Here's how flying snakes stay aloft

Certain species of tree snakes can glide through the air, undulating their bodies as they soar from tree to tree. That wriggling isn’t an attempt to replicate how the reptiles slither across land or swim through water.

The contortions are essential for stable gliding, mechanical engineer Isaac Yeaton and colleagues report June 29 in Nature Physics.

Physicists had previously discovered that the tree snakes flatten their bodies as they leap, generating lift. The new experiment reveals that the snakes also exert a complex combination of movements as they soar.

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Credit: Jake Socha

Paradise tree snakes undulate their bodies as they glide through the sky to keep from tumbling, scientists report.

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Gliding snakes undulate their bodies both side to side and up and down, the researchers found, and move their tails above and below the level of their heads.