Pity Thy Pit Viper? Evaluating enrichment choices in Crotalus helleri with outcomes aimed at improving care for large snake collections through strained behavior reductions

Pikstein, Rachel N.

rpikstein@students.llu.edu

Streit, Benjamin M.

Martin, Chelsea E.

Hayes, William K.

Department of Earth and Biological Sciences

Loma Linda University

Loma Linda, California USA

Reptiles, particularly squamates, persist as being undervalued by societies. This prejudice leaks into modern aspects of academic studies, and research consistently indicates a negative skew towards snakes in personal attitudes, popular culture, and with unequal representation in scientific literature. Fear and superstition play a significant role, but a vast lack of understanding exists surrounding the complex ecological roles snakes have within their diverse ecosystems. Snake-bias is perhaps most damaging when impacting the literature of veterinary medicine, conservation biology, and zoological husbandry, leading to a collective perception that a diminished level of basic-care for snakes is acceptable.  Fewer than ten studies have been published assessing the importance of incorporating enrichment into routine care for captive squamates, and less than half of those assessed snakes. None have directly tested enrichment options in pit vipers, the only regarded parameters to date have been physiological measures (e.g., body condition, fecal analyses). We designed a study to assess the impact of several cost-effective and simple-to-implement enrichment choices on the behavioral and inferred psychological health of rattlesnakes. We will test 20 wild-origin adult Southern Pacific Rattlesnakes (Crotalus helleri) in housing trials to determine whether the addition of a hide box, textured substrate, conspecific odor placement, and novel objects consistently reduced strained behavior (time spent in a hide box or rattling during disturbance). We predict that snakes with housing that offers hide box, textured substrate, and a routine rotation of enrichment options will exhibit increased exploratory behavior and reduced strained behavior. Routine enrichment offerings might be as essential as feedings and cage changes to snake wellbeing. Our results will address the needs of large zoological, venom extraction, and research institutions. We hope our efforts will improve husbandry guidelines for captive care of pit vipers and inspire others to bring further representation of squamates into scientific publications.