This would make them sitting targets for predators if they had a strong scent. Second, puff adders spend most of their time on the surface under grass or other vegetation and do not often seek refuge underground as is usual for most other snakes. "These selective pressures have driven the evolution of not only their impressive visual camouflage, but, as we just found, also their chemical camouflage."ĭuring an intensive, three-year telemetry project that involved radio-tracking of 30 puff adders, three lines of evidence lead Alexander to conclude that puff adders must also possess a form of chemical camouflage.įirst, puff adders usually remain motionless when under threat. This behavior could make puff adders vulnerable to predation," says Professor Graham Alexander, who heads the Alexander Herp Laboratory at Wits. "Puff adders hunt by ambushing their prey, and can lie motionless for weeks at a single location waiting for prey to pass. This research, published in the journal, Royal Society Proceedings B, is the first to show a terrestrial animal using chemical crypsis (chemical camouflage) in order to survive. Research done by researchers from the Wits School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences, partly done at the Monte Casino Bird Gardens in Johannesburg, has shown that puff adders not only camouflage themselves with their highly evolved visual camouflage, but they are also difficult to find by smell. And, while they have always been hard to find visually, they turn out to be virtually impossible to detect by scent. This African viper species, Bitis arietans, relies on stealth, both to find its prey and to hide from their predators. Puff Adders are the ultimate ambush predator. Image: A meerkat from the Montecasino Bird Gardens in Johannesburg, South Africa, trained in scent matching, searches for its target scent - a puff adder.
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