Golden tree snake
Chrysopelea ornata
— Where the name comes from
Chrysopelea contains the Greek chrysós, gold, for the sheen of the scales; ornata means “decorated”. Nothing in the scientific name alludes to flight, which is what the animal is famous for: when it was described in the nineteenth century, European naturalists did not believe travellers’ tales of snakes that launched themselves out of trees.
— Facts
- Group
- Reptiles · Reptilia
- Order
- Squamates
- Habitat
- Forest, gardens, palms, thatched roofs
- Range
- From India and Sri Lanka to Indochina and the Philippines
- Size
- 100–130 cm, 100–200 g
- Diet
- Lizards, geckos, bats, birds, frogs
- Lifespan
- 10 years
— Characteristics
- 01
It has a very weak venom, entirely harmless to people.
- 02
It climbs smooth trunks by gripping with its belly scales.
- 03
It glides between trees rather than coming down to the ground.
— What sets it apart
It does not glide like a leaf: it swims through the air. High-speed film shows that, having launched into space, it flattens its body until it is twice as wide and the belly concave — a sort of inverted wing — and then goes on undulating as though it were still crawling, which stabilises the flight and lets it steer. It covers as much as thirty metres that way and lands where it chooses. It is the only vertebrate in the world that flies without any fixed surfaces.
