Photos show how a tree snake makes its body into a lasso to climb and hunt prey
Photos show how a tree snake makes its body into a lasso to climb and hunt prey
Aylin WoodwardJan 15, 2021, 00:47 IST
A brown tree snake in a tree in Guam.Bjorn Lardner
A new study shows a species of tree snake uses an unprecedented form of locomotion in order to climb objects like trees.
The brown tree snake loops its body into a lasso around wide, cylindrical objects in order to ascend them.
This lasso technique likely helps the snake scale wider trees and hunt birds nesting in the canopy.
Bjorn Lardner
A new study shows a species of tree snake uses an unprecedented form of locomotion in order to climb objects like trees.
The brown tree snake loops its body into a lasso around wide, cylindrical objects in order to ascend them.
This lasso technique likely helps the snake scale wider trees and hunt birds nesting in the canopy.
The brown tree snake loves to snack on birds.
One of the world s most prolific invasive species, this tropical predator decimated bird populations on Guam over the last 70 years.
Now scientists may have figured out how.
According to a new study published in the journal Current Biology, brown tree snakes can climb an object like a tree trunk by wrapping their bodies around it in a lasso shape and shimmying upward.
Smart new snakey moves
Brown tree snakes (
Boiga irregularis) appear to have evolved a whole new way of moving that could help explain how they have decimated bird populations in the Mariana Island of Guam, according to a new paper published in the journal
Current Biology.
They use a lasso-like motion to propel themselves up smooth vertical cylinders, which the researchers say is distinctively different to the other four known forms of snake locomotion: rectilinear, lateral undulation (or serpentine), sidewinding and concertina.
The nocturnal snakes, which are part of the colubrid family (Colubridae), are native to north-eastern Australia and other humid tropical areas such as Papua New Guinea. They were accidently introduced to Guam, about 2000 kilometres north of PNG, around mid last century, probably as stowaway on a cargo vessel or aircraft.