Responses by king snakes (Lampropeltis getulus) to chemicals from colubrid and crotaline snakes

Abstract

Four litters of king snakes (Lampropeltis getulus), a snake-eating species, were tested for responses to chemicals from colubrid and crotaline snakes. King snakes presented with swabs rubbed against the dorsal skin of living snakes and with swabs treated with methylene chloride extracts of shed snake skins tongue-flicked more to swabs from a northern copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix), a crotaline, than to swabs from some colubrid snakes or to blank swabs. Six out of 10 king snakes in one litter attacked and attempted to ingest swabs treated with snake skin chemicals, implicating these chemicals as feeding stimuli for these ophiophagous snakes. Ingestively naive king snakes presented with plain air and snake odors in an olfactometer tongue-flicked more to snake odors. This study and others suggest that crotaline and colubrid snakes can be distinguished by chemical cues.