• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

New Studies on Reptile Intelligence: How Smart is Your Pet?

Z

zookeeperfrank

New member
Joined
Sep 12, 2012
Messages
267
Reaction score
10
Points
0
Location
New York New York USA
Hi, Frank Indiviglio here. I’m a herpetologist, zoologist, and book author, recently retired from a career of over 20 years with the Bronx Zoo. A key indicator of intelligence is said to be behavioral flexibility – the ability to modify actions to fit new situations. Long thought to rely mainly upon instinct, reptiles have not been credited with much “brain power”. However, recent research revealed that many reptiles are capable of solving complex problems that are not “covered” by instinct, and can use what they’ve learned in the future (see NY Times; Nov. 18, 2013). Although reptiles diverged from warm blooded creatures at least 280 million years ago, some meet or even exceed the problem-solving abilities of birds and mammals. This will not surprise reptile owners, of course!
I’m often amazed by what I observe among the reptiles under my care, and would like to summarize some of that, and several interesting experiments, here. I hope you will post your own experiences below. This is a new area of research, so please feel free to boast, and remember that each new observation, however fleeting, has value.
Read the rest of this article here http://bit.ly/1gny9B3

Please also check out my posts on Twitter http://bitly.com/JP27Nj and Facebook http://on.fb.me/KckP1m

My Bio, with photos of animals I’ve been lucky enough to work with: http://bitly.com/LC8Lbp

Best Regards, Frank Indiviglio
 
My boas

Maybe this isn't intelligence,but it's certainly something. What,I'm not sure.

I have a few boas that I truly enjoy,and I think them of me. I've taken them outside during the summer to let one of my friends hold. Well,as soon as they go on one of my friends,tongue flicking,aren't they searching me out to get back on me. Every time. It's almost like they know my scent and feel more comfortable being on me than on one of them.

Can this be so?

And I also have had a bearded dragon that knew its name and came when called. Honestly. I sold her (Jill) to another breeder in Nj. She was shocked and wrote to me several times stating she still couldn't believe it.
That same girl gave me between 3-5 clutches every year from just one breeding with my true orange German giant. He was 24" long. She was a cross of sand fire and Gg. who was just about 20".

Wish I knew how rare they are now.
 
I can't speak for all reptiles, but most of my ball pythons seem pretty stupid to me :p. Although I'm guessing most people have seen the video of the boa (I think it was a boa?) that could open doors...can't really chalk that up to instinct :p

I suppose I haven't tried teaching any of my balls tricks, so maybe I'm selling them short.
 
allreptiles1966 said:
Well,as soon as they go on one of my friends,tongue flicking,aren't they searching me out to get back on me. Every time. It's almost like they know my scent and feel more comfortable being on me than on one of them.

Can this be so?.
Click to expand...

I'm sure this is so, all my snakes do it. I don't know how much is just familiar scent though - after all my snakes only know three environments: Their home tank, their feeding tank, and me!
 
Back
Top