# Studies on Barometric Pressure vs Behaviour



## Chance

Has there been a study on barometric pressure and the way it affects snakes' behaviour?

I ask as Piper doesn't appear to be going to lay so we have been searching for reasons behind her sudden change in behaviour. Someone mentioned barometric pressure and the fact that there was a storm brewing the night she was being a psycho and maybe that affected her?

I just wondered whether its been done? We have though about getting a monitor and measuring the pressure vs the behaviour of our snakes to see whether anything changes.

Cheers
Rob : victory:


----------



## stark

When I used to keep a lot of tree boas I found the best and most interesting interactions and behaviour between the animals and the groups was when there was a big storm. I would open up all the windows in the room and give them a heavy spray. 
No matter what time of day they would come out and cruise around or start courting behaviour.

Equatorial species that live in areas of fairly consistent seasonal temperature, day light, etc. I believe are far more in tune with the 'invisible' weather and pressures of their environment than more temperate species.

I dont know what Piper is but I wouldnt be surprised if the storm did affect her mood in some way :thumb:

Tom


----------



## Chance

stark said:


> When I used to keep a lot of tree boas I found the best and most interesting interactions and behaviour between the animals and the groups was when there was a big storm. I would open up all the windows in the room and give them a heavy spray.
> No matter what time of day they would come out and cruise around or start courting behaviour.
> 
> Equatorial species that live in areas of fairly consistent seasonal temperature, day light, etc. I believe are far more in tune with the 'invisible' weather and pressures of their environment than more temperate species.
> 
> I dont know what Piper is but I wouldnt be surprised if the storm did affect her mood in some way :thumb:
> 
> Tom


Piper is a corn. We were discussing that being from the States maybe they are quite sensitive to changes in pressure brought about by hurricanes etc? And therefore the pressure changes prior to a thunderstorm would affect her similarly?

Cheers for that Tom.


----------



## Chance

Bumping as I'd like to hear/read others' experiences and opinions on this :2thumb:


----------



## alfiealbino

If you need to find a journal you could try searching on google scholar, if you have no joy i'll log in to sciverse and take a look


----------



## Chance

Thanks its not just the studies I'm after but also others' experiences of snakes behaviour being affected by weather changes! :2thumb:


----------



## emmabee

I think they are a lot more in tune to it than we give credit for.

I've had problems in my womas this year, an I mean big problems.

I haven't changed their set ups, routine, feeding, heat or anything like that. They are in the same enclosures they have always been.

The only difference I have had is a change of location.

I moved to Wales for 7 of the wettest, dampest months I've known and it took its toll on them. They need low humidity and I couldn't get it low enough.

I've moved again and they are back to full health and back to normal, again in the same set ups etc.
The only change has been environmental.

Boas I've noticed are also very in tune and I've noticed breeding behaviour in mine whenever there has been a hot, dry spell and then a sharp drop in temps and a storm.

I've also seen a lot of late ovulations and females slugging out this year too.
Can't be a coincidence.


----------



## Jeffers3

I've just had a quick look on Scopus and, although I haven't tried many search terms, it doesn't seem to be showing up anything. That doesn't mean snakes can't sense barometric pressure. It just means that I haven't found a paper reporting / studying it.

I also have no idea whether they can detect pressure, but if pushed, I would say no. I don't know of any physiological mechanism in a snake that can detect pressure changes. Again, that doesn't mean it's not there - I just don't know whether it is.

There has been a lot of speculation about whether or not barometric pressure is responsible for brumation / breeding behaviour. Again, this is possible, but I don't think it's very likely. Firstly, we don't know if they can detect it at all and secondly, barometric pressure varies irregularly, all year.

Could it be changes in electrostatic charge that they detect as a storm develops?


----------



## stark

Jeffers3 said:


> I've just had a quick look on Scopus and, although I haven't tried many search terms, it doesn't seem to be showing up anything. That doesn't mean snakes can't sense barometric pressure. It just means that I haven't found a paper reporting / studying it.
> 
> I also have no idea whether they can detect pressure, but if pushed, I would say no. *I don't know of any physiological mechanism in a snake that can detect pressure changes*. Again, that doesn't mean it's not there - I just don't know whether it is.
> 
> There has been a lot of speculation about whether or not barometric pressure is responsible for brumation / breeding behaviour. Again, this is possible, but I don't think it's very likely. Firstly, we don't know if they can detect it at all and secondly,* barometric pressure varies irregularly, all year*.
> 
> Could it be changes in electrostatic charge that they detect as a storm develops?


Those are good points.

Maybe they can just smell the rain coming?

Tom


----------



## Salazare Slytherin

if there are any studies they will be on google scholar I would expect, but I guess alot of what you will find will be with other animals, most notably birds, I too have made some interesting observations, but... I think anything longterm with reptiles is still in it's early days really.


----------



## Jeffers3

Salazare Slytherin said:


> if there are any studies they will be on google scholar I would expect, but I guess alot of what you will find will be with other animals, most notably birds, I too have made some interesting observations, but... I think anything longterm with reptiles is still in it's early days really.


I didn't check Google Scholar, but Scopus should find anything. I haven't looked at the abilities of birds to detect weather patterns, but they have a lot of advantages over land based animals in doing this.

You are right, though. Reptiles have received a lot less scientific attention than many other species. I've noticed things in their behaviour that I'd like to understand better.


----------



## Chance

Bump. Anyone else's experiences/views? :2thumb:


----------



## Ayra

Jeffers3 said:


> I've just had a quick look on Scopus and, although I haven't tried many search terms, it doesn't seem to be showing up anything. That doesn't mean snakes can't sense barometric pressure. It just means that I haven't found a paper reporting / studying it.
> 
> I also have no idea whether they can detect pressure, but if pushed, I would say no. I don't know of any physiological mechanism in a snake that can detect pressure changes. Again, that doesn't mean it's not there - I just don't know whether it is.
> 
> There has been a lot of speculation about whether or not barometric pressure is responsible for brumation / breeding behaviour. Again, this is possible, but I don't think it's very likely. Firstly, we don't know if they can detect it at all and secondly, barometric pressure varies irregularly, all year.
> 
> Could it be changes in electrostatic charge that they detect as a storm develops?


I wouldn't be surprised if they can detect pressure. Humans do without knowing it and our ears pop to adjust the pressure in our heads. Obviously snakes don't have ears so I'd imagine the pressure in their head remains relatively constant, therefore they're likely to be able to tell whether the external pressure is higher or lower than average, using their internal pressure as that standard/constant.

Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk 2


----------



## loxocemus

i don't think there's any question that snakes can "sense" the barometric changes of storms etc, the question should be how they do it i suppose.

there was a paper a few years ago on lodingi, one of the reasons i remember it is because the author lived within their natural range and would open the windows in his reptile room during the breeding season when storm fronts were approaching, this would cause almost immediate breeding behavior in his adults.

several chondro and emmy keepers in the US routinely take advantage of barometric changes when pairing up their adults.

rgds
ed



Chance said:


> Bump. Anyone else's experiences/views? :2thumb:


----------



## Gratenkutzombie

Snakes don't have 'outer ears' but they do have inner ones. I'm pretty sure they can sense barometric changes better than us.



Ayra said:


> I wouldn't be surprised if they can detect pressure. Humans do without knowing it and our ears pop to adjust the pressure in our heads. *Obviously snakes don't have ears* so I'd imagine the pressure in their head remains relatively constant, therefore they're likely to be able to tell whether the external pressure is higher or lower than average, using their internal pressure as that standard/constant.
> 
> Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk 2


----------



## antcherry88

As above, I'm sure snakes have internal ear structures similar to ours. You can normally see the membrane in their head.


----------



## Ayra

Gratenkutzombie said:


> Snakes don't have 'outer ears' but they do have inner ones. I'm pretty sure they can sense barometric changes better than us.


Yes I know they have inner ears but without an outer ear they won't be able balance the pressure inside their head with that of the environment. Unless they have a different mechanism for doing this though i know of none.







antcherry88 said:


> As above, I'm sure snakes have internal ear structures similar to ours. You can normally see the membrane in their head.




Sent from my HTC Desire S using Tapatalk 2


----------



## Gregg M

Chance, this is actually a very good topic to bring up. I do not think all species are greatly affected by barometric pressures, but others may fully rely on it to cycle. My Gaboon vipers, rhinos, puff adders, and Atheris species would start breeding as soon as thunderstorm season rolled in here in the North Eastern US. I imagine that species most affected by barometric pressure are ones from areas that have wet and dry seasons instead of winter, spring, summer, and autum seasons.


----------



## Khonsu

My thoughts; As others have suggested I don't think there's much doubt whether they're affected by changesd in pressure, it's just a case og how they register such changes & what this does to theire behaviour.

There have been many wildlife documentries which have made the point/registered triggers in breeding etc coincident with the imminent arrival of the wet season etc, ie a change triggered in the surrounding air pressure, humidity & temperature. Whilst the procees of breeding is obviously a natural annual activity it seems inconcevable that the prempting of these activites is not triggered to changes in pressure etc.

Pressure changes along with temoperature, moon phases/gravitational changes can have a significant effect on mood/activity of some humans/mammals, birds, fish etc so it seems logical that the these effects, albeit possibly reduced, would not affect reptiles.


----------



## Chance

Hmmm I think its also an interesting discussion. So maybe not necessarily barometric pressure per say but some kind of in-built 'device' that responds to seasonal changes / the wet/dry seasons?

As others have said reptiles don't seem to have been the subject of anywhere near as many studies mammals/amphibs etc (mostly mammals and birds).

I watched the programmes on the animals that pre-empted the Tsunami and fled to higher ground including some domestic animals. I wonder whether the reptiles did the same? Or hunkered down out of the way to avoid coming to any harm? That would indicate some kind of reaction to pressure changes? 

There would be an air pressure change prior to a tsunami wouldn't there?


----------



## yardy

Royals definitely respond to low pressure fronts coming in; they certainly feed better with rain in the air.


----------



## RickDangerous

This is something ive thought about before after reading something on the subject. I'm surprised no ones tried replicating it in their rep rooms....hook an extractor fan to a pressure switch maybe....just thinking aloud now!


----------



## Lupatrian

I found this forum because we have a pretty good rain storm expected today, and my painted turtle and bearded dragon are both acting bonkers - so I Googled it. I just wish there was something I could do for them; they both seem to have a major flight instinct goin’ on right now.


----------



## ian14

Lupatrian said:


> I found this forum because we have a pretty good rain storm expected today, and my painted turtle and bearded dragon are both acting bonkers - so I Googled it. I just wish there was something I could do for them; they both seem to have a major flight instinct goin’ on right now.


At least someone's getting rain!!


----------

