AbstractA post‐biting elevation in tongue‐flicking rate was demonstrated experimentally in neonatal, ingestively naive garter snakes (Thamnophis radix). That the snakes also exhibited apparent searching movements suggests that strike‐induced chemosensory searching occurs in nonvenomous snakes lacking previous experience with food or prey chemicals. Two litters of neonates differed in numbers of tongue‐flicks emitted, but had similar relative magnitudes of response across experimental conditions. The existence of post‐bite elevation in tongue‐flick rate (and presumably strike‐induced chemosensory searching) argues for a genetic basis for these chemosensory behaviors in a nonvenomous species of snake, extending the recent finding that strike‐induced chemosensory searching is fully developed in ingestively naive neonatal rattlesnakes. Possible patterns of evolution of post‐bite elevation in tongue‐flick rate, and the strike‐release‐trail strategy of highly venomo
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