Description of the antipredatory head-wobble behaviour in Chilean rear-fanged snakes Tachymenis peruviana Wiegmann, 1835 and Tachymenis chilensis coronellina Werner, 1898 (Serpentes: Dipsadidae)

Several aspects of the antipredatory behaviour of the South American rear-fanged snakes Tachymenis peruviana and T. chilensis coronellina remain still uncertain. In this work, we describe the first records of head-wobble behaviour for T. peruviana and T. ch. coronellina, obtained during fieldwork at Quebrada Ramucho, Tarapacá Region, (3890 m elevation) and El Panul, Coquimbo Region (94 m elevation), Chile, respectively. Moreover, we analyse head-wobble (occurrence, frequency) and other accompanying displays (number of tongue flicks, and total time (s) that they rest, displaced, and moved head backward). T. ch. coronellina specimen exhibited head-wobble with more frequency than T. peruviana, and in both records, we observed wind activity during this antipredatory behaviour.