- Research reveals that rattlesnakes, like humans, experience stress reduction when in the presence of a companion snake, a phenomenon known as social buffering.
- Stress can lead to hormonal changes, affecting the nervous system, immune response and behavior.
- The study examined 25 wild Southern Pacific rattlesnakes in different scenarios, measuring their heart rate to assess stress levels and social buffering.
- By controlling small mammal populations, rattlesnakes maintain ecosystem balance and also reduce rodent and tick-borne diseases. Yet, they often face threats from humans.
If you stress out a rattlesnake, make sure it has a friend around. Much like humans, stressed snakes are calmed by a companion’s presence, according to new research.
Stress can lead to increased hormone production, resulting in changes in the nervous system, immune response and behavior. Certain animals, like humans, can regulate their stress response when in the company of another animal of their species, which is referred to as social buffering.
“We showed that when two snakes were together and experienced a stressful situation, they could buffer each other’s stress response, much like what happens to humans when they endure a stressful event together,” said Chelsea Martin, a Ph.D. student at Loma Linda University and first author of the study published in Frontiers in Ethology.
Snakes can display complex social behavior, but the concept of social buffering in reptiles has yet to be extensively studied.
“This dampening of the stress response has not been reported previously in any reptile species,” Martin said.
The scientists examined how social buffering affected 25 wild Southern Pacific rattlesnakes (Crotalus
