Are reptiles intelligent? Can they learn? Amazing Reptile Fact 2.

Dr Anna Wilkinson with a bearded dragon. A still from Ingenious Animals
Available on BBC IPlayer till Sept 28 2016.

About 20 years ago I asked a so-called reptile expert whether snakes could think? "No," he replied. "They have a primitive brain."
"How do they find their way about?" I asked him.
"Instinct. Pure instinct." he replied.
Reptiles have a reputation for being stupid animals - " a lower form of life," more "primitive" than mammals, just a bundle of instincts, without feelings, unable to learn.
Wrong.
This slur on reptile intelligence came about for several reasons. One was the rather odd idea we have of the role of intelligence in evolution - a kind of tree of life with clever man right at the top, and all the other animals below, getting stupider the lower they appear. Like an intelligence class system - man as master of the world, animals as peasants or serfs. It's a self-important human idea. Even a mollusc, the octopus, can be pretty bright and may even be able to use tools, something we used to think only humans did. And although reptiles preceded mammals, they have been evolving since then. So even if they started off dumb in the days of the dinosaur (and we have no reason to suppose this) they have been evolving since then.
Work at Lincoln University, under the direction of Dr Anna Wilkinson, has shown that tortoises  can navigate their way through mazes. They can even follow the gaze of a fellow tortoise to find out where it is looking. Lizards can learn whether a food reward is on the left or the right. Tortoises can recognise the difference between a picture of food or the picture of a nonfood object.
Even more extraordinary is that a bearded dragon can learn from watching another bearded dragon tackle a problem. From a video, no less. This was demonstrated in a BBC programme, Ingenious Animals, in which one of Dr Wilkinson's lizards watched a video of another lizard pushing aside a glass door to get at some meal worms. Before he saw the video, he spent a long time trying to learn how to do this. Once he had seen the video, he got the idea far more quickly.
So.... reptiles aren't stupid.

Click here to watch the bearded dragon experiment on BBC until September 28 2016. The bearded dragon part is about two thirds of the way through.

Wilkinson, A.  & Huber, L., (2012), Cold-Blooded Cognition: Reptilian Cognitive Abilities,’ in eds Vonk, J. & Shackleford, T. K. The Oxford Handbook of Comparative Evolutionary Psychology, Oxford, UK, Oxford University Press, 129-143.

How to kill your dragon - slowly and painfully.

This is a very sick bearded dragon,  brought into Evolution Reptiles in Kidlington.  It was probably in pain every single time it moved. It was desperately thin and its skin was a dull grey colour. It barely moved when handled. Bought off a Facebook page and it had been kept for three years without heating or UV light.
'It was very underweight," says Pete Milligan the owner Evolution Reptiles. "The spine was protuding and if you touched it it felt sharp. Each rib could be clearly felt. It was also lifeless when picked up."
He advised the owners to take it to a vet, sold a UV light to them, and discussed the lizard's welfare. Buying a lizard online (like buying a cat or a dog) is always dicey. They may come cheaper but the remedial vets bills will probably end up making these pets more expensive.
Other signs that the lizard was ill - its tail was flat not rounded: it had swollen joins on its feet: its elbows looked as if there were two elbows. Because it hadn't died quickly from lack of heat and UV light, its owner probably thought that it was OK to keep it that way. But the poor animal had survived in pain all that time.
"This all completely avoidable," says Pete. "People are still mistakenly thinking that reptiles don't need UV light. There are vivariums still being sold in which you cannot install UV lighting. And these are often sold with printed labels that give the wrong advice. It's time manufacturers got up to speed."

A healthy beardie with bright colours thanks to UV light

"The worst set up I see is tortoises that are kept without UV light. They are given Vitamin D supplement and people think this is good enough, but it is no substitute for ultra violet light."
Do my survey here:

https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/FGJZKLT

Amazing reptile fact 1. Reptiles are cold blooded. Or are they?

Wikipedia

So reptiles are cold blooded. But not always. The Tegu lizard, Salvator merianae, from Argentina warms itself in the sun during spring and summer. At night they retreat to their burrows. In winer (April to September) they hibernate. At the end of hibernation in September the males emerge from their burrows ready to mate.
Their testosterone is high. The muscle in their face, which allows them to bite, swells ready for a fight.  Meanwhile the females are in the borrows, gathering nesting material and laying eggs. She guards them too - a kind of maternal care you see in birds and mammals.
This time of year, the tegus can heat themselves up and keep hotter longer, than would be expected just from basking. Birds and mammals do this all the time, so they don't need to bask in the heat. They make their own warmth.
So why is a reptile, cold-blooded, doing this?  Does this show evolution at work? Is this what was happening when the first mammals or birds emerged from the reptiles?

Read more at Tattersall et al., Seasonal reproductive endothermy in tegu lizards, Science Advances, 2016, 2. 1-7. Found at http://advances.sciencemag.orghttp://advances.sciencemag.org

How to choose a good reptile shop.

Pete of Kidlington's Evolution Reptiles. He runs a good shop.

1. Quick look round the premises to see if they are clean, well ordered with good reptile cages, not just a few old aquariums,  good selection of UV lights, free care leaflets (online or in the shop), hides, water bowls of the right type, etc. 
2. Specialist shops are usually better than general pet shops. Don't buy animals online. You don't know if they are healthy. Go and take a look first.
3. Do the reptiles in the shop have enough space, well ordered cages, UV lighting, basking spots, and places for snakes to hide. Or are they just kept in tiny plastic pots?
4. Is there are good amount of water. Enough for snakes to have their whole body submerged? Shallow but enough for tortoises to walk in so they can drink?
5. Are the staff willing to answer questions without blahblah- ing. Will they help you if you come in with a problem?
6. Do they sell books about the species you are buying.
7. Do they give a straight answer - ie. tell a first time buyer what reptile will be easy to keep? Or just sell them anything that the ten-year-old fancies?

Do my survey at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/FGJZKLT

He's on his way.... Geoff the tortoise movie star.

Geoff, the tortoise your kids will love, is coming our way soon. Keep an eye out for him. He is the star of some mini films about tortoise welfare. Join this Facebook page to keep up to date - https://www.facebook.com/coldbloodedcare/

Looking through a glass darkly - can your lizard, tortoise or snake?

This snake has hiding places but the reflections might worry a chameleon.

Recognising ourselves in a mirror is something we take for granted. Or recognising that a glass door is a solid barrier (though drunk humans have been known to crash through glass doors!) Just because we can do this, we shouldn't assume other creatures can. Much suffering can be caused to reptiles kept in all-glass cages. Aquariums with four transparent walls are often sold as the right enclosure for reptiles.
But are they? Many lizards don't recognise that glass is a barrier and will make repeated attempts to push through it until they have injured noses. Green basilisks have a habit of just running into the glass full tilt. If you already have a four-sided aquarium  for your lizard, you must stick an opaque paper barrier on the outside of the glass in three sides. If your lizard is pushing at the glass in the front, think about doing the same for the bottom half of the glass there too.
The other problem with bog-standard aquariums is that they need a lot of extra equipment - escape-proof tops, UV lighting, arrangements for temperature gradients, etc. etc.  And they may be difficult to clean. So it is always better to buy a proper vivarium from a good reptile shop with all this built in, rather than just stick your reptile into cheap aquarium.
Chameleons have a different problem with glass. They can see their own reflection and think it is a rival. This is common with many species, even dogs and cats but these pets will generally learn to ignore reflections. Chameleons don't learn. Having a threatening rival within their enclosure is a constant worry to them. Moreover glass aquariums don't give them enough fresh air.
Tortoises feel much the same about transparent barriers. They will push like tanks against a transparent barrier whether it is glass or garden netting. If they can see a way through they will take it - somehow. They will also dig underneath it or round it. And a determined tortoise is very persistent indeed. So it is vital that any barrier is opaque, not see-through.

For snakes, a four sided glass enclosure is stressful for another reason. Snakes need hiding places - one in a hot area and a second one in a cool area. If they don't have them, they get very stressed. And chronic stress may mean they don't eat, or they get a respiratory disease.

*The human-reptile relationship - please help research by doing my survey at https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/FGJZKLT

Help.... my tortoise is missing..... how to save its life.

Image from http://all-free-download.com/

Tortoises do go walkabout. And, worse still, they are easily stolen or picked up to be "rescued" by passersby who take them home. They can burrow under fences or  break through them like small tanks. Even tortoises kept in an indoor enclosure may find their way out and hide under a piece of furniture.
Sarah Joiner in central London lost her tortoise Zuma, aged 90 earlier this week. Luckily she guessed that he might have crawled into a black bin liner with the rubbish. She phoned Westminster Council who agreed to help.
Zuma was on his way to an incinerator, but satellite tracking by the council located the lorry in which he was travelling. After sear hing through one thousand black  bin bags for more than two hours, Sarah noticed some flowers she had thrown away poking out of one of the bags. Inside it was Zuma "on his back , legs flailing, looking incredibly indignant" she said.
Lottie a tortoise went missing for two years. Unlike the long journey of Zuma, she was found only a little way away. She escaped out of the garden into the neighbouring playing fields and was found in the far side. She had successfully survived and hibernated there. Because she was microchipped, her original owners got her back. 
So what to do if your tortoise is missing? A careful search in the garden, looking particularly for any fresh earth or in spaces like under the shed, may turn him up. Check the fencing for signs of burrowing or pushing through. (Remember that tortoises need opaque barriers. They will continue to push at glass or netting.)
And how to prevent it happening again? Check boundaries in the garden daily. A fence should be 8-12 inches below ground and high enough to prevent climbing - yes they can climb and will chimney up corners like a rock climber. Lock up your tortoises at night, just like you would your hens. They are like a meat pie with a hard crust for foxes and badgers. And dogs will attack them too, even the family dog.
Microchip your tortoise (yes, it is possible). And don't have a garden pond. Tortoises can drown in a pond. They can't swim. If you must have one, fence it off and cover it over. More vital information on how to protect your tortoise is here.
And please do my Reptile Relationship survey here.