Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hi,

I took a halogen flashlight into the snake room late one evening. As I opened the rack and shined the light in to observe the snake, I noticed she "jumped" everytime I moved the light to and fro her face.

Any ideas as to why?

thanks in advance

They hate it. That's why. Its like you driving down the road with your rods and cones wide open in the middle of the night and some jacka$$ shining is hi-beams at you just the exact moment he's passing by.

The snake would probably appreciate it if you stopped doing it. How many flashlights are shining in Ball Python's eyes in the savannas of Africa every night?
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Imagine having someone shining a light in your eyes and you have no eyelids to close to protect your eyes from the brightness. Even with eyelids we would flinch when someone does that. Imagine how much worse that is without them.

Maybe it could also possibly be that Light is energy.......Heat is transferred through light aswell.....and they do use they "pits" to sense heat. Have you ever looked through an Infrared camera.......then shine a flashlight at it.....it will wash out the total image...........same thing can happen to the snakes...

They will also strike at the light....as if it were a predator...or somethingattacking/threating it......

Just my $.02

Jared Horenstein
R.P.R.

a flashlight wouldn't produce sufficiant amounts of heat to be that upsetting to a snake. Most likely it was just the brightness of the light that startled the snake. Halogen lights do produce heat though but most of it is focused near the bulb itself not along the 'light' beam. Energy comes in many forms and heat is just one of them.