Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Natural Sciences

First Advisor

Doan, Tiffany

Area of Concentration

Biology

Abstract

Travel by car produces many types of pollution and one of the most disregarded of these types is noise pollution. Sadly, the vast majority of populations that may be affected by noise pollution remain unstudied. This research aims to investigate the effects of such traffic noise on the widespread and charming corn snake. Snakes rely on highly sensitive mechanoreception to hunt, including an acute articulation of their ear bone directly to their jaw. Because noise pollution may interfere with these senses, it may hinder their ability to forage effectively. To study this relationship, I subjected eight snakes to artificial traffic noise for the length of their feeding time. I measured latency to strike, number of strikes, and total time taken to completely ingest prey in seconds. I hypothesized that all of these variables would take longer in the presence of sound compared to no sound. The median latency to first strike was significantly higher when the snakes were fed in the presence of sound compared to when they were fed without it. In the presence of sound, the snakes took longer to eat the mouse, if they did eat at all. This decreased feeding response has many negative implications for corn snakes, as well as for related or threatened species.

Download

Share

COinS