![]() ![]() The researchers concluded that the fear of snakes and spiders is of evolutionary origin, and similarly to primates or snakes, mechanisms in our brains allow us to identify objects and to react to them very quickly. 'Accordingly, even the youngest babies seem to be stressed by these groups of animals.' 'In constant light conditions this change in size of the pupils is an important signal for the activation of the noradrenergic system in the brain, which is responsible for stress reactions. 'When we showed pictures of a snake or a spider to the babies instead of a flower or a fish of the same size and color, they reacted with significantly bigger pupils,' says Stefanie Hoehl, lead investigator of the underlying study and neuroscientist at MPI CBS and the University of Vienna. They found that this happens as young as six months-old, when infants are still very immobile and have not had much opportunity to learn that these animals can be dangerous. Researchers at MPI CBS in Leipzig, Germany and the Uppsala University in Sweden conducted a study which found that even in infants, a stress reaction happens when they see a spider or snake. But they can consume the crab by pulling it apart when it’s soft and vulnerable.’ ![]() ‘The legs alone were nearly as big as the snake’s gape. ‘These crabs are huge,’ Jayne said of their prey. One species ate hard-shelled crabs, another ate snapping shrimp, and the third ate soft-shelled crabs.Īnd, in this last group, the researchers noticed something particularly unusual. In a study published last month in the Biological Journal of Linnean Society, Jayne and colleagues observed the unusual feeding habits of three species of water snakes found in Southeast Asia. But for most snakes, the limit on prey size is what they can swallow whole,’ University of Cincinnati biologist Bruce Jayne told the university’s magazine. A video shared on Jayne’s YouTube channel shows the incredible behavior in action, revealing how the cat-eyed water snake (Gerarda prevostiana) tears its still-living prey apart to swallow the pieces individually. The snakes only went after crabs that had just shed their exoskeleton ![]()
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