Habituation of the Rattle Response in Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes, Crotalus atrox

Habituation is ubiquitous throughout the animal kingdom. Nonetheless, there are no studies that report habituation of the rattling behavior in rattlesnakes. Ten Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes (Crotalus atrox) were stimulated to rattle in an automated apparatus at five-minute intervals until they failed to rattle for ten consecutive trials over four consecutive days. Group data are reported for the occurrence of rattling, latency to rattle, and duration of rattling. Both long-term and short-term habituation were documented, though there was notable variation within and between individuals. Differences within and among individuals over the four testing days were found. We recommend that future studies focus on proximate factors (e.g., sex, body temperature) that may influence the course of habituation of the rattle response.

Fig. 1

Habituation of the rattle response in ten individual Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes stimulated to rattle at five-minute intervals on four consecutive days. Note the x-axis is in five trial blocks, and the y-axis is the probability to rattle in a given block.

Fig. 2

Habituation of latency to initiate rattling in ten Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes stimulated to rattle at five-minute intervals on four consecutive days. Note the x-axis is in five trial blocks, and the y-axis is the reciprocal latency to rattle in a given block.

Fig. 3

Habituation of the duration of rattling in ten Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes stimulated to rattle at five-minute intervals on four consecutive days. X-axis is in five trial blocks and the y-axis is the duration over which rattling continued.

Fig. 4

Regression slopes from individual regression analysis of two variables associated with habituation of the rattle response in ten Western Diamondback Rattlesnakes stimulated to rattle at five-minute intervals on four consecutive days. Regressions based on fewer than ten data points were considered unreliable and are not included in the figure. Bars represent 95% confidence interval.

Contributor Notes

Associate Editor: G. Haenel.

¹ Department of Natural Science, Northwestern Oklahoma State University, 709 Oklahoma Blvd., Alva, Oklahoma 73717, e-mail: ajplace@nwosu.edu. Send reprint requests to this address.

² Laboratory of Comparative Psychology and Behavioral Biology, Departments of Psychology and Zoology, Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma 74078, e-mail: charles.abramson@okstate.edu.

Received: 13 Mar 2006

Accepted: 19 Mar 2008