Flying Snake.
Birds can fly, bugs can fly, snakes can fly…. Wait what? Snakes can fly? Seriously dude? Yeap snakes can fly. Not all of them but few can fly. Can you believe it? This snake commonly known as flying snake or gliding snake but its real name is Chrysopelea. They are mildly venomous snakes. Flying snakes can be found in Asian countries such as Colombia, Vietnam, Philippines, China, India, Laos, Sri Lanka Etc.
How Does It Fly?
This flying snake climbs using ridge scales along its belly, pushing against rough bark surface of tree trunks, allowing it to move vertically up a tree. Upon reaching the end of a branch, the snake continues moving until its tail dangles from the end of the branch. It then makes a J-shape bend, leans forward to select the level of inclination it wishes to use to control its glide path, as well as selecting a desired landing area. Once it decides on a destination, it propels itself by thrusting its body up and away from the tree, sucking in its abdomen and flaring out its ribs to turn its body into a “pseudo concave wing”, all the while making a motion keep body parallel to the ground to stabilize its direction in midair in order to land safely.
The combination of forming a C-shape, flattening its abdomen and making a motion of lateral undulation in the air makes it possible for the snake to glide in the air, where it also manages to save energy compared to travel on the ground and dodge earth-bound predators.
Simply they fly from gliding. And they are really beautiful snake type with a colorful body.
Photos from Wikimedia.org
