Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MSc)

Department

Psychology

Program Name/Specialization

Behavioural Neuroscience

Faculty/School

Faculty of Science

First Advisor

Noam Miller

Advisor Role

PI

Abstract

The sociality of snakes, long thought simplistic, has been shown to be governed by a host of different factors such as kinship, experience, sex, weight and personality. There is, however, still a need to untangle how snakes prioritize different kinds of information when interacting. I hypothesized that examining each dyad that composes a group could partly predict how individuals would behave in a larger group context, providing insight into the mechanisms governing aggregation. Six groups of six corn snakes (Pantherophis guttatus) had their personalities tested, then underwent dyadic interactions with each member of their cohort followed by a week aggregating with all five of those snakes. No significant relationships between the snakes’ personalities, dyads or aggregations were found, beyond a consistent weak preference for interacting with the opposite sex, suggesting that corn snakes are more plastic in their behavior than other snake species. In my second experiment, four clutches of corn snake eggs were incubated at different temperatures (hot, medium, cold and variable) to attempt to physiologically manipulate cognitive mechanisms of sociality and personality. These snakes (N = 50) underwent the same personality assays, revealing a trend for boldness to increase with incubation temperature, as well as a strong effect of clutch on boldness and several other measured traits. Altogether, this thesis presents some of the first findings on corn snake sociality and personality, and contributes to our understanding of the diversity of cognition among snake species.

Convocation Year

2025

Convocation Season

Spring

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Available for download on Saturday, March 08, 2025

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