Can l assume his usual exhibit is on the small side and indoors and his behaviour is slow and infrequent.
Whenever at a zoo l always visit the reptile house and always think how small and lacking enrichment te exhibits are. I am frequently also told by keepers that reptiles are content with food and shelter, l am not convinced.
I know it's actually technically impossible to say but! Did this snake enjoy being outdoors?
This is a very difficult subject, but interesting, reptiles are hard to read.
There could be many reasons to it looking "happy" to be outdoors. There is a whole new world of new smells, other animals, people, flowers, and all the other smells that are present outside. Snakes, and other reptiles, are curious animals, so all the new smells would definitely make them move about and exploring whats new. Heck for all I know the new smells could frighten the snake and make it move nervously about, though I doubt it as it responds the same as normal to handling and such.
Other things could be the sun, although many reptiles have powerful UVB-lights in their terrarium, nothing beats the sun! Or there could be a whole other level of stuff the snake reacts to that we don't recognize.
A snake dropped into a new environment, whether it is outside or a new terrarium, will always move about and explore a while before settling down, so it could be as easy as that. Also it varies from species to species, also individuals, some are more active and curious, while others are more laid back. Though I have not seen a lot of outdoors snake exhibits, I have seen a lot of indoors and some snakes are very much active, if snakes overall are more active in outdoors exhibits I do not know.
EDIT: Also there is some difference in snakes moving about in their terrarium and them moving about outdoors or in a new terrarium, in the new environment they will flick their tongue like crazy while moving around, so it is somewhat obvious that they are more exploring than just moving around.
