Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Transient changes in body weight and behavior during the placentation period in non-human primates and rodents.

Scientific reports·2026

Same author

Occurrence and fate of PTE, PAH, and PFAS trace contaminants in soils and river suspended particulate matter in three DANUBEAN river catchments.

Journal of environmental quality·2025

Same author

Effectiveness and implementation of an inpatient mental health care pathway at an epilepsy center: A prospective service evaluation.

Epilepsia·2025

Same author

Correction: Mertz et al. Interdisciplinary Animal Research Ethics-Challenges, Opportunities, and Perspectives. <i>Animals</i> 2024, <i>14</i>, 2896.

Animals : an open access journal from MDPI·2025

Same author

Behavioral competition between infant care and sexual behavior in male but not female common marmosets.

Neuroscience research·2025

Same author

Early life stress induces decreased expression of CB1R and FAAH and epigenetic changes in the medial prefrontal cortex of male rats.

Frontiers in cellular neuroscience·2024

Same journal

Rank and payoff biases influence subject choices in a foraging task among sanctuary chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes).

Animal cognition·2026

Same journal

Buzzed but not elated? Effect of ethanol on cognitive judgement bias in honeybees.

Animal cognition·2026

Same journal

Dogs tuned to conspecific vocalizations: behavioral evidence for a voice processing preference.

Animal cognition·2026

Same journal

Variation in song structure does not predict associative learning performance in zebra finches (Taeniopygia castanotis) raised under controlled cultural conditions.

Animal cognition·2026

Same journal

Executive functioning in wild guppies: investigating the impact of a pharmaceutical pollutant.

Animal cognition·2026

Same journal

Performance of sheep and goats in a delay of gratification task.

Animal cognition·2026

See all related articles

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Nov 1, 2025

Observational Fear as a Model of Affective Empathy in Mice

Observational Fear as a Model of Affective Empathy in Mice

Published on: November 22, 2024

Visual snake aversion in Octodon degus and C57BL/6 mice.

Shigeru Watanabe¹, Henning Scheich^2,3, Katharina Braun^4,3

¹Department of Psychology, Keio University, Tokyo, Japan. swat@flet.keio.ac.jp.

Animal Cognition

|June 22, 2021

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Rodents like degus show innate snake aversion, avoiding snake images, while mice do not. This difference highlights how diurnal versus nocturnal lifestyles impact visual threat detection in animals.

Keywords:

Anti-predatory behavior Mice Octodon degus Snake phobia Visual preference

More Related Videos

Non-aversive Animal Restraint Enabling Recording of Optomotor Reflex in Ground Squirrels

Non-aversive Animal Restraint Enabling Recording of Optomotor Reflex in Ground Squirrels

Published on: July 25, 2025

Two Different Real-Time Place Preference Paradigms Using Optogenetics within the Ventral Tegmental Area of the Mouse

Two Different Real-Time Place Preference Paradigms Using Optogenetics within the Ventral Tegmental Area of the Mouse

Published on: February 12, 2020

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Nov 1, 2025

Observational Fear as a Model of Affective Empathy in Mice

Observational Fear as a Model of Affective Empathy in Mice

Published on: November 22, 2024

Non-aversive Animal Restraint Enabling Recording of Optomotor Reflex in Ground Squirrels

Non-aversive Animal Restraint Enabling Recording of Optomotor Reflex in Ground Squirrels

Published on: July 25, 2025

Two Different Real-Time Place Preference Paradigms Using Optogenetics within the Ventral Tegmental Area of the Mouse

Two Different Real-Time Place Preference Paradigms Using Optogenetics within the Ventral Tegmental Area of the Mouse

Published on: February 12, 2020

Area of Science:

Ethology
Comparative Psychology
Neuroscience

Background:

Phobias, particularly of snakes and spiders, are prevalent in humans and observed in animals.
While human snake phobia is visually triggered, sensory triggers for snake aversion in non-human animals remain underexplored.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate visually induced snake aversion in two distinct rodent species: diurnal Octodon degus and nocturnal mice.
To compare behavioral responses to snake imagery between species with different activity patterns.

Main Methods:

Utilized a three-compartment chamber to assess reactions to snake images versus control images (no-image, flower, conspecifics).
Measured time spent in compartments containing snake images compared to non-snake images.
Employed principal component analysis to evaluate stimulus image characteristics.

Main Results:

Octodon degus exhibited significant avoidance of snake images across all tested conditions.
Laboratory mice did not display aversion to snake images.
Image analysis indicated that basic visual cues like color did not account for the observed species-specific differences in aversion.

Conclusions:

The study suggests that diurnal Octodon degus possess an innate visual aversion to snakes, potentially linked to their reliance on visual cues for survival.
Nocturnal mice, with less reliance on vision, did not show similar aversion, indicating lifestyle influences sensory threat detection.
The findings imply that visual snake aversion may be an evolved, innate trait in certain species.