Every so often we as Infrared Thermographers are asked certain questions that make us think a little harder and say to ourselves "Now that's something to really think about."
I was asked one such question from one of our power generation client's.
You see in the Caribbean regions as well as any tropical area, the local power generation and distribution companies have a constant problem with critters especially snakes climbing transmission towers and poles, causing frequent circuit trips.
I was asked by Mr. Ashton Harrilal an E&I supervisor for a Power Generation company within Trinidad (PowerGen Ltd.) the following question:
"Can you think of anything that may encourage snakes to go up on electrical structures? What about this....
Some time ago I saw a documentary on snakes and how they feed..... Snakes target their warm blooded prey by thier body temperature (i.e. birds, rats, etc...) so their eyes are like an infrared camera.
Could it be then....... if there is a Hot Spot on an electrical structure say a switchyard, a pole or whatever... a snake may see this as if it is seeing a prey sitting there and attempt to go for a meal. Most times the snake gets electrocuted and curcuits trip.
What do you think??? Is it possible that Hot Spots on electrical connections cause snakes to put us in a Hot Spot?"
After Mr. Harrilal asked me this intriguing question, I decided to do some research on this topic and what I found was quite an eye opener.
First I did some research on how snakes hunt their prey and which snakes use Infrared (Heat) as a means of targeting it's prey and this is what I found:
Most of us know that a snake smells with its tongue. The tongue is foked so that it fits into two pockets in the mouth called the Jacobson's organ which is the taste-smell organ. When the tongue is outside the mouth it picks up molecules which go into the sensitive organ when the forked tongue is reinserted into its pockets. It does, however, have nostrils which function well. But it is the tongue that provides the best taste and smell.
Snakes that hunt "Warmblooded" prey at night have special organs that detect heat. The pit viper is one such snake that has the heat organ. It is located between the eye and the nostril on each side of the head. There are other snakes such as the boas, pythons and anacondas that have the heat sensing organ but they are located on the lips and jaws.
So Now we know that snakes are capable of hunting via Infrared (heat). But what about Hot Spots on electrical structures?
Based from our past Infrared Inspection Reports it was confirmed that Hot Spots were present during visits from snakes. But more data needs to be collected to confirm this theory.
