Why can snakes climb trees without slipping?

Snakes are reptiles with deadly beauty and always attract the attention of scientists around the world.

Snakes can move on a variety of terrains, from crawling under the ground, swimming underwater to wrapping themselves on tall branches or even vertical walls. However, if a snake does not use its legs to cling, then why can it crawl on a tree trunk without slipping? Recently, researchers at the University of Cincinnati and Siena College have discovered the aforementioned mystery.

Snakes can move on many different terrains

Compared to moving on flat ground, climbing on vertical surfaces or tree trunks is a fairly difficult action for animals. The key to doing this is to find a way to prevent the body from slipping due to gravity. And every different animal has found its own way to solve this problem.

Typically some mammals have used claws to cling to tree trunks. Lizards or frogs, on the other hand, have chosen to use a special padding on their feet with countless small hairs to create a Van der Waals force to stick to the trunk. And snakes also choose a particular way to be able to cling and move easily on difficult surfaces.

Accordingly, snakes used friction to be able to crawl on steep or upright surfaces . But snakes cannot cling in the same way that insects, frogs or lizards do, using body movement to create grip . More specifically, they continually stretch their bodies in a movement called concertina movement (named after the harp, accordeon, an instrument that uses the method of inflatable from a folding box, blowing air through control valves control by pressing the keys to the metal blades to make music).

Therefore, snakes can only crawl on the surface of the study and have many attachment points like the trunk, where can be wrapped around and form hooks with the body to cling to. In case of climbing vertical walls, the surface must be rough or have small grooves for support like brick walls, etc.Then solid body muscles such as the abdomen, back and sides are mobilized. to create the force to help the snake cling to.

A solid body part will remain fixed while the other part of the body will be stretched forward

Greg Byrnes, a biologist at Siena College in New York, said: "Basically a solid body part will be held still while the rest of the body will stretch forward. This is similar to playing an accordion. Until now, it is not known how much force is used by the muscles to perform concertina movements when climbing on steep surfaces. "

To further investigate this issue, Byrnes worked with his colleague Bruce Jayne at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio. Two researchers have built a cylindrical column placed vertically, on the surface there are engraved a number of interchangeable vein to create and adjust the required friction. At the same time, the surface is also equipped with pressure sensor strips for measurement work in the experiment.

Next, the researchers crawled 10 snakes of five different species crawling on the aforementioned vertical pillar and measured the magnitude of the pressure acting on the cylinder. Each snake will be climbed for 10 times and the measurement results will be recorded. After each snake crawls on the pole, the friction on the body of the cylinder is reduced until the snake is no longer able to attach to it. Finally, the team calculated to determine the minimum force needed, which would be enough to prevent the snake's body from slipping while climbing and name the force "a safety factor".

Snakes always use more force than necessary to ensure safety

During the calculation, the team combined the magnitude of the force with the angle to determine the "friction coefficient" between the solid and the surface. This coefficient allows the calculation of how much force is required to support its body. At the same time, the team also investigated the magnitude of the downward force and the reaction force back on the snake body during crawling on the pole. Initially, the team thought that snakes are the type of animals that always use the most appropriate muscular force and the force used to keep the body from slipping while climbing is similar to when tightening a prey. However, the calculation results are different from the original thought.

Using more force than necessary will help snakes always ensure that they will be safer when climbing climbing on high

In some cases, the "safety factor" magnitude is almost equal to 1, which corresponds to using the least possible force to hold onto the pole and not slip. Meanwhile, in other cases, the magnitude of the force is up to 20, close to the force of the prey and 20 times higher than the force needed to prevent slipping. Sometimes, snakes also use force of 2.5 to 5 times the minimum force. So why the force distribution is not heterogeneous and there is such a big difference? What is the use of greater force?

The researchers think that using more force than necessary will help the snakes to make sure they are safer when climbing high. In fact, putting safety first is also common in the animal world. Instead of choosing the most economical way to perform behaviors, animals tend to always ensure their own safety more.

• Typically, lizards or some other reptiles always use force 10 times greater than the minimum body holding force to keep the body from slipping. Even people always use force of magnitude 2 to 4 times more to grip when climbing with ropes or on cliffs. The problem is similar to when chased by predators, creatures will always run at full speed, this is the speed that only when falling in dangerous situations will have an opportunity to break out.
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