Can snakes recognize themselves?

A controversial study says yes An experiment that uses snakes' chemical senses "could change people’s opinions of reptiles away from that of slow, dumb, dull, instinct machines," scientist says. Scientists who study snake behavior are often faced with a challenging conundrum: How do you get into the mind of an reptile? Primates can gesture with their hands, elephants can signal with their trunks, and ravens can peck with their beaks to indicate a particular response to an experiment. But serpents? That’s why researchers have designed a test just for snakes by playing to their strengths: their chemical senses. Snakes rely on chemical cues to recognize prey, escape from predators, find mates, and navigate their habitats. In addition to their sense of smell, snakes also flick their tongues to carry chemical cues—say sex pheromones from a potential mate—to a specialized organ in the roof of the mouth, an action roughly equivalent to sniffing.