NL·0364Herbarium of the Nature Library
- Name
- Chrysopelea paradisi
- Family
- Colubridae
- Native to
- Southeast Asia: southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, the Philippines and nearby islands
- Habitat
- Tropical rainforest, Mangrove, Gardens and parks
Paradise tree snake
Chrysopelea paradisi
Also calledParadise flying snake · Ular terbang (Malay)
A tree snake of Southeast Asia that glides between trees. It launches from a branch, flattens its body and undulates through the air. It is mildly venomous to its lizard prey but harmless to people.
Paradise tree snake, paradise flying snake or garden flying snake is a species of colubrid snake found in Southeast Asia. It can, like all species of its genus Chrysopelea, glide by stretching the body into a flattened strip using its ribs. It is mostly found in moist forests and can cover a horizontal distance of 10 meters or more in a glide from the top of a tree. Slow motion photography shows an undulation of the snake's body in flight while the head remains relatively stable, suggesting controlled flight. They are mildly venomous with rear fangs and also can constrict their prey, which consists of mostly lizards and bats. Wikipedia
What it can do
- iGlides between trees, travelling farther than it drops, steering by undulating
- iiFlattens its body into a concave 'wing' by spreading its ribs
- iiiHas rear fangs with mild venom for subduing lizards; harmless to humans
In the field
Field marks
- aBlack body with each scale centred in bright green or yellow-green
- bRow of red-orange spots along the back
- cLong thin body, flat head, large eyes
- Not to be confused with
- The golden tree snake (C. ornata) is larger, often lacks red spots and has more yellow. The twin-barred tree snake (C. pelias) is banded red, black and white. All are mildly venomous and harmless to people.
- Where to see it
- Singapore Botanic Gardens and parks, Borneo's lowland forests, Malaysian mangroves
- When
- Resident; active by day
Life & habits
- Diet
- Lizards (especially geckos), frogs, bats, small birds
- Habitat
- Rainforest canopy, mangroves and urban parks
- Size
- Usually ~1 m; up to ~1.2 m
It hangs from a branch in a J shape, then jumps and glides. In Jake Socha's experiments, snakes launched from a 10 m tower travelled farther horizontally than they dropped.
Where it lives
Recorded sightings
—
geo-referenced records in GBIF, from museums, herbaria and field observers.
Native range
Southeast Asia: southern Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo, Sumatra, Java, the Philippines and nearby islands
Drag the globe to turn it. Dots are where records exist, not a range map; darker means more records.
In the stacks
Searching the stacks…
Every page naming Chrysopelea paradisi in the Biodiversity Heritage Library →
Marginalia
Curiosity
Wind-tunnel tests on models of its flattened body showed that its cross-section produces surprisingly high lift, especially when tilted at about 35 degrees.
Kinship
Fact-checked: 2 corrections made to this sheet. Photographs: iNaturalist contributors under the licences shown. Records: GBIF.org. Historical plates: Source Library (CC BY-SA 4.0; originals public domain). Summary text: Nature Library editors and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Medicinal and edibility notes are historical and educational, not advice. iNaturalist taxon 27214.