....I tend to prefer the trampling avoidance scenario myself, in part due to the rattleless snattlerakes in the gulf of Ca.... But then this scenario begs...why only in the new world? The african plains have had great herds of ungulates for at least as long...why no rattling vipers or elapids there??? & scale rubbing is a poor second...



Ophidian defense strategies are most interesting to me, after seeing a number of gopher snakes dispatched by critters ranging from kingsnakes to redtail hawks to coyotes & their elaborate huffing & striking being utterly useless....they might just as well roll up like a rubber boa for all the good it did them...how/why do these mechanisms evolve?



I intend to examine regal ringnecks aposmatic displays in this regard...do they disuade color sensitive predators? Thus far it appears to me...ophidian predators even the generalists, seem to just charge in & dispatch the serpent w/ ease, & the snake's only chance is to go undetected via crypsis.



We must be careful of the dogma; that all repetitive behavioral observations have a causal=evolutionary mechanism...it may not be so, or the value of the behavior may be yet undetected by us???



Saludos / RxR

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