Snakes are energy conservers, its their design and advantage. Over mammals, over most lizards, over birds and fish. They have the ability to lower their metabolism and energy usage rate, at all times. No legs is a key to understanding this.

That said, pair bonding, group bonding are all methods to conserve energy. Same mate, same place, same time, is far less expensive then having to discover new mates, new places, new food sources. They discover these things when energy rates are low, as neonates. Then routinely practice them as adults.

I wish you folks would think about the energy costs and the cost to safety, if these animals did not practice pair bonding and site fidelity. If they wandered around all the time, they would be DEAD. Yes, behavior does account for a certain part of the population to do that, and that part is impacted the most by predators, weather, and us. Those are called transients. The individuals that practice mate and site fidelity are called residents.

So Kate, My advise to you is, goggle up ethology, research that for a bit, and stop with the brain structure and find a way to study your wild snakes without interference, That folks is the hard part. Part 2

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