Most intelligent snake ?...

[lostwithin]

Hi everyone, well I was reading a post and thought of this question, I would like everyone’s opinion on what they believe the most intelligent snake species is. From my own experiences my young burm seems much more intelligent then lets say my ball or boas. He seems much more aware of what’s going on, more curious ect. But I’d like too know what everybody thinks the “most intelligent “ species is.
Devon

[KrokadilyanGuy3]

From what I've worked with and experienced, I would say Forest cobras.

[Big_V]

Retics seem kinda smart. Well mainly cuz they are so attentive. Also id say some hots seem pretty smart.

[ReptiZone]

Retics and Scrubs Must be up there Cause They are alwase scoping out what is going on around them.

And from personal experience My retic never takes his eyes off me when I walk in to My herp room.. lol
But he is the bigest sook you will ever see he tolorats handeling verry well.
But when you put him back in his enclosure he heads for his hide...Now dong go bugging him twice thow cause he will take your face off LOL..
Once you have him out he don't care. you can do what you want realy.

The ReptiZone
Marc Doiron

[lakeridgekennel]

I think it is the african King cobra.I heard thaycan be really smart

[Zoe]

I don't think you can really measure a snake's intelligence by how attentive it is. It denotes awarenes, curiosity, yes, but I don't really see how a snake that watches you is smarter than a snake that spends most of its time in his hide - that, if anything, has to do with "personnality".
I've always been a firm believer that you can't measure the intelligence of snakes. Not to say that it doesn't exist, but they aren't "smart" the way we think of "smart". A dog, cat, horse (any mammal, really) can learn basic or complicated tricks, the teaching of which is based on wild behaviour. Snakes don't really have social groups, they have no reason to act any particular way other than to survive and breed.

So I guess it all boils down to your definition of "intelligent". If curiosity = intelligence, then the aforementioned snakes are probably the most "intelligent". I'm not sure how you'd even go about measuring any other type of intelligence in a snake :S Any ideas? lol

Zoe

[Retic chic]

Of all the snakes we keep, the retics seem to be the most aware of their surroundings, responsive to activity, and were the first to learn the difference between the feed door and the maintenance door. We kept one retic in particular that was not friendly at all, and on occasions we had to work with him, we could not use the same trick twice. He was very calculating in his actions and had a memory like a steel trap. He was the only snake we kept that I was truly afraid of.

Of the hots, the mambas seen to be most alert and aware, their expression even seems to be scheming like a cat at a mouse hole. I have not had any experience working with such a snake, and I cannot say it will be my first choice. It is one thing to be chased by an eastern indigo snake, being pursued by a mamba just is not on my list of fun things to do.

[Scotty Allen]

Indigos and any of the cobras that I have worked with, hands down.

[Classic]

Your all wat to biased...The smartest has to be a milksnake.

Brian
hwh

[Katt]

My russian rats appear to be the most curious and attentive snakes, as well as the Stinking Goddess, they will bite the hand that holds them.

The russians watch every movement around them. They'll swivel their heads, move their eyes around, move towards the movement to inspect the action. Very curious snakes.

[reptile boi]

MAMBAS!!!

[SCReptiles]

Research indicates the King Cobra to be the most intelligent snake species. Physically the brain is proportionally larger and their behavior is more complex. The mother king will deposit her eggs, then tend the nest till they hatch. There is a stratified King Cobra society. Kings stand to face each other, enemies, and food. Tap a king on the head, and they will “bow to you.” This behavior is very uncommon in the snake world. I do not think there is any question that kings are more intelligent then any other snake.

[Vanan]

The boids have nothing compared to the Black Mamba and the "Asian" King Cobra. From my own experience, I find that the arboreal colubrids seem more aware of their surroundings. The most aware of those would be the boomslangs. Based on what I've seen and read.

[V.hb]

I always found Tiger Rats quite intelligent.

[Gary O]

If I go by what I have and worked with, I have a few

I have a female Blood that I swear sits and thinks of ways to bite me.

I also have a ATB that will chase me out of her cage and I find that weird lol.

But If I go by what I have read the Cobras and Mambas seem have the brains in the snake world. But Croc Monitors will give them a run for there money if we merge in the lizards

[BoidKeeper]

I think that everyone is talking about instinctive behaviour. Intelligence leads to problem solving, which involves thought process. Put a snake in a maze or something or find some way to observe problem solving and then you can measure intelligence I think.
So all though many of your arguments are very good I still feel that snakes are instinctive not intelligent.
Cheers,
Trevor

[Vanan]

Mambas have been known to "remember" weak points in their cages and attempting to escape using the same weak spots everytime. Wish I'd bookmarked that post.

[Lisa]

Vanan, I believe most snakes exhibit this behaviour... One of our boa's figured out how to open her cage... she kept opening the door over and over. we had to install locks for her.

Trevor: There was a study on snake learning, and it was found that most don't respond to mazes well. why? because they're ambush hunters.
They did respond to other stimula such as being in an open chamber and having the exit door clearly marked but moved consistently...

[rwg]

I've always read that mambas and cobras were the most intelligent. I've seen nothing in any of the colubrids or boids I've seen or worked with to lead me to believe they have any significant intelligence.

Lizards I think are another story. Tegus and some monitors seem to show fairly complex behavior IMO... You'd need studies to prove it, but I think some of them can tell individual humans apart, which requires a bit of intelligence.

rg

[sapphire_moon]

I have heard of some snakes being able to tell humans apart as well (can't remember the species). But being fine with one person, then if another (same person every time) tries to hold it, it gets all huffy and tries to bite.

I also believe that instintual has to be SOME kind of "smarts". We started out with "instinctual" and evolved into what we are now, computers, cars, planes, and a world of science I couldn't even explain.

[crimsonking]

King cobras.
:Mark