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RE: Coordinated Hunting Among Snakes
Yes, that seems to be the case. I've seen a video about a certain kind of snakes, who gather at a paticular time and place. At this place monitor lizards lay their eggs in the sand. When the baby monitors hatch and come out of the ground, they try to sprint into the forest. The snakes systematically ambush them on their run. There is no doubt that the snakes know in advance that the monitors will hatch, and how they can catch them.
Yup! That video was one of the big features of the new Planet Earth series. It's still unclear whether that was cooperative hunting on the part of the snakes or just a bunch of individuals hunting the same prey in the same vicinity. But I believe they are looking into it more to figure out what was going on. Was it a snake free for all, or a coordinated effort? (I posted the video below for anyone who hasn't seen it!)
It didn't look like it was a coordinated hunt. They just all wait, and whoever can catch a monitor eats it.
But at least it shows, that the snakes have a certain knowledge about things that will happen in their local area. That means they have a concept of time, and knowledge about a particular place. Which raises the question how they learn this. They are not following their parents as youngsters and learn from them, like some animals do. So why do they go to this monitor nesting colony, at just the right time of the year? Very fascinating
True, from the video, it looks disorganized and very self serving; after all, the iguana can only be eaten by one snake. However observers did notice that the prey was often guided towards the rocks where there were more snakes, fewer areas to hide and a slimmer chance of escape. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but it is possible there is some strategy at play there.
You're right, reptiles are bizarrely good at anticipating events this like this. There is an island in the middle of the ocean when dozens of crocs gather to feed on sea turtles as they hatch. Interestingly, they all show up at once the day before the eggs hatch and leave immediately after. How they learned to come to the island and how they time their arrival so perfectly is still largely unknown.
At the very least it shows, that reptiles are "smarter" than we believed so far.
That seems to be kind of a trend with many animals, the more we learn about their behaviour. The biggest question for me is: how do they know these things?
I mean, with other animals its not so hard to explain, like elephants, wolves and lots of other mammals, who grow up with their parents and learn from them. But reptiles are usually not very social, and make their start into life on their own. There is still a lot to discover about that.