I just crawled to say I love you: Snake attacks may be act of courtship
Attacks by highly venomous olive sea snakes on scuba divers may in fact be misdirected courtship, researchers in far north Queensland say.
A report into frequently unprovoked attacks by sea snakes from the mid 1990ās shows male snakes charged at divers immediately after an unsuccessful chase of a female, or an interaction with a male rival.
Through the analysis of data collected between 1994 and 1995 researchers found just under half of encounters involved the snake approaching divers on the Great Barrier Reef.
Previous research has suggested sea snakes find it difficult to identify shapes in water.
āThey will tongue flick them, which is a snakeās way of smelling stuff, they will sometimes coil around their arms or legs, which is what they do when theyāre trying to mate,ā Dr Ross Alford from James Cook University told AAP.
āCharges by females occurred after they were chased by males or lost sight of, and then re-approached, the diver.
āWe donāt think theyāre attacks, although theyāre often recorded as attacks because if a snake swims quickly and starts looking like itās getting its head very close to you, lots of people will just get terribly worried about that.
āAnd of course, if you think youāre being attacked, then youāre likely to do things that will make things worse like trying to get the snake or try and swim away from the snake.ā
Alford added that during the study, thirteen encounters involved sea snakes rapidly charging at the diver.
But while they are highly venomous, he said olive sea snake encounters are very unlikely and anti-venom is prevalent at hospitals in the region.
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The snakes mate during Australiaās winter months between May and August, which is when most encounters are recorded.
And while the snakes are big and noticeable on the reef, Dr Alford says theyāre usually found foraging for food.
āThe males are a lot more conspicuous because when theyāre on the reef theyāre swimming around looking for females. And when they are away from the reef, you donāt see them because theyāre out the ocean foraging somewhere.
āThey eat pretty much anything they can catch; sea snails, fish and shrimp.ā
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