How Do Snakes Crawl?

Series Summary

There are several misconceptions about snakes that make people fearful and wary of this unique animal. Though all snakes are carnivorous, they are rarely aggressive towards humans unless provoked or harmed. Of the thousands of snake species, a minority are venomous. Educating people about types of snakes and snake behavior preserves the species and creates a harmonious balance for human and reptile coexistence. In this free video series, take a moment to learn a little bit more about snake life cycles and behaviors. Cordell Jaques is a reptile specialist that has over ten years experience working in pet supply stores. Jaques talks about some interesting snake facts. Find out how a snake crawls. Also, learn about the process of shedding. Discover the feeding habits of wild and captive snakes. Curious how long it takes snake eggs to hatch? Find the answer to this and more in this free video series today!

Video Transcript

"How do snakes move or how do they crawl? Well there's two main ways that snakes crawl. The first one we're going to talk about is called horizontal undulatory progression. It's a big word. And it's also called lateral progression sometimes. Essentially, and this is how most colubrids move, colubrids would be like garter snakes, and rat snakes and king snakes, smaller snakes, not large bodied snakes. And basically how that works is they move by lashing sections of their body forward in a sideways kind of motion. Essentially they're moving sideways to move forward. Now this is not to be confused with side winding which is completely different. This happens so smoothly and so quickly that your eye doesn't even capture it. And it's such that the snake appears to move as if floating or gliding over the ground. So basically what the snake is doing is he's taking the coil, throwing it forward or to the side, and pulling himself up by that coil. He does that multiple times over multiple different parts of the body all at once creating a smooth, gliding motion. The other kind of movement we're going to talk about is rectal linear progression. Rectal linear progression is also sometimes called rib walking. Essentially what happens is this is used by the large boidaes, the very big snakes, the boas and the pythons. And it creates a forward, straight line movement. And what happens is the snake basically uses his belly scales, which are specially formed, and he takes those and he uses them to grab the ground and push himself forward. And again, it's one constant motion over the entire body. It basically uses what they call eye belly coordination, and the snake uses this whole one fluid motion to glide seamlessly over the ground."