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Science

Howto - Flying Snakes 230

Posted by Zonk from the weeee! dept.
Ant writes "Wired News' Furthermore mentions a University of Chicago researcher finally figured out exactly how the limbless reptiles pull off their amazingly effective bird imitations. 'Despite their lack of winglike appendages, flying snakes are skilled aerial locomotors,' said biologist Jake Socha. Here's how: First, they flatten their bodies from head to tail, making themselves 'Frisbee-like in form,' Socha said. Then, as the snake drops (or leaps!) from a tree branch, it sends S-shaped waves through its body, steadying itself as it glides through the air. One species can even turn mid-flight. There is more information, photographs, and even short QuickTime video clips on Jake's Flying Snakes Home Page."
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Howto - Flying Snakes More

Howto - Flying Snakes

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  • "Flying" snakes (Score:5, Funny)

    by TripMaster Monkey ( 862126 ) * on Saturday May 14, 2005 @10:34PM (#12533161)


    "That's not flying...that's...falling with style."

    - Sherrif Woody

  • Mirror (Score:5, Informative)

    by daveschroeder ( 516195 ) * on Saturday May 14, 2005 @10:34PM (#12533164)
    Mirror [wisc.edu] of the flying snake "takeoff" and "gliding" videos.

    (The author has also stated "You may use this video footage for non-publishing purposes without permission" on his web page. Not sure how much load it can handle, so I figured I'd mirror it. The author's page has more information and commentary; these are just the raw videos. They're very small, so there's a good chance his server could have handled it just fine.)

    • Re:Mirror (Score:3, Funny)

      by Cruciform ( 42896 )
      Cool, I thought I wouldn't get a chance to see them for a few days.

      I'd never even heard of these guys, and I've got corn snakes, and various species of boas and pythons in my basement.

      Now I just need a nice big arboretum to stick some of these little guys in.

      And a lab so I can put that DNA in a some venomous species. Better than sharks with frickin' laser beams!

      • Cheers! I've seen quite a bit of snake fear here in this post, which always dismays me as the owner of a ball python, a coastal carpet python, and a Colombian red tail boa constrictor. Not only are many of the commonly sold non-venomous snakes beautiful and fun to look at, but they make easy-to-care-for and amusing pets (says the guy who is currently sporting a young boa for a hat and has a tail in his eyes). After having had snakes, I can safely say that they've far surpassed cats as my pet of choice: I on
        • surpassed cats as my pet of choice: I only need to feed my snakes one a week
          !!!

          That's, like, 52 cats a year... The folks from PETA, Greenpeace, and the SPCA must have files a foot thick with your name on them!
    • I checked out the videos. Those snakes look like a lot of fun. I don't know if dropping them out of windows is as much fun as it is with cats, but it does look like fun.

      *thoughtful pause*

      You know, has anybody come up with a remote-control steerable airfoil that can be worn by cats? It has to be something that they can't wriggle out of in a panic, as might be the case if they're released from the top of a fully-extended crane. I just happen to know a certain adventurous feline who loves flying.

      Now t

      • Remember, before dropping the cat out the window, tie a piece of buttered toast to the back of the cat, butter side up...

    • Re:Mirror (Score:2, Informative)

      by xie ( 722634 )
      Coral Cache .. http://flyingsnake.org.nyud.net:8090/ [nyud.net]
    • That's awesome! That snake really looks good, until this jump [wisc.edu]. Oops?

  • Thanks (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday May 14, 2005 @10:36PM (#12533173)
    for the link to quicktime. I've been looking all over for that...

  • I hated them before... (Score:5, Funny)

    by nettdata ( 88196 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @10:37PM (#12533180) Homepage
    OK... I hated snakes BEFORE they could fly.

    *shudder*

    • I hated them before...To Serve Man... (Score:2, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Just wait till you see the one's that can swallow a man whole.


      • Just wait till you see the one's that can swallow a man whole.

        You mean like these [lysator.liu.se]?

      • Re:I hated them before...To Serve Man... (Score:5, Funny)

        by nettdata ( 88196 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @11:00PM (#12533296) Homepage
        Just wait till you see the one's that can swallow a man whole.

        They aren't so bad, as they're usually big and relatively slow and easy to stay well clear of... unless you're stupid.

        My all-time "Darwin Award Nominee" is that Jim guy from the old Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.

        The old guy (Merlin?) is back at the studio, all nice and safe, and he describes the adventures of Jim, the guy in the field.

        I specifically remember the episode where Jim's in a small rowboat in some small water (pond or slow river) looking for Annacondas. Lucky them, they see the head of one in amongst some leaves/etc at the top of the water. The idiot proceeds to CLIMB INTO THE WATER to get the thing.

        Now, I'm betting that this snake turned out to be WAY bigger than Jim was thinking it was, as he started to get a little "nerveous" as the thing started to coil up around him. The snake looked about 30 feet long and a good 400 lbs.

        Before you know it, it's got a couple of big-ass loops around Jim and they're starting to roll around in the water, and Jim's starting to REALLY try and stay above water and get back in the boat, and all the while Merlin is giving the "old guy" running commentary like this is nothing new. "Look as Jim heroicly struggles to get the snake in the bag so we can take it ashore and analyze it a little closer."

        Jim was as crazy as Steve Erwin (Crikey!), but in a more reserved, 70's, quiet manner.

        • Cool... Google is your friend:

          http://www.museum.tv/archives/etv/W/htmlW/wildkin g dom/wildkingdom.htm [museum.tv]

          From the link:

          Unlike Zoo Parade, Wild Kingdom was shot on film almost entirely in the field, and featured encounters with wildlife in their natural habitat. Indeed, one of the program's signature features was the footage of Marlin Perkins, or his assistants Jim Fowler and later Stan Brock, pursuing and at times physically engaging with the wildlife-of-the-week, whether that meant mud-wrestling with all
        • >> Just wait till you see the one's that can swallow a man whole.
          >
          > They aren't so bad, as they're usually big and relatively slow and easy to stay well clear of... unless you're stupid.

          Wait...we're still talking about snakes, right, and not my ex-girlfriend?
        • I saw one episode where Marlin Perkins actually got out of a canoe to help with one big snake on what they thought was a sand bar. It turned out to be mud with the consistancy of quicksand. By the time they had the snake subdued and wrestled in a canoe, the camera boat crew had joined in to help, and Marlin was up to his chest in the mud. Never saw him in the field again after that; guess his insurance wouldn't cover it... ;)
        • but in a more reserved, 70's, quiet manner.

          You must have been born after the 70's if you apply terms such as "reserved" and "quiet" to its manner.
    • There is no question. We must kill all of these things now...this information could get out to other (more dangerous) snakes.
    • Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • ... about flying snakes (the one in small plane in the first movie [indianajones.com] doesn't count!). :)

  • The Snakes May Be Able To Fly (Score:3, Funny)

    by quantaman ( 517394 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @10:37PM (#12533181)
    But that server is going down like a stone...

  • "They do not fly, (Score:5, Funny)

    by Hawthorne01 ( 575586 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @10:38PM (#12533184)
    so much as plummet."

    -Monty Python

    (Ok, it was sheep. but after watching those videos, I think it fits.)
  • That's what I've been hearing on the Discovery etc as long as I remember...

  • macdot (Score:1, Redundant)

    by flood6 ( 852877 )
    Thank God for that Quicktime link!

  • Ooh, snake! A snake! (Score:5, Funny)

    by FlyByPC ( 841016 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @10:46PM (#12533221) Homepage
    Badgerbadgerbadgerbadger...
  • Birds have ultra-light bones, do these snakes too?

    hmm

    Tastes like chicken.

  • Flying shnakes? Baaah- (Score:4, Funny)

    by Ralph Spoilsport ( 673134 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @10:49PM (#12533242) Journal
    No big deal. Dogs flew space ships. They came from the Dog Star. Serious!

    RS

  • The hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy (Score:5, Funny)

    by isny ( 681711 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @10:49PM (#12533245) Homepage
    The secret to flying is throwing yourself at the ground and missing. Full quote [skygod.com]

  • Woah (Score:2, Funny)

    by pyite69 ( 463042 )
    Amazing how familiar this seems. Almost as if it had been on Slashdot yesterday.
    • that was fark, you.

  • Oblig: (Score:2)

    by Shky ( 703024 )
    "Snakes. Why did it have to be snakes?"

  • Man, I hope... (Score:3, Funny)

    by The Fanta Menace ( 607612 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @10:51PM (#12533253) Homepage

    ...that no-one ever decides to cross one of these things with a cobra...

  • I thought they had just mastered the art of throwing themselves at the ground, and missing.
  • ...but can I teach a Shark to do that? What about a sea-bass?

  • Damn! (Score:2, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I tought that this was supposed to be an howto. What am I to do with the snake and dead pigeons now?
  • We are on the brink of transhumanism. Stories can be neatly divided to those related to it, and those not. This is likely not very related. When we take our last breath and not die, it will be very clear which of our activities brought us closer to the unspeakably important--the singularity. Nothing else matters.
  • They finally figured them out!. Now if I strap enough of these flying snakes to my arms I'll be able to fly!

  • Who Says God Doesn't Have a Sense of Humor? (Score:5, Funny)

    by bowloframen ( 851971 ) on Saturday May 14, 2005 @11:43PM (#12533488)
    And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And thou shalt fling thyself from trees in a pathetic attempt at flying, and thou shalt hurtle towards the earth faster than thou canst say, "Holy Crap!", and men shall laugh and point fingers and cry out, O, silly snakey pooh! Erm, "paraphrased" from Gen 3:14
  • In none of the movies did I see a snake fly. In 2 of the videos, I did actually see them fall at an angle, which I've also seen humans do with certain suites, before deploying their parachutes.

    And in most videos, I just saw snakes fall, something ALL vertibrates and invertibrates are capable of.
    • Yeah, so they didn't fly, but we have Flying Squirrels who do vaguely the same thing, and I'm sure a lizard or two who do the same.

      Basically they sensationalized it. It should be called Gliding Snakes. However, who'd want to read about gliding snakes? Nobody, that's who. Flying Snakes, otoh, are a whole different game!

      • Re:Wheres the flying part? (Score:4, Informative)

        by flyingsquid ( 813711 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @03:28AM (#12534276)
        There are two groups of flying squirrel, true flying squirrels and the independently evolved scaly-tailed flying "squirrels" in Africa. There are also the bat-like "flying lemurs" or colugos, and three different genera of gliding possum in Australia, each representing an independent origin of gliding. At least four lizards have evolved gliding: the geckos _Cosymbotus_ and _Ptychozoon_ (Kuhl's Gecko), the gliding lizard _Draco_, and another called _Holaspis_. Plus gliding has evolved at least four times in tree frogs, once or more in the flying fish, and perhaps most remarkable of all, there's the flying squid: they can spread their mantle fins and the web between their limbs as they jet out of the water, and glide over the waves.

        Flying snakes, however, differ from all of these in one rather interesting way: they will actually move the airfoil while airborne, and appear to be swimming through the air. What's interesting is that the glide angle gets shallower when they do this. This suggests three possibilities: (1) this behavior reduces drag, (2) this behavior increases lift, or (3) this behavior produces thrust.

        The last would be really interesting: if flying snakes can actually produce thrust while airborne (even if they can't develop enough thrust for horizontal flight), then they would be only the fifth animal group (alongside insects, pterosaurs, bats, and birds) to evolve true powered flight.

    • I'd like some evidence that, for example, sea bass can fall without some outside help. Where do they fall from?

      Sure, if you pick them up and drop them they can fall, but by that logic anything can fly if you pick it up and put it in an airplane.

      And you thought you were so clever, Mr. I-Forgot-Some-Animals-Live-Underwater.

    • Agreed, until I saw someone above link to this one [wisc.edu] which I didn't see on the original site. That's definitely impressive as it seems to almost do better than a 45 degree angle.

  • On pseudo-flying animals. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by mindstrm ( 20013 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @12:17AM (#12533632)
    Flying snake - looks like more of a controlled fall.

    Flying Squirrel - not really flying, but one hell of a long jump.

    Flying Fish - Really, truly looks like it's flying. It's not just an extra-long jump.. they litereally glide over the water, just like a bird flying low.. for up to 100m. I've seen them in person, it's insane.

    Therefore I declare that the flying fish is the only one that really deserves the name.

  • Oblig. Shrek, modified (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dachannien ( 617929 ) on Sunday May 15, 2005 @12:20AM (#12533648)
    You might have seen a housefly, maybe even a superfly, but I bet you ain't never seen a snake fly!

    • I saw a peanut stand, heard a rubber band,
      I saw a needle that winked its eye.
      But I think I will have seen everything
      When I see an elephant fly.

      I saw a front porch swing, heard a diamond ring,
      I saw a polka-dot railroad tie.
      But I think I will have seen everything
      when I see an elephant fly.

      I seen a clothes horse, he r'ar up and buck
      And they tell me that a man made a vegetable truck
      I didn't see that, I only heard
      But just to be sociable I'll take your word

      I heard a fireside chat, I saw a baseba
  • Seeing snakes trying to fly, or seeing humans running *towards* them like their life depended on it.
  • nuf sed
  • Account for domain
    flyingsnake.org
    has been suspended

    Stupid flight cancellations...
  • I think it was on Discovery Channel I saw it, but they had snakes in a zero gravity plane (vomit comet). I believe they were trying to see if snakes would know which was was "up" during the free fall and level themselves off. Most snakes tumbled out of control, a few managed to "glide".

  • Simple (Score:2, Funny)

    by imnojezus ( 783734 )
    I've found that anything flies if you throw it hard enough.
  • Flying snakes made it onto Slashdot, but Fingerworks going out of business didn't.

    "Slashdot, News for Nerds. Stuff that matters."
  • And I thought that this was going to be a Robotic Snake [slashdot.org] mod.
  • A few random comments about these postings:

    Regarding the mirror of my site--thanks. The was so much traffic this weekend that the server was brought down. When I called the company, they said, "So YOU'RE the problem here..."

    Gliding is a form of flight in which the flier can only move downward. Thrust is required to move upward. As was suggested, it would be very interesting to learn if a flying snake generates thrust (though not enough to overcome its weight).

    I actually tried to use a contrasting she

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