Snakes that escape by rolling
Category: Animal world, PEGI 0+
Today, 09:06
Dwarf snakes of the genus Pseudorabdion are able to move by cartwheeling. Scientists filmed this movement with a high-speed camera and found that the snake is not simply rolling down a slope — it actively pushes off the ground.
The body alternately presses against the surface with its right and left sides, while the head maintains the direction of movement. In experiments, the speed reached 3.69 meters per second — about four times faster than during normal sidewinding under the same conditions.
The study was published on October 19, 2026, in Current Biology. The video first shows normal speed, followed by 8x and 16x slow motion. The authors of the recording are Yosuke Kojima and Ibuki Fukuyama, Toho University.
