Posted by:
LarryF
at Sun Nov 6 20:09:35 2005 [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by LarryF ]
>>I have to disagree here, what about Hognose snake defense? They intentionally try to look OR act like something else when startled. There are several snakes that try to make themselves bigger as a defense mechanism...
>>This should open up a big can of worms! LOL!
One order of worms, coming up. 
No, no, no, a thousand times no. Hognose snakes have no idea that they look or sound like somehting else or even that they look scary. I assure you if you take a hognose egg and put in a box until it hatches, when you open the box it will very likely puff up and hiss. It has evolved that preprogrammed response to perceived danger. It's possible/probable that that trait was beneficial and therefore passed on because it fooled predators, but it has nothing to do with any conscious calculation by the snake.
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