A brown tree snake – as its name suggests, this species can climb well.

Photo courtesy Janelle Lugge/www.shutterstock.com

Researchers have discovered that invasive brown tree snakes (Boiga irregularis) living on the Pacific island of Guam can get around in a way that had never been seen before. The discovery of the snake’s lasso-like locomotion for climbing their way up smooth vertical cylinders has important implications, both for understanding the snakes and for conservation practices aimed at protecting birds from them.

“Our most important finding is a new mode of snake locomotion,” says Julie Savidge of Colorado State University (CSU). “Only four major types have been recognised for nearly 100 years, and we now have discovered a fifth mode.”

The discovery of this new method of locomotion – in additional to the known rectilinear, lateral undulation, sidewinding, and concertina modes – came about by chance. Savidge was working on a project aimed at protecting the nests of Micronesia starlings, which represent one of only two native forest bird species still remaining on Guam.