Amazing flying kite

In nature, there is much that is amazing. Shaggy crab Kiwa hirsuta, capybara - rodent weighing 50 kg, elegant pink flamingo, Komod dragon - 150 kg lizard, cubomeduza - one of the most deadly creatures on the planet, and many others. Also unusual is the flying snake. The article will tell you about it in detail.

What is this miracle

In South and South-East Asia, as well as on the islands of the Malay Archipelago (by the way, the largest in the world) there live amazing decorated tree snakes. This is a scientific name. In everyday life, Asian animals are called simply - a flying snake.

In fact, it is a harmless, non-toxic, belonging to the genus Chrysopelea. In total this genus consists of 5 species:

• Ordinary, or golden decorated snake (chrysopelea ornata);
• A paradise decorated with a snake (chrysopelea paradisi);
• Purple-black (chrysopelea pelias);
• Molucca (chrysopelea rhodopleuron);
• Endemic of the island of Sri Lanka, the least studied to date (chrysopelea taprobanica).

They like moist rainforests, often find themselves near a person's home.

Description

All these snakes (more precisely, the snakes) are very long - up to 1.5 meters, live in the crowns of trees, painted very beautifully. Patterns help them to disguise themselves in the foliage. Particularly colorful outfit in the paradise tree snake (pictured below).

Narrow and long scales tightly fit a flexible body, climb and keep well on the branches of reptiles with special shields on the abdomen and tail. The head of the flying snake is flattened from above, clearly separated from the trunk, on the sides are large round eyes.

Representatives of the genus lead a daily life. They feed on small rodents, lizards, frogs. The flying snake likes to feast on birds and bats.

All these reptiles are oviparous. The female lays up to 10 eggs, of which after 3 months snakes hatch up to 12-18 cm long.

Among themselves, the species differ only in size (the longest chrysopelea ornata, it is also the most volatile) and color.

Wingless flight

The most amazing thing is that representatives of the genus Chrysopelea can fly! The flying snake makes flights up to 100 meters at a speed of 8 m / s, and is able not only to plan through the air from the upper branch to the lower one, but to change in flight direction and even to fly up like birds.

Before the jump, it compresses into a spiral spring, holding only the tail with the tail, then sharply repels from the support and straightens out, planning in the right direction. In flight, her body becomes flat, the belly retracts almost completely. In addition, the flying snake can jump from branch to branch, making a series of short jumps, like a squirrel.

Recently, the American biologist Jake Socha (University of Chicago) after long follow-up still managed to capture the amazing flight of a paradise snake.

Study

While the decorated wood snakes have been little studied, little is known about the rare species of chrysopelea taprobanica. The above Jake Socha for 8 years of watching these exotic horrors has accumulated a lot of information about their habits and preferences.

A team from the University of George Washington (United States), under the guidance of Professor Lorena Barba, is using the latest technology to model the aerodynamic properties of these flying reptiles. Scientists plan in the near future to create robots that can fly on the principle of these snakes.