Bungee Snakes

Art done by Tortoiseman on reddit

Bungee Snakes (genus Mersisanguis, plunge-snake) are descendants of common garter snakes. These snakes reside in the saltree forests of North America.

 Evolution

Bungee snakes started to evolve immediately after life started to recover in riverine and coastal ecosystems. Over time more and more fish as well as other prey from the seas and rivers began to migrate into the saltree forests, and so did the snakes. The snakes reside in the vast and biodiverse saltree forests and adapted to the treetops as well as saltwater in order to navigate their surroundings and hunt prey.

Biology

Bungee snakes measure at about 5.5-8 feet in length and live for about 25 years

Bungee snakes are excellent climbers and show the flexibility needed to traverse the treetops of saltree forests. They are also capable swimmers and possess salt glands like most other saltree forest animals.

When bungee snakes hunt, they use a unique strategy that goes as follows. First, the snake finds a strong low branch. The snake will then wrap part of its tail around the branch. It will then drop the rest of its body off the branch and grab its prey with its mouth before it goes back into the treetops to eat it. This strategy helps the snake avoid aquatic predators.

Bungee snakes eat mostly fish and amphibians with the occasional bird or rodent. One of its main prey items are the many pufferfish species that live in the saltree forests. They are able to eat some of these pufferfish species due to an ancestral tolerance for tetrodotoxin from the arms race with rough skinned newts. The snakes usually swallow their prey whole unless their food struggles.

Bungee snakes are oviviparous and give birth to 35-40 young.

Behavior

Bungee snakes are solitary and only meet with each other to mate. The mating ceremony usually consists of multiple males mating with a few females as it was with their ancestors. After the young are born, they are capable enough to fend for themselves and have no parental care, but only 1 or 2 make it to adulthood.