How Do Snakes Hear? Are They Deaf?
We all know snakes as deaf creatures because they don’t have external ears like other creatures. But some scientists argue that snakes can hear more than us humans.
Let’s look at how snakes hear, whether they hate loud noises and whether your pet snake can understand you as their owner.
Do Snakes Have Ears?
Snakes have no external ears, unlike most creatures. However, these reptiles have internal years that hear sounds and noises like other creatures with fully formed external ears. Snakes have a different hearing system from other animals.
How do Snakes Hear?
You might wonder how snakes hear since they don’t have ears like us humans. First off, snakes don’t have eardrums. Nonetheless, snakes have internal ear structures that have cochleas. These cochleas make it possible for snakes to hear any external sounds or noises through vibration in their jaws as they slither around on the ground.
A snake’s left and right side of it jaws move independently, making it easier for the snake to sense vibrations. The ability to hear from both sides of the jaws helps snakes figure out where the sounds and noises are coming from.
Snakes also have mechanoreceptors, which are sensory nerves spread all over the snake’s skin and spinal cord. The sensory nerves enable the snake to detect vibrations as they slither through soil and sand.
Once the snake picks any vibrations, they are instantly transmitted to the skin, through the spinal nerves, and finally to the brain. The snake recognizes such vibrations as sounds. The snake’s sensory nerves are highly receptive. These nerves react instantly to sounds, noises, and stimuli, making it easy for the snake to detect the noise source.
A snake can also hear from picking through the sounds flowing through the air once a sound wave hits its skull. Nonetheless, a snake seems to pick low notes easier than it picks high notes quickly.
The impulses travel directly from the snake’s inner ears, where the brain senses these vibrations. The ability of the snakes to detect sounds flowing through the air makes most snake owners believe that their snake pets can easily distinguish the sound that refers to their names.
Snakes could lack the hearing ability that most creatures, including humans, have. However, these reptiles can easily detect sound waves in the air. Their skulls vibrate once the sound waves hit their heads.
The impulses travel directly from the snake’s skull to its inner ears, where the brain senses the vibrations. It explains why some snake pet owners believe that their pet snakes can respond upon hearing the sounds of their names.
Even if snakes don’t have ears, they boast high sensitivity capabilities. Snakes can sense anything or someone who is moving on the soil and sand from great distances. Snakes can detect even the slightest vibrations despite their absence of external ears.
Do Snakes Hate Loud Noise?
Even if snakes could appear deaf due to their lack of internal ears, these creatures can also detect noise from a distance. Snakes don’t like noises since there are fearful creatures. The snake might not hear a loud noise, but the vibrations from the noise can scare away your snake.
If your pet snake is living in a place exposed to loud noises, the snake will get scared. Snakes can go into hiding once they get scared. Worse still, these reptile creatures could become aggressive due to agitation caused by loud noises.
According to a new study, loud noises can make your pet snake aggressive. The snake might start to behave weirdly, whereby; it becomes more harmful than friendly. Just like loud noises can hurt the human ears, they can also damage a snake’s internal ears.
No matter the pet snake species you have at your home, consider protecting it from loud noises. Such noises can disrupt its behavior, making your snake agitated and ultimately making it escape easily.
Avoid loud music if you have a pet snake at your home. Loud music can hurt your snake’s inner hearing organs in the long run.
Can Pet Snakes Understand You?
You love and recognize your pet snake. But the question is, does your pet snake even understand you in the first place? You have to establish a strong bond between you and your pet snake. Snakes have cognitive abilities just like us humans, even though these creatures are deaf.
Your pet snake may understand you once they realize that you play a crucial role in their lives and that you aren’t there to harm your pet. Luckily, a couple of things can make it easy for your pet snake to recognize you. Below are some of the things you should do to make it easier for your pet snake to identify you.
– Ensure your snake pet is calm all the time
A relaxed pet snake is easier to cope with. One way to keep your pet snake calm is by feeding him with the right foods, which comprises mice and smaller rodents that the snake can feed on depending on its size.
– Keep your snake in a peaceful environment
Pet snakes are just like other types of snakes, only that they are held in captivity. Aggression can make your pet snake aggressive and harmful. Hence, avoid any factor that can potentially aggress your snake. Your pet snake will never understand you if it is in aggression.
– Give your pet snake a gentle grip
Handling a pet snake gently can make it easy for the snake to understand you as its pet parent. Make your grip gentle while handling your pet snake. Avoid holding your pet snake tightly.
The way you handle your snake will determine whether it will be comfortable with you or not. Your pet snake will easily recognize you once you prove to it that you can handle it with care.
Wrap Up
Snakes might be deaf, but that doesn’t mean their inability to hear makes them lesser pets. Consider keeping your snake pet in an environment that it feels comfortable to live in despite its hearing inability.
