K of Kyrene

Human Cognition and Culture – Witchcraft and Slavery (first 14pgs)

Witchcraft, Poison, Law, and Atlantic Slavery – Paton, 2012 The use of these kinds of things was widespread with slaves in Dominica using grave dirt in bottles, and Georgia slaves using conjure bags

Human Cognition and Culture – Voodoo & Christianity

The Vodun Way of Death: Cultural Symbiosis of Roman Catholicism and Vodun in Haiti – 1979 Africanism in Haitian Vodun The Dessounin Ritual of Death:The Degeneration and Regeneration of Being Conclusion: Vodun death rituals have pieces of Christianity as seen with the presence of Christian prayers and religious artifacts used in the rituals. The symbiosisContinue reading “Human Cognition and Culture – Voodoo & Christianity”

Rattlesnake venom gland removal

Surgical removal of the poison glands of rattlesnakes – Tait, 1938 Introduction: – This publication focuses on the removal of venom glands from a snake via anesthesia with the intention of it returning back to captivity in relatively perfect health. This was to aid in physiological experiments without the fear of being bitten. The procedureContinue reading “Rattlesnake venom gland removal”

Barnes Maze – Snake Specific

Always watch the videos and pretend to code a couple times before starting: The Barnes maze is used to observe spatial cognition and memory mainly in rice. From what I can tell the Holtzmann et al. (1999) study was the first to adapt this for snakes. They used a circular arena with 8 possible entrancesContinue reading “Barnes Maze – Snake Specific”

Simple Rstudio Code for Snake behaviour

acs=read.csv(file.choose())View(acs) enriched30<-acs$X30min.test[acs$environment==”enriched”] – new data set name <- Numerical Variable [treatment variable == “specific treatment you want to subset”] >shapiro.test(enriched30) to test for normality, column or subset name in the brackets >boxplot(enriched30, standard30) makes a box plot >wilcox.test(enriched30, standard30) non parametric test for two treatments >t.test(enriched30, standard30, mu=0, alternative=”two.sided”, paired = T, conf.level = 0.99)Continue reading “Simple Rstudio Code for Snake behaviour”

Arena Habituation – Snake specific

Always watch the videos and pretend to code a couple times before starting: I normally use a square or rectangular shaped arena with a large enough area that forces the snake to explore The snakes tend to move along the walls, this is called thigmotaxis therefore try to use lighting and cameras that can captureContinue reading “Arena Habituation – Snake specific”

Rattlesnake venom loses quality in captivity but increases in quantity

Variation in Yield and Toxicity of venom from a rattlesnake – Minton Jr, 1957 Introduction:– Different studies have looked into the variations in milking frequency on yield and toxicity of venom in various species. Check paper for specifics, one study showed that milking every month caused the second milking event to produce on average lessContinue reading “Rattlesnake venom loses quality in captivity but increases in quantity”

Eggs can talk?

Only child syndrome in snakes: eggs incubated alone produce asocial individuals – Aubret et al. 2016 Abstract: Egg clustering behaviour has many advantages like anti-predatory, moisture maintenance, temp control, prevention of eggs rolling and hatching synchrony through embryo communication. In this experiment water snakes were housed either in clutches or individually to see if theContinue reading “Eggs can talk?”

Rat snakes benefit from enrichment

Environmental Enrichment Alters the Behavioral Profile of Ratsnakes (Elaphe) – Almli and Burghardt, 2006 Abstract: 16 sub adult rat snakes (Elaphe obsoleta), 8 in enriched conditions and 8 in standard for 8 months. Enrichment came in the form of additions to enclosures with elevated hide, and loose substrate to burrow in as well as liveContinue reading “Rat snakes benefit from enrichment”

Fit for the Crib? Mice Prefer Certain Nesting Material

Preferences for nesting material as environmental enrichment for laboratory mice – Van de Weerd et al. 1996 Abstract: Behavioural and psychological needs of laboratory animals generally cannot adequately be met in standard laboratory cages. Environmental enrichment, which provides a more structured environment can enhance the well-being of laboratory animals. They may perform more of theirContinue reading “Fit for the Crib? Mice Prefer Certain Nesting Material”