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Biologist Bruce Jayne and researchers at Colorado State University call the previously unknown method lasso locomotion because of the lasso-like way brown tree snakes can wrap their bodies around objects like poles and trees to climb. It is a really bizarre way of moving that allows snakes to climb really big cylindrical surfaces, Jayne says with a slight laugh. The find is particularly exciting since Jayne says these snakes have been widely studied for years and yet this new way of climbing hadn t been observed until now.
The study is published in the journal
Why This Is Important
The climbing behavior was observed in brown tree snakes in Guam. This species of snake is native to Australia and Indonesia, and is considered a highly invasive species in Guam. It s believed to have been introduced to the island in the late 1940s or early 1950s, likely on shipping vessels traveling around at the end of or just after World War II, Jayne says.
Photos show how a tree snake makes its body into a lasso to climb and hunt prey
Photos show how a tree snake makes its body into a lasso to climb and hunt prey
Aylin WoodwardJan 15, 2021, 00:47 IST
A brown tree snake in a tree in Guam.Bjorn Lardner
A new study shows a species of tree snake uses an unprecedented form of locomotion in order to climb objects like trees.
The brown tree snake loops its body into a lasso around wide, cylindrical objects in order to ascend them.
This lasso technique likely helps the snake scale wider trees and hunt birds nesting in the canopy.
Bjorn Lardner
A new study shows a species of tree snake uses an unprecedented form of locomotion in order to climb objects like trees.
The brown tree snake loops its body into a lasso around wide, cylindrical objects in order to ascend them.
This lasso technique likely helps the snake scale wider trees and hunt birds nesting in the canopy.
The brown tree snake loves to snack on birds.
One of the world s most prolific invasive species, this tropical predator decimated bird populations on Guam over the last 70 years.
Now scientists may have figured out how.
According to a new study published in the journal Current Biology, brown tree snakes can climb an object like a tree trunk by wrapping their bodies around it in a lasso shape and shimmying upward.