Strike-induced chemical preferences in prairie rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis)

Prairie rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) received exposure to a mouse carcass misted with diluted perfume during predatory strikes, just before or after striking, or in the absence of a strike. They then received a choice between a pair of nonenvenomated carcasses, one misted with the perfume and the other misted with a novel solution. Snakes that struck a perfume-misted carcass preferred the nonenvenomated carcass with chemical cues matching those on the carcass they had struck. However, exposure to chemical cues without striking produced no such preference even when the concentration of perfume solution was 100 times that used in the strike condition. Moreover, exposure to chemical cues just before or after the striking of an unscented carcass produced no subsequent preference for a carcass with matching cues. These results indicate the importance of the predatory strike rather than simple familiarization in the formation of chemical preferences in rattlesnakes.