Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I have noticed that all 8 of my kingsnakes have excellent eyesight. They seem to be able to see me from long distances and especially the nervous babies I have. All my kings are in display terrariums throughout the house and do notice me from a distance. To me, they definately have better eyesight than my corns. I wondered if there were any scientific studies or other herpers observations on how good kingsnakes eyesight is? Thank you in advance for any responses.
Happy Herping,
Uncloudy

Have had:

3 types of Rat, including Corn (Red)
4 types of King (currently Sonoran Black)
1 Boa
1 Python
1-2 other assorted types

I'm still undecided on this one. Sight ability does vary from species to species. Some boas can snatch flying bats & birds right out of the air!

With Kings in particular, who may indeed have better sight than most, I think that moving objects can be seen AT LEAST as well as we do.

My baby Cal King was surveying his "room" one day and I hid on the other side of the bed at least 6 feet away, unnoticed to him. When I slowly raised up, as soon as my eyes met his, he had jerked sideways and was watching me, quite alarmed.

Still objects? Not sure. At times when I'm near but don't move, they don't seem to see me - until I move.

I've also known of times when one clearly should have seen my hand coming, but jerked violently when picked up, as if VERY startled.

Theory:
I suspect that they have the ability to "turn off" visual stimuli, interrogating & acting upon visual data only when they choose to.

When they dig, they have no need for sight. Same thing when in tight spots and crannies.

It's possible that the minds of snakes may be able to turn off visual stimuli either voluntarily, or after a certain "timer" period during which the input of visual stimuli has not been high.

Im not sure how well they see but my guess its one average what more or less other colubrids see. As far as them being able to turn off a sense such as sight I doubt it for a couple of reasons. For one while they are predators they are also prey and prey must always rely on all their senses to save them. You made the example of when they are digging but that may be the time they most need it as they are preoccupied etc... and are drawing attention to themselves. I think what you may be seeing as them turning off their vision is just them not seeing that well as most snakes dont. Turning of their vision would be like us turning off our hearing and we just cant do that. I may be wrong but thats just my thoughts on it.

Keith

>>Have had:
>>
>>3 types of Rat, including Corn (Red)
>>4 types of King (currently Sonoran Black)
>>1 Boa
>>1 Python
>>1-2 other assorted types
>>
>>I'm still undecided on this one. Sight ability does vary from species to species. Some boas can snatch flying bats & birds right out of the air!
>>
>>With Kings in particular, who may indeed have better sight than most, I think that moving objects can be seen AT LEAST as well as we do.
>>
>>My baby Cal King was surveying his "room" one day and I hid on the other side of the bed at least 6 feet away, unnoticed to him. When I slowly raised up, as soon as my eyes met his, he had jerked sideways and was watching me, quite alarmed.
>>
>>Still objects? Not sure. At times when I'm near but don't move, they don't seem to see me - until I move.
>>
>>I've also known of times when one clearly should have seen my hand coming, but jerked violently when picked up, as if VERY startled.
>>
>>Theory:
>>I suspect that they have the ability to "turn off" visual stimuli, interrogating & acting upon visual data only when they choose to.
>>
>>When they dig, they have no need for sight. Same thing when in tight spots and crannies.
>>
>>It's possible that the minds of snakes may be able to turn off visual stimuli either voluntarily, or after a certain "timer" period during which the input of visual stimuli has not been high.
-----

I am reminded of documentary footage I saw of an Arizona Mt. King. The snake would crawl in plain sight and let small birds attack it (protecting their nest). It would then track them back to the tree and climb up for a meal of their nestlings. How much was sight and how much was scent (who knows?).

Frank
-----
"The luxury of not getting involved departed with the last lifeboat Skipper..."

Turning of their vision would be like us turning off our hearing and we just cant do that. I may be wrong but thats just my thoughts on it.

I believe they do "turn off" their vision in the same way we do "turn off" our hearing. Ever fall asleep while watching TV? You no longer hear what is going on on the TV. You may remember hearing snippets, but most of it doesn't register.

I believe snakes do the same thing with their eyesight. We have all snuck up on snakes that didn't seem to see us then suddenly they flinch when we touch them or move suddenly, like they are startled awake.

While I was working on my MS, we had a guest seminar speaker one week who studied visual responses in goldfish. He found that goldfish shut off their visual processing while they slept, so that visual images didn't reach the conscious part of the brain (much like we do with sound when we sleep). A bright light or abrupt change would wake them, but general slow movements were filtered out. I asked him about snakes and told him what I had observed and he hypothesized that it was a similar process.
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Chris Harrison

Chris

You are talking about something totally different. Yeah our brain shuts off our hearing when we fall asleep just like we close our eyes when we sleep. Have you ever tried shutting off your hearing while fully awake ? How about your sense of smell ? You cant. What Ameron was suggesting was that a snake can turn off their vision while awake doing things like digging or just cramming themselves into tight spaces. You are referencing snakes sleeping and I agree with you in that aspect. I can tell when a snake is sleeping their pupils tend to rest lower in their eye. Im not sure if you are inferring snakes manually shut their vision down and sleep but I would think they dont but its simply like when we fall asleep out brain is doing it on its own. We dont shut off our hearing then fall alseep it just eeks away the more we drift into sleep.

Keith

>>Turning of their vision would be like us turning off our hearing and we just cant do that. I may be wrong but thats just my thoughts on it.
>>
>>I believe they do "turn off" their vision in the same way we do "turn off" our hearing. Ever fall asleep while watching TV? You no longer hear what is going on on the TV. You may remember hearing snippets, but most of it doesn't register.
>>
>>I believe snakes do the same thing with their eyesight. We have all snuck up on snakes that didn't seem to see us then suddenly they flinch when we touch them or move suddenly, like they are startled awake.
>>
>>While I was working on my MS, we had a guest seminar speaker one week who studied visual responses in goldfish. He found that goldfish shut off their visual processing while they slept, so that visual images didn't reach the conscious part of the brain (much like we do with sound when we sleep). A bright light or abrupt change would wake them, but general slow movements were filtered out. I asked him about snakes and told him what I had observed and he hypothesized that it was a similar process.
>>-----
>>Chris Harrison
-----

x

Bob Bull

I too have noticed that my kings (especially my Cal King) seems to have excellant vision from long distances. I thought I was just imagining until this topic was posted.
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I think their eyes can detect movement well, and detail not so well. From what I have read, their eyesight is not their primary sense like it is in humans. Their primary sense is smell. They have a forked tongue for a reason. There are two separate 'smell' receptors on the roof of their mouth - one for each fork. The forks of their tongue allow them to 'triangulate' a smells location and distance, much like our eyes do. Do you know anyone with one eye? They don't have depth perception. The sense of smell of a snake can determine location and distance. Since kingsnakes hunt at night, I don't know how important good eyesight would be for them in the evolutionary process. Snakes in general can also detect very slight vibrations, for example, you walking down the hall and past the door to your snake room.

Thank for all the information. I too know that smell, vibration, and sight are snakes main senses with smell using fork tong and jacobson's organ.
Except from Melissa Kaplan's Herp Care Collection;
"Snakes have rods and cones in their eyes, as do we, though in different numbers. They do not have the diversity colored oil droplets (presumed to have been lost when snakes when nocturnal and subterranean) in their photoreceptors that mammals and birds do, so, while they do have color vision, it isn't as broad ranged as ours is. They do have a yellow filter which, filling the lens, absorbs ultraviolet light, protecting the eye.

Snakes use a combination of infrared vision (developed in the trigeminal nerve), variable (by species) visual acuity and color detection, limited eye mobility, and chemosensation to find prey and recognize features in their environment (including their keepers)."

I have to agree with what someone else said about California Kingsnakes, out of all my kingsnakes they seem to have the best vision of the kingsnake species I care for and are most keen to visual stimuli. Thanks again for the infomation, it's an interesting topic to me.
Happy Herping,
Uncloudy