Strange: Snake-footed snakes climb super-hard to believe

A new study found that some snakes do not seem like other cats capable of climbing trees very skillfully. While one thing is easy to see that snakes are originally species with no legs or claws, how do they climb trees so well?

Climbing is not only an easy task for snakes but also for other animals. As compared to moving on a flat area horizontally, climbing will require how the animal wins the gravity so that it does not fall to the ground. To solve this, each animal will have its own tricks.

Snakes climb super trees like cats or newspapers.

For example, many mammals like cats and newspapers use their claws to cling to trees. And some lizards and tree frogs have pads in the bottom of the feet that contain tiny hairs that create electrostatic force that sucks up the climbing surface molecules. Meanwhile humans and many other animals lack such mechanisms of adaptation and often climb trees by using muscle forces.

For snakes, though without legs, the latest research by a group of scientists in the United States found that snakes also climbed well using the body's compression force to cling to trees as well as surfaces. The face makes it climb. So far no one has calculated how much the snake will have to spend on average to climb the tree.

To calculate specifically, biologist Greg Byrnes of Siena College in New York and colleague Bruce Jayne of Ohio Veterinary University tested 10 snakes of 5 species: python, brown snake, ponderous, python trees and a smaller python. These animals are allowed to climb a straight pillar, each performed 10 times.

Corn snakes use large scales to cling to trees.

Byrnes and Jayne calculated the amount of clamping force needed to prevent snakes from falling to the ground when climbing. Accordingly, the average snake uses force when climbing at a rate of 2.5 to 5 times normal.'They use such a force not the maximum nor the minimum' , Byrnes.

However, there is a mystery in that the research team still cannot answer. That's why snakes have to spend far more force on the force needed to climb trees like that. It is known that in addition to using force to climb, some snakes, especially pythons also use physical force to squeeze their prey before eating.

Previously, a study in corn snakes found that this snake also uses its scales to create better compression and grip when climbing trees. But not all snakes have such scales.