I am not sure its about upright or not, as we do have a decent understanding of behavior with animals above and below snakes on the evolutionary chain. I really have no idea, and its actually worthless to dwell on why we don't know something instead of dealing with reality and actually attempt to learn what we don't know.
I read somewhere it had to do with religion. Not sure about that, I think its about value, snakes had no monetary value, we did eat them, so pretty much heck with them.
Study methods are actually a more realistic and current reason. The use of radio telemetry, is more of a problem. In order to belief that the use of radios is important, the researchers must devalue the animals to a point, they act like the animals have no behavior. And the belief that animals are DEAD. Let me explain, one definition of live is, to respond to a stimulus. Many/any type of stimulus. Yet, firmly or brainwashed themselves to "believe" that catching the animal has no effect, cutting it open has no effect, placing a foreign body, the radio, inside an animal has no effect the following it around with a giant antenna with a crew of people, has no effect. To the point that they release the animal the next day after major evasive surgery, and record what the animal does as normal daily behavior. This dismissal of common sense is so strong, they throw out science. Studying what animals DO is ethology, an area of study within the scientific world that concentrates on behavior. Studying what an animal does IS studying behavior. One of the first rules of studying behavior is, you cannot use methods that interfere with behavior to observe behavior. simply put, there are suggested rules in the study of behavior, and those rules are currently ignored. As well as many other rules of science. By guess, is again, no money in it. Therefore few researchers, therefore no competition, therefore, poor science. nothing personal to any of those that fall into what I mentioned,end par

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