Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Out of curiosity, has anyone ever been able to condition their lizard, or any reptile for that matter, to perform a response to a conditioned stimuli, basically a "trick?" Has anyone ever heard of such an experiment or the outcomes of these experiments?

Well maybe not a trick, but I have a reptile room, and I have 2 of my collared lizards that are free roaming. The female, Kachina, knows when its time for me to make the rounds to all the other tanks. She knows the sound of the cricket bin lid opening.

She jumps off her floor basking spot, and dashes across the floor each time I'm in there, and acually follows behind me.

I always act like I drop crickets accidently And she tears after them, eats it and continues to follow me around the room.

When I'm done I tell her she did good, and she returns to her basking spot and her mate.

Just funny to watch the same reaction , everyday. She in my opinion is exhibiting a sort of trained response, for food !

She is cute, I just have to always be careful because shes right under my feet like a puppy.
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Eve / PHEve

Free roamin? Arent they small and quick?
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1.0 Indonesian Blue Tongue Skink (Don)
0.1 Irian Jaya Blue Tongue Skink (Sausage Girl)
0.0.1 Tanimbar Island Blue Tongue Skink ( Spunky Sebastian)
0.0.1 Ornate Uro (Spike)
1.0.1 Green Tree Pythons ( Male=Floyd, Baby= Verdi)
0.1 Western Hognose (Piggy)
0.0.1 Egyptian Tortiose(Tank)
0.0.1 Sonoran Gopher snake ( Toro)
0.1 Albino Leo gecko (Sasha)

I have a reptile room, and the room has tanks all around the outer walls but the rest of the room and center is set up for my lizards to come out and run each day . Rocks, plants....

I have one BIG male collared almost 16 inchs named Kong, who I allowed to free roam with a female. They dont get put back in a tank, they live out. They are very tame.

I have set up a corner basking area, for them, and they have some big rocks around the room that they sleep under at bedtime. Lately my desert iggy has decided he wants to sleep out with them, so sometimes I allow him to.

But everybody else just gets time out when I'm there, and returned to their tanks. I like to handle them all, that way ya have nice lizards.

Heres the male, and female collared, and the desert iggy, floor basking area.

Kong, Kachina and Hershey

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Eve / PHEve

2 of my igs are trained to go to the bathroom in a long cardboard box lid with paper towls in it. and i have another that goes in a cat litter pan filled with water. well i diddnt really train them. just sorta figured out what they like to go in and they did it on their own.
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brandy

As I understand it.. multiple people have been able to train Frilled dragons to Frill on command by using a Treat and a quick motion.
I can get my beardeds to crawl back in their tank simply by putting new food in their Dish Not exactly a trick, but the fact remains they know how to get in their tank rather than most lizards will just run into the glass trying to get in.

Some people have even got their Leopard gecko Females telling them when they're ready to lay by pushing their belly against the glass. (That one suprised me)

Uromastyx, Bearded Dragons, Frilled Dragons.. well most Agamids.. a number of Iguanas.. and ofcourse the Varanids are rumored to be intelligent.. Varanids especially as they seem to be problem solving, I've seen a Mangrove teach itself how to wedge out of a unlocked cage, sliding glass front, it rubbed it's body against the glass trying to pull it out slightly, then it wedged the claws in the crack and pulled it out far enough to slide through.. Argus are rumored to even be better at it.
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2.4.1 Leos
1.1.13(eggs) Beardie
2.0 Burm
0.1 Common Boa
0.0.1 Sand Fish
0.2 Desert Tortoise hatchlings
Wish for: Candoia Sp, Frilled D, BTS

Finally what i was looking for!!! Thanks alot for the information. I had also heard of some of these intelligences, but i did not know they had been tested. I am glad to see that someone has heard of a filled able to frill on command. This could definitely have some brain anatomy importance, as lizards and other reptilians do not have an advanced cerebral cortex, if any. Most of their brain is made up of the brain stem, purely instinctive actions. I have also researched varanid intelligence and have found that they were even able to predict the actions of their prey in the wild, as researched by auffenberg, hope that rings a bell. if anyone else has heard of any CONDITIONED STIMULUS, RESPONSE events with lizards or any reptiles, please let me know. Remember these are like "tricks" or things you can train your lizard to do, like the frilled dragon example. Once again, thank you very much.

Kevin

A test on multiple whitethroated monitors done in a lab proved that when conditioned to retrieve snails from containers marked by numbers of marks on them they learned to count to 6, but to go beyond they were confused and considered those as groups only. If one snail was removed or 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 from containers indicating 2-6 marks, the monitor searched as if for the lost or missing snails. In the wild they lay in ambush next to nests with eggs or baby birds awaiting both parents return to eat the parents first then the eggs or hatchlings, of course they show many intelligence adaptations similar to birds and mammals.

you dont have a date and name of that study so i could look it up, do you? i'd be real interested in finding out more about that.

kevin

Registered Laboratory, South Australia.

http://www.reptilesdownunder.com/reptile/enclosure/uvlightingtestsa.php

That should be the link, if its still up, I printed it out back then.

One was Dennis King (deceased), his new book I believe may have reference along with "Biology of Monitor lizards". There are many varanid books quoting this, it might be easier to find it that way.

thanks alot. i was wondering what uv lights had to do with monitor intelligence. thanks again

kevin