Can Snakes Smell to Know What is Around Them? 

When you think of animals with a good sense of smell what comes to mind? You may be thinking about dogs, cats, or even people. But how would you react to hearing that snakes have a good sense of smell? Their sense of smell is often so good that they are sensitive to several scents. These scents are often marketed as “snake repellents”.

If you want to learn more about how good snakes can smell, and how they can even smell in the first place, keep on reading! 

Can Snakes Smell Well?

Snakes have an extremely well-developed sense of smell! Throughout their evolution, they were thought to have lost some capabilities of vision. Around the same time, they began to develop a good sense of smell. Using scent as a hunting tool can be helpful, as it works in both light and dark conditions. That can be especially useful for snakes that hunt at night. 

Some sources claim that snakes can smell blood from injured prey as far as a mile away. Others say that if an animal is injured within the vicinity, most snakes can find them before they die by scent alone. Whatever the case, snakes are simply dynamos when it comes to scent tracking; but how do they do this? 

How Do Snakes Smell? 

Snakes have such a keen sense of smell partly due to the presence of a special organ known as the Jacobson’s organs or vomeronasal organs. These are two small organs found on the upper palate of the snake’s mouth. 

These organs can pick up airborne molecules and translate those into neural signals that key in the snake to some form of stimuli. Although it is not yet known what that signaling looks like, it is proposed to be something akin to our sense of smell. 

To pick up scent, it is important to develop behaviors and traits that allow for maximum air movement between the environment and the snake’s sensory organs. This brings us to discuss what behaviors and characteristics snakes have that increase their sense of smell. 

Forked Tongues 

Snakes are known to have uniquely forked tongues. This modified trait was evolved to help them move air molecules toward their sensory organs. Forked tips widen the surface area (and width) of the tongue. This in turn lets snakes siphon in larger amounts of air toward their Jacobson’s organ.

Panting and Tongue Wagging

One last thing that you may see snakes do is pant and wiggle their tongues in the air. Both of these common behaviors act to draw air into their mouths. More air flow increases the amount of sent molecules that pass over their scent-receptor organs. Interestingly enough, this trait can also double to cause heat loss in snakes, which is particularly important for species that live in dry, desert environments! 

The photo featured at the top of this post is © Mark_Kostich/Shutterstock.com