Snakes can climb trees. How? It depends on the species and the tree. For pythons, like the one in the video above, ‘concertina locomotion‘ moves them up the tree’s trunk.
Watch as this long, powerful snake uses friction to grip with parts of its body while moving other parts upward, continuously stretching, anchoring, scrunching, and stretching again.
More from Oxford University Press:
“Occasionally, rather than using the more generalized arboreal concertina with alternate bends that grip the cylinder using ventral flexion… some snakes perform arboreal concertina with helical wrapping, in which the body resembles a coiled spring.”
This coiled approach can be seen in the video below:
Related from 2021: Scientists discover bizarre new mode of snake locomotion that they call lasso locomotion.Then watch this video: The secret design and movement of slithering snakes.
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