Armando Bernal, Age 12, Of Tucson, Ariz., for his quest on;
How do snakes hear?
Maybe you have seen movies of a dancing cobra. The hooded snake usually weaves his graceful body from side to side to the rhythm of a flute or so it seems. Mme, the snake is moving and maybe in time with the music, but the fluty music has nothing to do with it.
We are never surprised to learn that various magic shows are rill of tricks. Maybe the cobra dancing gracefully to the flute of the snake charmer is not what it seems to be. You could search and search for a month and never detect a single trick. Nevertheless, there is one. But you would never never guess what it is.
The dancing cobra is stone deaf. He does not hear a single note of the fluty music. Though he has no sense of hearing, the cobra has good eyesight. It is important for him to notice whatever moves in his field of vision, for a living, moving creature might be an enemy or a victim.
So he watches and watches every movement, just to keep in touch with what 90es on in the world around him. The snake charmer usually squats on the ground where the snake can see him. It seems natural for him to ,jog gently back and forth as he plays his tune and we do not notice this movement. But, the snake does.
His snaky eyes follow every movement, and he moves his snaky body back and forth to keep the moving object in sight. This motion gives the impression that he is dancing to the music.
In the distant past, snakes may have had hearing organs like those of their lizard ancestors. But they have long since been sealed and useless inside their bony heads. All snakes are deaf, because there is no way for air to reach what remains of their ears. And the flute music and other sounds travel to normal hearing organs through and by means of the air.
Scene sounds travel through solid objects by vibrations. If you bang a drum, you can feel the throbbing pulses of sound on the drum head. It is most likely that the snake is able to feel such vibrations with his body. As he slithers along, his aaedry body may be picking up the vibrations of footsteps. But he cannot hear a thing with his ears.
Most snakes spend their time on the ground crawling along through stones, sand and tangled grasses. This is hard on a snake's eyes. But his glassy eyes are always open, and he never blinks or so it seems. Actually, his eyes are always shut. For his eyelids are sealed window panes of transparent skin. Behind them, the snaky eyes move back and forth.