'd be a cobra's lunch in no time, no doubt.
The author (A) states that the snakes positioned themselves to maximize their hunting efficiency and (B) interprets this as collaborative behavior. Part A of that assertion seems proven to me, but not B. It may be the case that the snakes always chose to hang from the ceiling in the most constricted passage in the cave, which would not require any form of collaboration. If one snake was hanging from a given location, the passages on either side of the hanging snake are more constricted than open space, so if finding a location where bats are most likely to be channeled is the goal, it follows that the arriving snake would locate himself beside the existing snake--simply for reasons of geometry.
The author could check for this possibility by hanging a broomstick from the cave's ceiling and observing the behavior of snakes that arrived thereafter. If the first arriving snake positioned itself between the hanging broomstick and the cave wall, that would suggest that collaboration may be playing less of a role in this behavior than the scientist initially assumed.
On the other hand, I have owned and bred snakes in the past. No Boa's, only King Snakes, so maybe Boa's behave differently. King Snakes however, are very territorial. You can't put 2 in the same space, they will fight to the death. You can't even put a male and a female together unless the conditions are right. So if Boa's typically express similar behavior and are not here, he may be on to something. I don't know much about Boa's though, only King Snakes.
With your permission, I may email the author your and my thoughts on his paper. If he responds, it will make a fun follow-up post. May I?