Pheromone trailing behavior of captive juvenile African house snakes,Boaedon fuliginosus

Abstract

African brown house snakes (Boaedon fuliginosus) provide a unique opportunity to observe juvenile pheromone trailing behavior in a species of snake that does not use overwintering hibernacula or exhibit aggregation behavior. Using a standard Y-maze as a trailing behavioral assay, the presence and likelihood of captive juvenile B. fuliginosus to trail conspecifics was measured. Juveniles were assessed for trailing juvenile conspecifics as well as non-related adult female conspecifics. A binomial statistic determined if trailing behavior is significantly different than random probability. Juvenile B. fuliginosus did not exhibit significant trailing behavior in regards to other juvenile conspecifics (n = 15). However, trailing behavior was observed for juveniles trailing non-related adult females in 80% of trials (n = 15). Presence of juvenile pheromone trailing in this species may have other functions beyond hibernacula searching and/or conspecific aggregation.