Video: See snakes fly

Virginia Tech researchers are learning how the reptiles are able to glide so gracefully to the ground

Written byJef Akst

| 2 min read

Many of the arboreal snakes of Asia are renowned for their ability to glide impressive distances from high tree branches of the jungle. But how do they do it?

The flying snake Chrysopelea paradise
Image: Copyright Jake Socha

New video footage provides some of the answers: Biomechanist linkurl:Jake Socha;http://www.esm.vt.edu/%7Ejjsocha/socha_lab/Welcome.html of Virginia Tech and his colleagues launched one such species of "flying'' snakes, Chrysopelea paradise, from a 15-meter tall tower, then videotaped and analyzed the snakes' exact body positions throughout their flights. They also developed a gliding model to further explore the physical forces at play during the snakes' flights.The snakes are known to flatten their bodies to aid the descent, and Socha's new results have finally revealed exactly how the snake is positioned during its flight -- the head is angled up and the rest of the body is angled back and down, relative to the glide path, Socha explained. "We can now take that information and start making good precise physical and computational models to study the animal's aerodynamics," he told The Scientist."Our work contributes to this basic understanding of this really unusual way of gliding flight," Socha said. "There's nothing else that does anything close to this -- in the engineering world or the biological world."

Socha presented his research at the Fluid Dynamics Meeting in Long Beach, Calif., yesterday and today (November 24) published a paper in a special edition of linkurl:Bioinspiration & Biomimetics.;http://iopscience.iop.org/1748-3190/5/4 The issue, entitled Bioinspired Flight, includes eight other studies of flying or gliding organisms, including geckoes, seagulls, insects and floating maple seeds, with the aim of improving the design of man-made air vehicles."Maybe you could borrow some principles from the snake and make a better small flyer," Socha suggested.
**__Related stories:__***linkurl:Snakes trick prey for easy meal;http://www.the-scientist.com/blog/display/55802/
[26th June 2009]*linkurl:Extreme mammals;http://www.the-scientist.com/news/display/55694/
15th May 2009

Meet the Author

Jef Akst

Jef (an unusual nickname for Jennifer) got her master’s degree from Indiana University in April 2009 studying the mating behavior of seahorses. After four years of diving off the Gulf Coast of Tampa and performing behavioral experiments at the Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga, she left research to pursue a career in science writing. As The Scientist's managing editor, Jef edited features and oversaw the production of the TS Digest and quarterly print magazine. In 2022, her feature on uterus transplantation earned first place in the trade category of the Awards for Excellence in Health Care Journalism. She is a member of the National Association of Science Writers.

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