Catching Air: Taking the Leap with Gliding Animals
HIGH IN A PINE TREE in Southeast Asia A Draco lizard searches for ants to eat As it swivels its head it stops 4
and stares into the eyes of a deadly paradise tree snake The snake lunges The Draco leaps out into space With the ground a hundred feet below death seems certain But the lizard doesn’t fall Instead it does something almost no other animal in the world can do It spreads its ribs and 5
IT GLIDES Like a fighter pilot the Draco zips around one tree pulls a sharp turn and makes a perfect landing on the bark of another It blinks once Twice Then it scampers up the tree trunk alive for another day 6
THE DRACO LIZARD belongs to one of earth’s most remarkable groups of animals Scientists call them gliders What do they do Well gliding is not flying It is not falling either It is something in between 7 how nature works GLIDING OR PARACHUTING Many frogs and other tree-dwelling animals spread out their bodies to slow their falls from tall trees Scientists call this parachuting Parachuting though is not gliding What’s the difference difference Scientists define parachuting animals as those that descend or fall toward earth at angles greater than 45 degrees in other words close to straight down Gliders on the other hand descend toward earth at much shallower or gentler angles As a result gliders can travel great distances and control their directions as they descend They can also make softer landings
