It is getting to be that time of year again. Everything is green and in bloom in the plant world. And. All the creatures below the heavens have emerged from their winter resting spots. In some places, this might mean bears. In these parts, it brings out ground hogs, skunks, box turtles, and others. Including… snakes.
I have a good friend who does not like snakes. In fact, I know several people who don’t care for them. Personally, I think they are pretty neat.
But. According to the National Institute of Health, almost any stimulus may trigger a phobic reaction in us. But those snakes? They are among the most feared of those objects. Around 56% of the population feels anxious about snakes. And then there are those 2-3% of the people who meet the diagnostic criteria for having a snake phobia.
Even still, many scientists all around the world study those snakes. For various reasons.
One thing they have found is that snakes can feel sound vibrations through the ground. It is what we call “tactile” sensing. But then scientists got to wondering if snakes can also hear airborne sound vibrations. And specifically, if so, how they react to those sounds.
A brand new paper was published in PLOS ONE (a science journal). In this, they concluded that snakes use hearing to help them interpret the world. This also, once and for all, dispels the myth that snakes are deaf to airborne sound.
They studied 19 different snakes from seven species. Their findings revealed that not only do snakes have airborne hearing, but that different species react differently to what they hear. “You talking to me?”
Before I read about this, I thought that seeing and tasting the air were the main ways snakes sense their environment. I had no idea that “hearing” was a thing.
The bottom line is that snakes were responding to audible only sounds.
So yes. Snakes can hear us scream. The scientists tested this specific aspect. Snakes don’t hear as well as humans. They detect different frequencies than we do. Lower frequencies. But snakes probably hear muffled versions of what we do.
And there it is. As we walk about our gardens this time of year and happen upon one of those amazing snakes, they’ll be hearing any one of us scream. Perhaps after we get over the initial shock, we should lean down, and say, “Good day, ma’am. You go your way, and I’ll go mine.”
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“In every sound, the hidden silence sleeps.”
― Dejan Stojanovic, The Creator
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“What is the good of your stars and trees, your sunrise and the wind, if they do not enter into our daily lives?”
— E.M. Forster
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“In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”
— John Muir
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They can hear your screams and hissy fits.
