>>I must say, I have also read some literature pertaining to this, as well as ALL your post regarding this, and I really tend to agree as well that the banded/ringed patterns of many snakes serve more as a "disruptive" appearance for their silhouette, rather than a venomous mimicry.
>>
>> This type of pattern as you may already know, has been utilized for navy ships as well for disrupting the large silhouette of ships in the ocean. This pattern when compared to even a conventional dull gray colored ship, amazingly stands out FAR less when viewed from a moderate distance. The visual proof of this phenomenon was simply astounding!
>>
>> This brings up another question of mine,.....then why would a venomous Coral Snake need it,....what is it supposed to be mimicing?...LOL!........Coral Snakes being of a more docile, placid nature than many other species, I'm inclined to think that it is much better off NOT being noticed by others, rather than being noticed. You can't wan't to eat or molest what you can't see in the first place.>>

Coral snakes also live in woodland type habitats, especially the tropical species. They are also rather secretive snakes. It is to their advantage to blend in with the environment as well. Yes, indeed, even venomous animals can benefit from camourflage, if for no other reason than being less obvious to one's prey. A snake, no matter how deadly venomous, still need to eat. And a conspicuous snake may starve to death because it cannot get close enough to potential prey to catch them. Many species of lizards have excellent color vision, so many of the tricolored kingsnakes (which feed largely on lizards) would starve if their lizard prey can see them easily before they can get within striking distance. Of course, a tree dwelling venomous snake that feeds largely on birds must also be cryptic to be able to remain unnoticed by its prey. Conspicuous warning coloration are also conspicuous and alarming to one's prey. This fact is often overlooked by the supporters of coral snake mimicry.

>> My thought process with this certainly isn't "rocket science", but I do have a good capacity to think and observe well, and have been heavily involved with many types of snakes for over four decades.
>>
>> Also on a funny parting note, I have put many tri-colors in front of some of my dogs, and the only thing they wanted to do, was take a bite out of them. Now on the other hand, I've walked my dog outside and he thought a solid brown broken stick was a large snake, and was EXTREMELY hesitant, and wary of the stick!..LOL!.........and, no, that wasn't a proving scientific result of any kind, just a funny observation!
>>
>>
>> best regards, ~Doug
>>
>>
>>-----
>>"Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!"

Most mammals do not have good color vision because of a nocturnal ancestry. Humans are exceptional in this regard because of our diurnal primate ancestry. That is why many scientists believe that the tricolored pattern is effective only on avian predators. In fact, experiments using captive mammals show that they have no fear of tricolored snakes but they do fear the agressive vipers. Nevertheless, there is a total lack of evidence that avian predators fear tricolored snakes in nature, and there seems to be no experiment which uses living captive tricolored snakes and birds. Tricolored snakes are not that rare, and even if the experiment results in a bird eating a few tricolors, it would be a worthy sacrifice for science. OTOH, such an experiment could blow away the myth that the tricolor pattern is aposematic, and that tricolored kingsnakes are mimics of the venomous coral snakes.

[ Show Entire Thread ]