Scientist Shocked To See Snakes Carry Out Coordinated Attacks

Vladimir Dinets is the author of the new study, available in the Animal Behaviour and Cognition. He spent time watching Cuban boas hunting fruit bats. Dinets discovered that they used “coordinated hunting”, where the snakes worked together, actively positioning themselves with awareness of where the other pack members were.

Their actions were to ensure that the pack made a kill, not just the individual. This is different from mass-hunting, where a group of lone predators attacks the same prey, but without coordination and only with the goal of making the kill themselves.

Through this method, they were significantly more likely to catch their prey, as they blocked their flight paths. This way, the snakes also increased the efficiency and outcomes of their hunting.

The study noted that the snakes carried out their coordinated attacks before dawn and after sunset. At the time, some of the observed specimens slithered into the passage that connected roosting to the entrance chamber. Once there, they suspended their bodies from the ceiling and got ready for hunting.

This was conducted by simply grabbing at the bats as they flew out of their roosting chamber. The scientist is shocked because this has never been scientifically recorded in reptiles ever before. Though examples of them hunting together have been seen, it has never been made clear that these were coordinated attacks.

In his study, Dinets adds that a coordinated attack requires a “higher behavioral complexity”. This is because in such cases, a hunter has to take into account the actions of its companion as well.