It’s a hissstoric evolutionary adaptation.
A species of snakes has developed a never-before-seen climbing technique — looping themselves into lassos to slither up trees and poles, according to new research.
In a recent experiment in Guam, brown tree snakes were seen climbing wide slick metal cylinders that protected bird nesting boxes by looping their bodies into lassos and hitching themselves up like a slow elevator to overcome the barriers, according to an article published Monday in the scientific journal Current Biology.
Snakes usually climb trees by tensing up their belly muscles to grip two pieces of bark before slithering up to the highest point and shifting their hold to climb higher — similar to how a human would climb a rope.
The new adaptation allows brown tree snakes to scale wider and smoother trees, enabling them to feast on prey that would otherwise be out of reach, scientists told the magazine.
The discovery rattled researchers.
“This lasso locomotion is just from outer space, compared to all of the other variations” in snake movement, said Bruce Jayne, a biologist at the University of Cincinnati who co-authored the article, according to Scientific American.
“I’ve been studying the locomotion of snakes on and off for more than 40 years, and I was just absolutely stunned,” he told the magazine.
The “lasso locomotion” is extremely strenuous for the snakes, however. Researchers say the reptiles move very slowly and often slip, stop to rest and breathe heavily.
“Even though they can climb using this mode, it is pushing them to the limits,” Jayne says.
Brown tree snakes outside of Guam have never been observed using the lasso technique. However, Jayne told Scientific American it’s likely that they can.
The species are well studied in part because of their ability to devastate populations of birds.