Track, predict and spit
26 May 2010 by Evoluted New Media
By tracking the movements of their prey and predicting where they will be 200ms later, snakes are able to fire off their venom with incredible accuracy when under threat according to new research which analysed over 100 cobra spits.
By tracking the movements of their prey and predicting where they will be 200ms later, snakes are able to fire off their venom with incredible accuracy when under threat according to new research which analysed over 100 cobra spits.
Bruce Young from the University of Massachusetts Lowell donned a visor fitted with accelerometers to track his own head movements while taunting cobras – by weaving his head – to provoke a spit. “I just put on the goggles and the cobras started spitting all over,” said Young.
Research assistant Melissa Boetig and colleague Guido Westhoff filmed the movements of the snakes at 500 frames per second. They filmed over 100 spits in a six week period, and analysed each spit, with the results published in the Journal of Experimental Biology.
The team compared the movements of each snake’s head and noticed all the cobras were moving in a similar way – by accelerating their heads in the same direction that Young’s eyes moved.
“Not only does it speed up but it predicts where I am going to be and then it patterns its venom in that area,” said Young.
He reasoned that the snakes must be tracking his movement right up to a point where he jerked his head and 200ms later, the snake reacted and fired off venom.
Young was inspired to conduct this research as he was puzzled by how accurately snakes aimed and how each venom track was unique.
