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Homeward bound: Burmese pythons show amazing homing instinct

Check out these US Geological Survey scientists as they struggle to measure a massive female Burmese python they captured in Florida.

Relocating this huge snake might be a pointless effort, though. Researchers recently discovered that this species has a remarkable ability to find their way back to their home territory. Displacing six different pythons by up to 36 kilometres, the scientists tracked their progress over the next three to nine months and found that all of them headed back towards their home territory. Over a period that varied from about three to nine months, five of them made it back to within around 5 kilometres of where they were caught. The sixth only headed in the right direction, but didn't travel as far.

Six other pythons that were caught and then released in their home territory (as a control) only showed random movement.

The U.S. scientists that conducted the study say that this is evidence that Burmese pythons have both a compass sense and a map sense, allowing them to tell both direction and their position, relative to any goal they have. The paper on this was just published in the journal Biology Letters, and is available online (click here).

Frank Mazzotti, from the University of Florida's Ft. Lauderdale Research and Education Center, who took part in the study, talks about it in this video:

How do the snakes accomplish this?

Shannon Pittman, the lead author of the study from Davidson College in North Carolina told New Scientist: "The compass aspect could be accomplished through magnetic, celestial, olfactory or polarized light cues, all of which have been used by reptiles."

She also said that the map sense could come from their sense of smell, or possibly some ability to sense the Earth's magnetic field.

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So, what does this mean for efforts to relocate these snakes to 'safer' locations, as well as efforts to relocate other species of snakes?

It will likely take more research into this homing ability to see just how far it remains effective in Burmese pythons, and how strong it is in other species as well. Animal control officers may be looking at much longer trips to relocate these reptiles.

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