Snakes have a new bizarre and fifth type of movement

The brown tree snake has decimated forest bird populations on Guam. The nocturnal snake was

accidentally introduced to Guam in the late 1940s orearly 1950s. Soon after, the bird population began to decline. As part of a conservation project, the discovery of a fifth mode of travel was an unexpected result of a project aimed at protecting the nests of Micronesian starlings, one of two native forest species still remaining on Guam.

The new bizarre movement of snakes cannot be attributed to the known four - rectilinear, transverse wave-like, lateral and accordion.

This is the first time in nearly 100 years that a new type of snake movement has been identified.

The researchers called the new behavior "lasso movement." While moving, the snake wraps its body like a lasso around a cylindrical structure and rises up.

Tom Seibert, Colorado State University

Study co-author Bruce Jane, professorbiological sciences and an expert on snake locomotion at the University of Cincinnati, said he has been studying snakes for more than 40 years, but this is the first time he has seen this type of locomotion. 

The rest of the snakes rise using movementaccordion, which involves tilting to the side to capture two different points at the same time. But with the movement of the lasso, the snake uses its body to create a lasso loop and form a single grasping area.

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Guam is an island in Micronesia in the western Pacific Ocean, which has the status of an unincorporated organized territory of the United States.