Look how two different pictures can either introduce this Paradise Tree Snake to you as an elegant tiny snake with such an innocent look, or it shows a never-getting-enough monitor-lizard-slurper! The baby lizard was too big, later it dropped and the elegant tiny snake left innocently. But she left us very impressed that she was able to catch such a big lizard in the first place. The lizard looked ok but didn’t move – hopefully he recovered from the weak poison.
The first picture was taken close to a busy visitor center, and this snake was very busy too. She was after a gecko in that wall and didn’t care about all the people taking pictures. So lizards are for sure on their diet.
What this genus of snakes is famous for: They are able to jump and glide from one tree to another! There are no legs and no wings, so how the heck is this possible? Not sure about the jumping part, but for the aerodynamics, these guys did their homework. So HOW is this possible? Daniel Holden, John J. Socha, Nicholas D. Cardwell and Pavlos P. Vlachos had a look. My non-aeronautical summary is, they draw the belly in, flare the rips, and just go for it – we all come down eventually. Just to make sure, we’re talking about gliding a bit while falling, snakes cannot fly. Not yet.
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