Puff adders camouflage their scent to hide from prey

The School of Animal, Plant and Environmental Sciences of the University of the Witwatersrand in Fourways has done research that shows that puff adders not only camouflage themselves with their highly evolved visual camouflage, but they are also difficult to find by smell. The research was partly done at the Monte Casino Bird Gardens in Fourways.

Puff adders are the ultimate ambush predator. The research, published in the journal, Royal Society Proceedings B, is the first to show a terrestrial animal using chemical camouflage in order to survive. “Puff adders hunt by ambushing their prey and can lie motionless for weeks at a single location while waiting for prey to pass,” said Professor Graham Alexander, who heads the Alexander Herp Laboratory at Wits.

During the 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. Firstly, puff adders usually remain motionless when under threat. Secondly, puff adders spend most of their time on the surface under grass and do not often seek refuge underground as is usual for most other snakes. This would make them sitting targets for predators if they had a strong scent. Lastly, Alexander observed dogs and tame mongooses walking directly over motionless puff adders, both predators appeared to be completely unaware of the puff adders. Of the 42 known predators of puff adders, 15, including dogs and meerkats, rely on their keen sense of smell to locate their prey.

A team led by Wits post-graduate student, Ashadee Kay Miller, trained a team of dogs and meerkats from the Monte Casino Bird Gardens, to scent match and test if they could detect the scent of puff adders. “The scents of most snakes were easily identified by the dogs and meerkats, but they failed when it came to puff adder scent,” said Miller.

“We are very proud to be involved with this research project. We feel that we can contribute to science and conservation. Our meerkats really enjoyed their training,” said Chris Cooke, curator of reptiles for the Bird Gardens.