Spatial learning and shelter selection by juvenile spotted pythons, Anteresia maculosus

Spatial abilities are important in mediating natural behaviors in snakes, such as localization of refuges. Twelve spotted pythons (Anteresia maculosus) were trained to find the location of an escape hole in a circular arena, given a choice of eight holes. A snake was deemed to have learned the task if it found the goal on eight out of the last ten acquisition trials. Only half of the animals learned the task after 32 training sessions. Manipulation of sensory cues after training suggests that subjects differed in their responses to manipulations in the environment, suggesting the use of different cues to find the goal. Ten of 12 animals were also tested for shelter preferences. Snakes were given a choice of three different shelter sites (submerged, on the surface, or elevated) to determine the relevance of the arena escape task. Most snakes preferred elevated shelters and showed fidelity to shelters chosen on the first day. These results suggest that juvenile spotted pythons may be more motivated to seek elevated instead of submerged, refuges, and this may account for the failure of half of the snakes to learn the spatial location task.