Cartwheeling seems like it should require both arms and legs. But some itty-bitty snakes in Southeast Asia manage it without either. Scientists first shared snapshots of a dwarf reed snake (Pseudorabdion longiceps) cartwheeling away from danger in 2023.
Now, videos of three Pseudorabdion species hightailing it down a racetrack in the lab have offered a closer look at this rare and strangely acrobatic behavior. Each snake starts with its body curled into a C shape, head lifted off the ground and facing the way it’s going. It then whips its tail out behind it, briefly becoming airborne.
The snake flips its tail forward and down past its head. When the snake’s tail hits the ground in front of it, another roll begins, researchers report October 19 in Current Biology. So the researchers collected snakes from Malaysia’s Kubah National Park.
They scooped up 11 P. saravacense, one P. collaris, one P. longiceps, plus six Calamaria reed snakes for comparison. Finding the snakes was no easy task. They were only about 11 to 28 centimeters long.
But were any of the snakes able to cartwheel away from the researchers? A gentle tap coaxed the snakes to move and cameras above and beside the track recorded the action. None of the Calamaria snakes cartwheeled, but all of the Pseudorabdion snakes did.
At full tilt, they tumbled at 1.7 to 3.7 meters per second — about six to 13 kilometers per hour. Through it all, the snakes held their heads fairly steady — reminiscent of how flying snakes hold their heads stable while launching into the air, the researchers say. A cartwheeling snake first rolls its body along the ground to whip its tail out behind its head.
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