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Findings in title quoted from the linked summary^1 with reference to its hyperlinked peer-reviewed article.^2

From the linked summary:^1

>A University of Queensland-led study has found that contrary to popular belief, snakes can hear and react to airborne sound.

>Dr Christina Zdenek from UQ’s School of Biological Sciences, in collaboration with Queensland University of Technology’s Professor Damian Candusso, played three different sound frequencies to captive-bred snakes one at a time in a soundproof room and observed their reactions.

>“Because snakes don’t have external ears, people typically think they’re deaf and can only feel vibrations through the ground and into their bodies,” Dr Zdenek said.

>The reactions strongly depended on the genus of the snakes.

>“Only the woma python tended to move toward sound, while taipans, brown snakes and especially death adders were all more likely to move away from it,” Dr Zdenek said.

>“The types of behavioural reactions also differed, with taipans in particular more likely to exhibit defensive and cautious responses to sound.

>“For example, woma pythons are large nocturnal snakes with fewer predators than smaller species and probably don’t need to be as cautious, so they tended to approach sound,” Dr Zdenek said.

>“Snakes are very vulnerable, timid creatures that hide most of the time, and we still have so much to learn about them.”

From the hyperlinked article:^2

>The snakes ranged in morphological body shapes and foraging types, including active foragers, ambush predators, arboreal species, and constrictor feeders.

^1 Snakes can hear more than you think, University of Queensland, 15 Feb. 2023, https://stories.uq.edu.au/news/2023/snakes-can-hear-more-than-you-think/index.html

^2 Zdenek CN, Staples T, Hay C, Bourke LN, Candusso D (2023) Sound garden: How snakes respond to airborne and groundborne sounds. PLoS ONE 18(2): e0281285. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0281285

Surely it's going to depend on the nature of the sound, with sounds which are like those made by prey species attracting the snakes, and those which sound like predator species causing them to run away?

I think the thrust of their research is showing that they can hear airborne sound at all. Their exact reactions to different sounds is as you say, not well explored here.

I kept snakes a lot as a kid, won some pet shows and learned my enthusiastic ass off about them. It’s been a well known fact that they don’t hear airborne sound. Interesting that if you really test it, that turns out to be false.

Make lots of noise folks, I live where those last 3 live and you don't want them biting you even just a little bit.

I didn't know that. Thanks for the info. Did you put time into studying their behavior at all and notice any key things that stuck out to you with all the time spent?

I spent a lot of time watching. Didn’t do any real science. If I had to say one thing it’s that snakes are pretty simple and predictable in their behaviour once you get to know them. They are not clever animals but they are marvellous.