Snakes liking/disliking certain people?

[Dave_18]

il never forget my mate lost his rat snake in his car under the seat (it was being taken back to the house after he bought it and it pushed the lid off its container), my dad stuck his hand straight under there thinking it was a corn and to his suprise pulled out a p***ed 6 foot black rat snake, it sat very happily in his hands but my mate couldnt even touch it, also i got my royal python because the previous owner was scared of it and shes been great ever since, only been bitten once!

[rwg]

I dont think so. I've always been told that snakes lack the mental capacity to distinguish one human from another, and I've never seen any evidence or studies to the contrary. Most of the time they cant tell a human from a tree.

Certainly voice is out of the picture, and visual is probably not much of a factor as a lot of snakes have very poor vision, so you're only left with smell, and the way various people handle snakes.

I handle a lot of snakes, and I even handle "bitey" ones all the time. I very rarely get bitten by anything, and I'm sure it's not because any of these snakes like me or even know me from anyone else. It's because I handle them in a way that causes them the least amount of stress so as not to induce a defensive reaction.

Monitors and crocodilians are another story entirely. I am fairly certain they are able to recognize individuals and that they prefer some to others. Dont know about other lizards though.