Date: February 1, 2017
Source: University of the
Witwatersrand
The Puff Adder (Bitis arietans) is one of Africa's
deadliest snake species, not only due to its deadly venom, but also because of
its stealthy behaviour in the way that it hunts by ambushing prey.
It has now emerged, however, that
it has another deadly weapon in its arsenal, as it not only lies in wait for
prey, but that it actively lures prey into striking range.
By capturing and analysing
thousands of hours of video footage of puff adders hunting in the wild, Wits
University researchers, Xavier Glaudas and Graham Alexander, have shown that
puff adders use what is termed "lingual luring" to attract amphibian
prey closer, and increase the odds of catching it.
"A puff adder's strike is
typically no longer than one or two head lengths (5-10cm) in distance, so it
needs a strategy to attract potential prey to come within that striking range
in order to catch it," says Glaudas, a herpetologist and Post Doctorate
Fellow at the Alexander Herpetology Laboratory at Wits University. "We
have found that puff adders use their tongues that resemble an invertebrate
that frogs feed on to increase prey capture rate."
Funded by the National Geographic
Committee for Research and Exploration, Glaudas and Alexander tracked 86 puff
adders over three years at the Dinokeng Game Reserve, about 100km north of Johannesburg
in South Africa. Glaudas captured wild snakes and tracked them by surgically
implanting radio transmitters into the snakes and releasing them at their place
of capture.
"We really wanted to have a
closer look into the secretive lives of these fascinating animals, and
specifically study their foraging ecology," says Glaudas.
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