Chrysopelea taprobanica Sri Lankan Flying Snake
Hambantota District, Southern Province, Sri LankaAugust 11, 2019
Sri Lankan Flying Snake (Chrysopelea taprobanica) Sri Lankan Flying Snake (Chrysopelea taprobanica)
My guide Udaya Chanaka showed up for lunch one day with this snake in hand. He had just caught it in the thatched roof of his room. He found a container to hold it while we had a delicious lunch, and then we took some photos of this and a few other snakes that we had come across that morning and the previous evening. (All snakes were released near where they were found, of course.)

Flying snakes are excellent at quickly climbing. When they decide it's time to leave a particular tree and try another (perhaps escaping a predator) they propel themselves into the air, flatten their bodies out, and "swim" as they fall, which causes them to glide a certain distance away from where they started so they can visit another tree (or glide all the way to the ground). It's well worth watching.

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