Rattlesnakes will trick listeners with their voices

Rattlesnakes will trick listeners with their voices

Rattlesnakes will deceive listeners with their sounds.

Recently, a new study has shown that rattlesnakes increase the frequency of their sounds as potential threats approach.
This sudden switch to high-frequency mode will make listeners including humans think they are farther away than they actually are.
Closer
.

On August 19, related papers were published in "Contemporary Biology"

"For decades, the sound of a rattlesnake has been interpreted as a simple warning signal, but our data shows that it is actually a much more complex communication signal between species
.

" Corresponding author of the paper, Boris Chagnaud of the University of Graz, Austria Say, "Suddenly switching to high-frequency mode is like a smart signal that can deceive the listener and misunderstand the distance, thereby gaining a distance safety margin

Rattlesnakes vigorously wave their tails to warn other animals
.

Past studies have shown that the frequencies of these responses are different, but people know very little about the behavioral relevance of this phenomenon, and they don’t know what information it is conveying to the audience

When Chagnaud visited an animal facility, he found that when he approached a rattlesnake, the frequency of its sound would increase, and when he left, the frequency of the sound of a rattlesnake would decrease
.

Based on this simple observation, the Chagnaud team conducted some experiments
.

In these experiments, the researchers made the object appear to be moving toward the rattlesnake

The researchers found that when the potential threat was approaching, the rattlesnake's vibration frequency increased to about 40 Hz, and then suddenly switched to a higher frequency range-60 to 100 Hz
.

Moreover, the rattlesnake will adjust the frequency of the sound according to the approaching speed of the object, not the size
.

"In real life, rattlesnakes use additional vibration and infrared signals to detect approaching mammals, so we expect rattlesnakes to react more strongly in reality,

In order to test how changes in the sound frequency affect the listener, the researchers designed a virtual reality environment in which 11 participants walked towards a hidden snake on the grass
.

When a human approaches, the rattlesnake's rattle frequency will increase, and when the virtual distance is 4 meters, the frequency will suddenly jump to 70 Hz

"Snakes don't just promote their existence by
chucking , they have also evolved an innovative solution: a device similar to a reversing radar .

" Chagnaud said, "Today, we might interpret this ability as'perfect Design', but this is actually the result of thousands of'experiments' when snakes encounter large mammals

Related paper information: https://doi.

https://doi.
org/10.
1016/j.
cub.
2021.
07.
018