There are many amazing things in nature. Shaggy crab Kiwa hirsuta, capybara - a rodent weighing 50 kg, graceful pink flamingo, Komodo dragon - 150 kg lizard, box jellyfish - one of the deadliest creatures on the planet, and many others. Also unusual is the flying snake. The article will talk about it in detail.
What is this miracle
In South and Southeast Asia, as well as on the islands of the Malay Archipelago (by the way, the largest in the world), amazing decorated tree snakes live. This is the scientific name. In everyday life, Asians simply call the animal - a flying snake.
This is actually a harmless, non-poisonous snake belonging to the genus Chrysopelea. In total, this genus has 5 species:
- common or golden decorated snake (chrysopelea ornata);
- decorated snake of paradise (chrysopelea paradisi);
- purple black (chrysopelea pelias);
- Moluccan (chrysopelea rhodopleuron);
- endemic to the island of Sri Lanka, the least studied to date (chrysopelea taprobanica).
They love wet tropicalforests often end up near human dwellings.
Description
All these snakes (more precisely, snakes) are very long - up to 1.5 meters, live in the crowns of trees, painted very beautifully. The patterns help them to camouflage themselves in the foliage. The paradise tree snake (pictured below) has a particularly colorful outfit.
Narrow and long scales tightly fit the flexible body, special shields on the abdomen and tail help the reptile to climb and keep well on the branches. The head of a flying snake is flattened from above, clearly separated from the body, large round eyes are located on the sides.
Representatives of the genus are diurnal. They feed on small rodents, lizards, and frogs. The flying snake loves to eat birds and bats.
All these reptiles are oviparous. The female lays up to 10 eggs, from which snakes up to 12-18 cm long hatch after 3 months.
The species differ only in size (the longest chrysopelea ornata, it is also the most volatile) and color.
Wingless flight
The most amazing thing is that representatives of the genus Chrysopelea can fly! A flying snake makes flights over a distance of up to 100 meters at a speed of 8 m / s, and is capable of not only gliding through the air from the upper branch to the lower one, but changing direction in flight and even soaring upwards, like birds.
Before the jump, it contracts into a spiral spring, holding onto a branch only with its tail, then sharply repels from the support and straightens, planning in the right direction.direction. In flight, her body becomes flat, the belly is retracted almost completely. In addition, a flying snake can jump from branch to branch, making a series of short jumps, like a squirrel.
Recently, American biologist Jake Socha (University of Chicago) managed to capture the amazing flight of a paradise snake after a lot of searching.
Study
While decorated tree snakes are little studied, almost nothing is known about the rare species chrysopelea taprobanica. Jake Socha, mentioned above, has accumulated a lot of information about their habits and preferences over 8 years of observing these exotic snakes.
A team from George Washington University (United States), led by Professor Lorena Barb, is using the latest technology to simulate the aerodynamic properties of these flying reptiles. Scientists plan to create robots in the near future that will be able to fly on the principle of these snakes.
