Yes, Flying Snakes Do Exist – Sort Of. But How Do They Fly?

When you picture something gracefully gliding through the air, your mind probably jumps to birds , bats , or maybe even flying squirrels . But we’re here to tell you, if you look up at the forest canopy in South Asia and the Indonesian archipelago, you might just see a snake take flight. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

Flying snakes, of the genus Chrysopelea , consist of five species of slender, arboreal snakes belonging to the family Colubridae. They range in length from the 75-centimeter-long (2.5-foot) banded flying snake ( Chrysopelea pelias ) to the 120-centimeter (4-foot) Moluccan flying snake ( Chrysopelea rhodopleuron ) and can glide distances as far as 100 meters (300 feet) at a rate of roughly 1