The secret of flying snakes

The movements that snakes make during the flight process are much more complex than what we imagine.

Explain the strange ability of flying snakes

A flying snake in Jake Socha's experiment.(Photo: University of Virginia).

For other reptiles, jumping from a height of tens of meters is like suicide, because at least they have broken bones. However, Chrysopelea paradisi , the name of a snake family living on trees from Southeast Asia to South Asia, is an exception. They can fly from tree to tree with a minimum distance of 24 m.

Nobody knows exactly why those animals can fly without wings. But a recent study has revealed the secret of their flight ability.

' For all flying animals, you need to know the following basic information: flying speed, body shape and wing shape ,' Jake Socha, biologist at the University of Virginia in the US, told Livescience.

Socha studies the flight behavior of snakes for many years. His previous studies demonstrated that when flying the head of a snake does not seem to move, the snake's body is flattened to the maximum, while curving like it crawls on the ground. The speed of the snake is quite fast, ranging from 8 to 10 m per second.

To find out how the solid body changes during flight, Socha and his colleagues filmed snakes as they flew from a 15-meter-high tower to the ground. The team painted white spots on the solid body to determine the position of the snake in the air at any time.

'The snakes are happy to have the opportunity to perform in front of the camera ,' Socha said.

Video flying snake

Experts then use videos to model and analyze the forces that affect the solid body during flight. They found that their bodies did not lie horizontally but tilted about 25 degrees against the air flow. The front half of the solid body hardly moved but still curled to the sides. Meanwhile, the tail moves up and down.

Surprisingly, even though the snakes flew to the ground, the total foreign forces acting on their bodies had an upward direction.

' People have always meant the act of snakes is a simple process, like paper planes, but it turns out it's not so, ' said Greg Byrnes, a University of Cincinnati researcher in the US. , stated.

The new discovery could lead to many applications in making small and flexible flying vehicles, Socha said.