Here’s How Snakes Defy Gravity to Stand Up

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Here’s How Snakes Defy Gravity to Stand Up

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Snakes are shown crawling on the ground. But snake behavior that humans find even more alarming is when they lift body parts off the ground in striking poses or climbing positions. A recent study in Journal of the Royal Society interface examines how snakes can stand almost upright, wielding up to 70% of their body length in the air, a feat made all the more remarkable by their flexible bodies and lack of limbs.

A team of engineers from Harvard University, along with a biologist from the University of Cincinnati, quantified experimental observations of two tree-climbing species: brown tree snakes (Irregular Boiga) and juvenile scrub pythons (Simalia amesthistine), then modeled the forces behind their vertical movements.

“To some this may sound like nightmares, but we have now mathematically and physically analyzed the hidden physics and control strategies that allow snakes to defy gravity,” study author L. Mahadevan said in a press release.

Read more: “Snakes break all the rules”

In each trial, a snake was placed on a lower perch and filmed as it extended its body to reach a higher perch. The distance between the two perches was gradually increased from 11.8 to 31.5 inches, or until the snake could no longer reach the upper perch.

Instead of directly measuring the muscles used during climbing, the researchers used data from a previous study coupled with their video observations to model the snake as an active elastic filament controlled by muscular forces. They found that targeted muscle contractions in a short “boundary layer” near the base of a snake’s tail allow it to stand up efficiently. Rather than stiffening its entire body, a snake rises from the base, remaining so perfectly vertical that it escapes any pull of gravity.

So their biggest challenge turns out to be maintaining perfect upright posture, which the study authors liken to “balancing an inverted pendulum.”

To this end, imagine stacking Jenga blocks; as long as each layer is directly above the other, the tower remains erect. It may sway a little, which trained snakes also do, but it remains intact. However, as soon as a block is shifted a little, the Jenga the tower – or in this case, the snake – collapses.