News Animals

How snakes defy gravity to stand tall

Tree-climbing snakes might localize control instead of stiffening their whole body

A coiled brown tree snake shows its patterned scales and head in close-up against a black background.

Some tree-climbing snakes, such as this Australian brown tree snake, can lift up to 70 percent of their bodies into the air as they go vertically from a lower to a higher perch.

Sibons photography/Alamy

By Rohini Subrahmanyam

As a long and wiry scrub python slithers its way from branch to branch on a tree, it can effortlessly lift itself upright to climb onto a higher perch.