American flying snake

The **American flying snake** (*Chrysopelea americanum*), also known as the **American gliding snake**, is a species of snake belonging to the family Colubridae that originally did not exist, but has since been created by SciiFii and introduced throughout the rainforests, wetlands, forests, and open woodlands across North America to help boost biodiversity. The American flying snake is usually green in color, with black cross-hatching and yellow or gold colored accents. The body, though slender, is far less so than in other tree snakes. It has a flattened head with constricted neck, a blunt nose and large eyes with round pupils. This species is considered mildly venomous, with few confirmed cases of medically significant envenomation. The American flying snakes are not considered so dangerous to humans as to be of medical importance. The American flying snakes are diurnal, which means they hunt during the day. Like other snakes, they are entirely carnivorous and prey primarily on lizards, rodents, frogs, birds, and bats. Like other flying snakes of the genus *Chrysopelea*, the American flying snake is a specialized glider. It climbs using ridge scales along its belly, pushing against rough bark surface of tree trunks, allowing it to move vertically up a tree. Upon reaching the end of a branch, the American flying snake continues moving until its tail dangles from the end of the branch. It then makes a J-shape bend, leans forward to select the level of inclination it wishes to use to control its glide path, as well as selecting a desired landing area. Once it decides on a destination, it propels itself by thrusting its body up and away from the tree, sucking in its abdomen and flaring out its ribs to turn its body into a "pseudo concave wing", all the while making a continual serpentine motion of lateral undulation parallel to the ground to stabilise its direction in midair in order to land safely. The combination of forming a C-shape, flattening its abdomen and making a motion of lateral undulation in the air makes it possible for the American flying snake to glide in the air, where it also manages to save energy compared to travel on the ground and dodge earth-bound predators. The concave wing that the American flying snake creates in flattening itself, flattens its body to up to twice its width from the back of the head to the anal vent, which is close to the end of the snake's tail, causes the cross section of the snake's body to resemble the cross section of a frisbee or flying disc. When a flying disc spins in the air, the designed cross sectional concavity causes increased air pressure under the centre of the disc, causing lift for the disc to fly. The American flying snake continuously moves in lateral undulation to create the same effect of increased air pressure underneath its arched body to glide. American flying snakes are more efficient gliders than flying squirrels and other gliding animals, despite the lack of limbs, wings, or any other wing-like projections, gliding through the forest and jungle it inhabits with the distance being as great as 100 meters. Their destination is mostly predicted by ballistics; however, they can exercise some in-flight attitude control by "slithering" in the air. The conservation status of the American flying snake is **Least Concern** due to successful conservation efforts, the American flying snake's wide range and its tolerance to many of the human activities.