Coming to Our Animal Senses
Big Picture Science
00:00
The Body Heat of a Rattlesnake
The body heat of a mouse is going to emit infrared radiation, which hits a membrane at the back of the rattlesnakes pit. That membrane absorbs that radiation and then transforms it into an electrical signal which goes towards the snake's brain. So there is a question among people who study these animals about what the snake is actually experiencing. Is infrared essentially like another color to the snake? Is it seeing the body heat of the prey that it's stalking? We don't really know.
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