Snakes are often seen as slithery, slimy and scary. But these intriguing non-legged creatures have made CrowdScience listener Okello from Uganda wonder how they move – more specifically, he wants to know how they climb trees so easily, and so fast. Presenter Caroline Steel meets snake expert Mark O’Shea to investigate the ingenious methods different snakes use to scale a tree trunk, and gets a demonstration from a very agreeable corn snake at a zoo. Snake movement isn’t just your typical S-shaped slithering: these reptiles move in a remarkably diverse range of ways. Melissa Miller from the University of Florida explains all the range of motion snakes can employ to effectively travel along the ground as well as at height. Caroline witnesses this in action as we pay a steamy visit to the Everglades National Park in Florida, USA, tracking pythons across the vast swamps there. We find out why understanding these pythons’ movement is vitally important for conserving the local ecosystem. Contributors: Dr Melissa Miller, Research Assistant Scientist, University of Florida Brandon Welty, Wildlife Biologist, University of Florida Prof Mark O’Shea MBE, Professor of Herpetology, University of Wolverhampton Presenter: Caroline Steel Producer: Hannah Fisher Editor: Cathy Edwards Production Co-ordinator: Ishmael Soriano Studio Manager: Neva Missirian
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Just going to take a moment to describe what's going on.
So we are basically stood in the swamp.
We've seen the python.
Well, I've not personally seen the python.
The python has been seen.
Now she's moved and we're trying to move towards her.
Do you want to do a welcome to Crowd Science?
Oh, gosh.
Seriously?
You're listening to Crowd Science on the BBC World Service.
I'm Caroline Steele and we just saw a python in the Everglades in Florida and she got away and now we're trying to find her again.
Why I'm moving towards a snake.
Well, you'll find out, all thanks to a question from this week's listener.
May you please help me to understand what enables snakes to climb trees with ease, even sometimes faster than human beings?
That question came from listener Akello in Uganda.