A new technique has been added to the snake movement record, which has not undergone any changes since 1930. It turns out that in climbing trees, the Boiga irregularis forms a ring in its body around the surface to be reached.

In the report published in the French newspaper Le Monde, writer Nathaniel Herzberg said that an American team had just received joyful news that had already contributed, in an amazing and accidental way, to enriching the record of snake movement patterns, which have not changed since 1930.

The new findings indicated that to climb trees and pounce on bird nests, the brown tree snake used a hitherto unknown technique called "the lasso", as its discovery was announced on Monday, January 11th, in the journal Current Biology.

The author stated that when the expert in herpetology in the eighties, Julie Savage, began to present a thesis about the disappearance of native birds on the island of Guam, she found that this massive snake was the main culprit, which was introduced to the American island in the Pacific Ocean between the end of the 1940's and early 1950's. .

Movement speed

Since then, the pressure of this predator has increased steadily.

It should be noted that only two species of birds remain, which consider the island's forests in Guam their original habitat.

And while trying to protect one of these birds, this discovery appeared.

Savage and co-workers Thomas Seibert and Bruce Jayne installed bird shelters on top of thick metal spikes, an ancient technology used for protection.

And to monitor the night predator, they added cameras.

"We were looking at the pictures for 4 hours when we suddenly saw a snake forming a kind of ring in the form of a lemonade, spinning around like a cylinder in its body and writhing during the climb," Seibert said. "We saw it 15 times in a row, amazed. It was not a familiar thing."

The writer explained that snakes actually use 4 methods of movement, which is the thread method where the skin is the one that moves, the wavy method which is the most famous, the drop method where the animal swaying from right to left while moving forward, and the accordion method that is adopted in particular for climbing trees .

This last method involves surrounding the surface with the front and back of the body, and then the animal advances upward by narrowing and expanding the rings it creates.

Installation lock

Researchers have just mastered their knowledge of the four steps depending on species, environment, and goals.

Bruce Jayne admits that not all of the 3,500 listed snake species are known.

Others may use the same method.

"The brown tree snake is particularly adept at raising its body level anywhere, as it can pierce holes in the canopy and go vertically up to two-thirds of its height," says Julie Savage.

The writer pointed out that Savage and her colleagues proceeded to describe a technique that allows the animal to climb very thick blocks, specifically this ring that serves as a real lock for fixing the lower part of the body around the prop to be climbed.

Jolly Savage intends to design new shelters that can protect Guam birds from these snakes.