Sanctuary |Natural History
Snakes are fascinating. Their limbless forms have evolved into
sophisticated, well-oiled machines that run with the utmost control
and precision. A recent study suggests that the motion of snakes
across various terrestrial environments such as desert sands, is
refl exive and involuntary and needs no additional neural input even
when unplanned obstacles are encountered.
Scientists at the School of Physics, Georgia Institute of
Technology, Atlanta, studied the movement patterns of the western
shovel-nosed snake Chionactis occipitalis and observed them
moving in a characteristic wave motion along the entire length of
the body. Obstacles such as rigid posts, were circumvented with the
reptiles reorienting themselves around the object without slowing
down... sort of the way light gets around an obstacle.
Snakes are found in almost all types of terrain and can negotiate
challenging habitats by way of complex body-motion and design.
Each scale on a snake’s body is under its cognitive control to help it
navigate the toughest of terrains.Losing Tiger Geckos
The irrational human penchant for keeping exotic wild animals
as pets is driving several species to the very edge of extinction.
One such species is the Cat Ba tiger gecko Goniurosaurus
catbaensis, endemic to the Cat Ba Island in the Gulf of Tonkin,
the largest island in Vietnam’s Cat Ba archipelago, plus a
handful of islands in the Ha Long Bay. The strikingly beautiful
gecko with a purplish-brown body, sprinkled with yellow and
white bands and spots, is one of 19 tiger gecko species native to
Vietnam, China and Japan. Widely traded as pets they are fast
losing ground in the wild.
A study carried out by a Vietnamese-German team of
researchers points to the urgent need for strict protection and
conservation measures to save the geckos, which are already
locally extinct in some areas. Only eight tiger gecko species
have had their conservation status assessments completed for
the IUCN Red List and a mere handful receive legal protection.
The United States, the EU and Japan are primarily guilty of
encouraging the pet trade in this species.Mimicking Light
Despite the human population explosion, we will never be able to outnumber ants. There are approximately 14,000 ants for
every human on Earth.Did You Know?too ooThe Cat Ba tiger gecko has been declared locally extinct in
several of its native locations. The pet trade is one of the
biggest factors behind this.Studies on shovel-nosed snakes have revealed that their
motion in the face of obstacles is akin to the movement of light.
They do not need to slow down on encountering obstacles;
they involuntarily bypass them.